Mik Scarlet's 'Disabled persons guide to surviving and thriving in lockdown'

There is a wealth of useful resources to help us manage as best as possible while in this state of social isolation.

Last night I heard Mik Scarlet, a broadcaster musician and inclusion consultant speak about his experience as a person with a disability. He then shared his 'Disabled persons guide to surviving and thriving in lockdown'.

My own description cannot do justice to his excellent insights, so here is the transcript. 

"The portrayal of disabled people in the art is rarely positive; whether it's Clara in Heidi, the Hunchback of Notre Dame or almost every Bond villain, if you're disabled you're not seen as being able to teach non-disabled people anything. I think at this difficult time, as we battled the coronavirus, we should re-examine this stereotype. The media is filled with stories of public figures not coping, and social media is flooded with people who find the whole concept of being stuck at home for such a long period impossible to imagine. Yet for me as a disabled person, staying isolated is nothing new. Like many other disabled people I’ve spent quite a few periods of my life being stuck at home, including a couple of times where I couldn't get out of bed for six months or more. But I didn't just get through being isolated, I thrived and I even enjoyed myself. So, as an act of civic duty, here is my disabled persons guide to surviving and thriving in lockdown.

Give yourself time to adjust. Don't panic if you're finding things tough at first. This is a huge change and you won't always cope. Be okay with that. This isn't the time to judge yourself based on the way things were. It will get better. Enjoy the little wins and take every success as a triumph.  Enjoy the process of getting there. Do all the things that you couldn’t find time to do before; cleaning and tidying, DIY, art, whatever. But enjoy it. Imagine you're Snow White and you ‘whistle while you work’, or play, or sit and gorge yourself on crisps while you watch Netflix. Enjoy learning new skills or getting better at old ones. This is more than filling your time; it's enjoying the process as much as the outcome. During my first enforced stay at home when I became a wheelchair user at the age of 15, I taught myself to play keyboards. This led to me becoming a professional musician once I could venture back outside. The next prolonged period of bed rest many years later, I developed my writing skills which in turn led to a career in journalism.

Forget the clock. Don't live the way you used to.

Use advice is to continue normality, and that would be fine if this was a sprint, but it's more of a marathon, so pace yourself.

Most importantly, this will pass.

When you become disabled you have to learn to be happy with the new you; a new life that you're going to have. But this isn't that. This is a broken leg not a broken back. 

All I ask is that once this is over and we're back to normality, don't forget what this felt like. while fiction tends to portray the lives of disabled people as not worth living, it's actually the isolation and exclusion that gets to us. You've tasted that now, so now you know what it's like not to be able to live and act as you wish. Please remember that and stand, or sit, with disabled people as we campaign to build a tomorrow that doesn't exclude us, isolate us, or put us back in lockdown."

I would recommend hearing it from the man himself on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gt6l

Loneliness, oneness and solitude on BBC Radio 4

Amidst the unprecedented situation brought about by coronavirus, many individuals find themselves alone in self-isolation mode. The recent episode of BBC Radio 4's cultural review programme, Front Row is more relevant than ever as it investigates how isolation and solitude impacts on creativity. I am not in any way suggesting that artists only create good art when they are alone, for there are many examples of significant artworks that have been created by a number of artists working together, some of which simply could not have been produced by a single artist. Nor am I suggesting that most artists prefer to work in isolation. But there are many examples of great artists who have reported leading lives of solitude, loneliness and boredom. The programme considers what we can learn about creativity from these artists.

Composer and musician Errollyn Wallen composes from a remote lighthouse in Scotland, and poet and author Andrew Greig, divides his time living in Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands. They discuss how their environment affects how they write.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fvzv

Monster Chetwynd - Leap - BBC Radio 4

I'm currently making a series of watercolours relating to the 12 months of the year as they appear in a calendar form. I'm interested in different ways to display data, and the calendar is one way in which time is documented. My life is governed by time, whether that be, for example, not having enough time, time moving too fast or time going slow when you least want it. I was fascinated to hear about Monster Chetwynd's response to this years leap day.

"What would you do with a day out of time?

The leap day, 29th February, is the result of an unsolved 3000 year-old problem. Conceived by the Egyptians, passed on to the Romans and reformed by Pope Gregory, it’s all too often a day that passes by without another thought.

This year, the artist Monster Chetwynd won’t let that happen. Known for her exuberant large-scale multi-person performances in fantastical environments, she delves deep into the leap year's ancient history and bizarre sexist customs to inspire a new radiophonic performance. True to Chetwynd-form, she brings together a group friends and collaborators in her Glasgow studio to reimagine everything she learns about the leap day into a wildly playful theatrical happening.

Monster Chetwynd was the first performance artist nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012. Her work includes a multi-person Cat Bus (2010), a Bertolt Brecht and Betty Boop-inspired children’s play Dogsy Ma Bone (2016), and giant luminous slugs slithering up the stairs and façade of Tate Britain (2018).

