Technecast

A professional storyteller since 2015, Jon is fascinated by the connections between folklore, history, landscape and identity - which he is pursuing through his PhD at the University of Brighton. In this podcast, he discusses "eco-storytelling" (the use of myth and folktale to promote environmental awareness) and illustrates how its reach can be broadened through lessons from oral history theory a...

Ruth Hansford talks to Professor Bran Nicol, Head of the School of Literature and Languages at Surrey, about cultural “extramural” psychoanalysis and its enduring themes. In the early days of lockdown, over Zoom, they explore hysteria, otherness, language, performance and narrative, intimacy and “extimacy”, and how these can be seen in Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window, a film that also resonates...

In this episode, doctoral researcher Nat Reeve unspools the spiralling weirdness in the art and poetry of Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862). You might know Siddal as the face of Millais's Ophelia, but this episode explores her own creative work. We'll wander through some of her works, close reading relentlessly as we go, and trace how they reimagine compositions, retell stories and queer their medieval...

The common terminologies used by soundscape ecologists to describe different types of sound are (broadly speaking) animal sounds, human sounds and elemental earth sounds. Liz K. Miller presents her key findings from her thesis to show how these categories fail to capture the soundscape of trees, asking where the sounds made by trees fit into this lexicon and study of sound. Trees are an essential...

During what may soon become known as the lockdown period of history, Jo Langton explores a history of electroacoustic music, which is also a history of composers' integration of technology, studio craft and music aesthetics.

We spoke to Liz Wilkinson, a technē Careers Consultant, who gave us some valuable advice and insights about what to expect after the PhD finishes, and what we can do to prepare for this turbulent and challenging time. We covered everything from imposter syndrome, to time management and spinning plates; from advice for filling out postdoc and job applications, to how to book a one-on-one tutorial w...

Introducing the technē conflux: Philosophy and Critical Theory! Ruth Hansford, PhD researcher in the Music department at Surrey, talks to Dr Christian Gilliam, formerly at Surrey and now at Cambridge, who has devised a series of events on philosophy and critical research. They discuss how we can keep a sense of perspective, grounding our research in various traditions of thought and knowledge, but...

Reticence is an essential component of most, if not all, poetry. Eve Grubin identifies four elements that are central to reticence in poetry: absence of emotional language; withheld narrative information; unstated messages; and unexpected breaks. Exploring a dynamic, phenomenological encounter between Self as ‘reader’ and the Other as ‘poem’, Eve presents an original reading of what she terms the...

In this podcast Katy Jackson examines the weird and wonderful world of nineteenth-century cutlery, and discusses why these important objects are so commonly overlooked today. Making use of the CLiC Dickens Project, produced by the University of Birmingham, Katy Jackson demonstrates that in novels of this period it is predominately male characters who show extreme anxiety over their knives, forks,...

What does it mean to visit an archive? How does it feel to use an archive as your base, your "home", for days, weeks or months? How do the papers inside the archives relate to the outside world? Why is there often a sense of trepidation or mysticism shrouding the prospect of an archival expedition? Joana P.R. Neves uses her experience at Smithsonian's Archives of American Art in Washington DC to e...

In this month’s episode we hear from creative writer Genevieve Fox, who looks at the relationship between her new book, her memoir, and her current research on memory for her forthcoming novel. As a second-year PGR, Genevieve is doing a practice-based interdisciplinary Creative Writing PhD which engages with writers such as Virginia Woolf and their relationship with selfhood and memory. Genevieve’...

In this month's episode we hear from the historian Benjamin Bland. He presents a new interpretation of the role of fascism within contemporary British history, charting the history of the British neo-fascism and explores the reflections of fascism in underground music cultures from Morrissey, to Joy Division, to the white supremacist rock band Screwdriver. Benjamin reflects on the fact that at the...

In this podcast film director Abi Weaver speaks about her latest feature documentary, 'About a War' that explores violence and social change through the testimonies of ex-fighters from the Lebanese Civil War. The film will be screening at the Curzon in Soho, Wednesday 28th November.

In this TECHNEcast we interview TECHNE PGR Irene Revell and Karen Di Franco (AHRC CDP) about their recent exhibition, 'ORGASMIC STREAMING ORGANIC GARDENING ELECTROCULTURE at Chelsea Space this summer featuring artist Claire Potter.

Jo Langton talks to Louise Gray about her thesis and what it feels like to have finished and handed it in. This interview took place before Louise's viva, which she has since completed successfully making her Dr. Louise Gray.

'Watch catastrophe unfurl from the shoreline'. The Thetis was a submarine that sank in on its trials out of Liverpool in 1939. There were 103 men on board. By releasing water and petrol, the workmen managed to bring the submarine to the water's surface where it stayed for three days, where loved ones watched from the shore, before the Thetis sank once more to the bottom of the ocean. 99 men perish...