Culture File

Jennifer Walshe on the hidden talents of Amazon's Halo wristband; a new collaborative dance work about people with dementia and their carers, Crash Ensemble's commission from composer, Lara Gallagher; and the technology making life sweeter for Aphex Twin and other composers lured by a world beyond twelve tones of equal temperament.

The favourite things of composer, Lara Gallagher, whose commission for Crash Ensemble at this year's New Music Dublin features live onstage painting

Making life easier for Aphex Twin and other composers lured by life beyond twelve tones of equal temperament.

Improvising musician and composer, Lara Gallagher, on her New Music Dublin premiere, Phoenicia, a work for Crash Ensemble - and an onstage painter. Lara Gallagher's Phoenicia is currently (25/04/21) available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IWdBJAxYlA&t=1s

Artist and composer, Jennifer Walshe on the listening - and understanding - capabilities of Amazon's Halo wellness technologies.

Artist Marie Brett, dancer-choreographer, Philip Connaughton, and The Dementia Carers Campaign Network collaborate on an online meditation about family carers in Ireland.

Historian and author of A Demon-Haunted Land, Monica Black shares some of her delights in listening, reading, watching, tasting and smelling.

A bizarre epidemic of cases of paralysis in West Germany after the war inspired historian, Monica Black's latest body of research, tracing the rise and fall of superstar faith healers, witchbusters, bomb diviners, and indeed, those who sort to tackle the parade of what she calls the "witches, wonder doctors and the ghosts of the past."

Historian, Monica Black on the belief in witches and witchcraft in Germany in the aftermath of WWII. (part 2)

Historian, Monica Black on post-WWII Germany's apparently epidemic of mysterious maladies and "wonder doctors" ready to cure them. (part 1)

Writer and comedian, Marise Gaughan finds mass little changed in the many years since she last attended.

DJ and creator of the We Are The Makers podcast, Donal Dineen, on some of his current loves in reading, watching, listening & smelling

A return visit to American artist, James Turrell's light installation at Dorotheenstädtischer Cemetery, Berlin.

In her latest exploration of the relationship between humans and the things that aren't, Jennifer Walshe clicks on digital pets, such as George Batchelor's parrot app, Bird Alone.

This week, Custy's Traditional Irish Music shop sails through the pandemic, Rob Long has some lessons in the execution and timing of the courtesy laugh, comedian Marise Gaughan gets around to missing the irritation of other people, and "drop culture" in the shape of Lil Nas X x MSCHF's shoe collaboration, featuring a drop of human blood.

Architect and researcher, Tom Keeley shares some of his lockdown pleasures in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.

TV writer and producer, Rob Long, has some suggestions on the deployment of that great tool in the creative arsenal: the courtesy laugh.

Drops don't come much more seismic than the sneaker collaboration between rapper, Lil Nas X and viral art group, MSCHF, the "Satan Shoe"

How a little red shop in a back lane in Ennis became a global hub for Irish traditional music

For comedian Marise Gaughan, it has this much pandemic to realise one particular absence was indeed a lack: the absence of irritating people.

The Galway Cello and the luthier who created it, chasing cranes in the writings of Peter Matthiessen, Rob Long's sage advice on evolving business models in the tv industry, plus the soundworld of the young Franz Kafka and other audio epiphanies.

In his latest epistle from Hollywood, writer and producer, Rob Long recalls what happens when a writer is not actually fired (but really is).

Here's our new promo. featuring Alex Ross. And Wagner.

Kevin Brew celebrates sound in a trilogy of audio epiphanies, on the soundworld of the young Franz Kafka, the joy of feedback and the consolations of pop. With thanks to Aidan Mathews, Kerstin Aquaviva and RTÉ Radio 1's A Living Word.

Kuros Torkzadeh on the life of a luthier, his love of Amati instruments and his own creation, The Galway Cello, commissioned by the city's Cellissimo festival.