With contributions from Kristen Lippencott, former director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

Performance featuring Marc David, Bob Moyler, Jessica Ramm, Anna Danielewicz and Rabi."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fp51

Front Row - 'Risk series'

Wednesday's episode of Front Row was the last in the 'Risk' series; a series questioning the importance of risk-taking in art.

risk

NOUN


1. A situation involving exposure to danger.

1.1 in singular The possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen.

1.2 with modifier A person or thing regarded as a threat or likely source of danger.

1.3 usually risks A possibility of harm or damage against which something is insured.

1.4 with adjective A person or thing regarded as likely to turn out well or badly, as specified, in a particular context or respect.

1.5 The possibility of financial loss.

In a number of interviews with people involved in the arts, Front Row has been investigating the extent to which risk is essential to creating great art.


Questions asked include


What is artistic risk?

What are the emotional risks of using your life as your art?

Why is diversity in the arts seen as risky?

What happens when artistic risk fails?

In what ways are artists risky?

How do you decide if a risk is worth taking?

How has risk changed in the past 10 years?


To mark the end of Front Row’s Risk season, the panel created the Front Row Risk List - what they believe to be the 10 riskiest artworks of the 21st century.


They considered all aspects of risk such as:


putting your reputation on the line
putting yourself in physical danger
is it always a good thing to risk offending people?
how does gender play a role in what's risky?

To view the results please visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f07w

So Many Books, So Little Time - BBC Radio 4

Since my Mum is a retired Librarian and my Dad is a self-declared book hoarder, it is hardly surprising that I am also fond of books. One of the things I was most excited about when moving into my current flat, was the possibility of being able to have a bookcase on which all my books could be united and housed. I took great pleasure from gathering all my books together, measuring them and designing my very own bookcase in which they would fit (with a little room for expansion, of course!) 

I am drawn to the book as a physical object, hence my decision not to have a kindle or other electronic book device. I have many books that are more than their contents, there is a story behind getting the book - such as if it was bought for me and has a note inside. There's something about owning a book, being able to look back at it, refer to it when you have forgotten something, or being reminded of the time of your life when you first read the book.

Yet I hold my hands up high and admit that there are many books on my bookcase that I have yet to read. But I intend to read them.

I enjoyed listening to Mark Hodkinson discuss his relationship with books and the act of collecting books in this Radio 4 programme, 'So Many Books, So Little Time'.

Mark Hodkinson ponders the nature of our personal book collections, why and how we gather books, what it says about us, and how we ever expect to find time to read them all.

Author Mark had just moved house. By far the most difficult task was carrying, storing and alphabetising his collection of 3,500 books. It made him stop to think. If it took, say, four days of solid reading to finish a book, he’d need 38.3 years to go through his collection. He would have to make his way through 315 million words. And that’s if he didn’t take time off to sleep, eat and have the occasional night out.

Clearly, it was a challenge too far.

So Many Books, So Little Time is an autobiographical, impressionistic audio odyssey. Mark considers that he might be afflicted by bibliomania and visits consumer psychologist Lisa Edgar to see whether owning thousands of books is normal. He calls at his local bookshop and meets its owner, George Kelsall, who has ten times as many books as Mark and has bought a large house solely to accommodate them.

He visits fellow writers, such as Austin Collings who tells Mark he is in grave danger of becoming merely an aggregate of all his books and will eventually lose his own writing voice. Trevor Hoyle tells Mark that he views books as time capsules and, pulling copies down from the shelves, he can tell Mark when he bought them, what was happening in his life at the time. Joanne Harris, the million-selling author of Chocolat, tells Mark she has filled her house full of books because she can’t bring it upon herself to throw any away.

Practical concerns are not forgotten – Mark visits a carpenter, Ashley Deakin, who previously made a bookcase a week but now does one or two a year. ‘‘People don’t want to put books on their walls any more. They just want these bloody huge televisions,’’ he says. Ashley then remembers that he built a shelving unit just a few weeks ago.

"But it was for shoes,’’ he says.

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4

Industrial designer Marek Reichman meets graphic designer Peter Saville

In this episode of Only Artists on BBC Radio 4, the industrial designer Marek Reichman meets the graphic artist and designer Peter Saville.

Marek Reichman has designed cars for some of the world's best-known marques and is currently chief creative officer at Aston Martin. Born in Sheffield, he graduated from Teesside University with a degree in industrial design and continued his studies in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art.

Peter Saville was in his mid-20s when he created renowned album covers for Factory Records' bands including Joy Division and New Order. Since then he has worked with leading fashion designers and musicians and was appointed creative director of the city of Manchester.

I really appreciate the work of Peter Saville (see my previous blog post about him and his work), and this radio conversation gave me a better understanding of the systems he uses in his design process.

I was particularly fascinated to hear about how he transformed the alphabet into a colour system.

It was his interest in computers that lead him to allocate a colour to the numbers 1-9.

Saville explained: “The colour alphabet came from the fact that I understood the floppy disk contained coded information and I wanted to impart the title in a coded form - therefore I converted the alphabet into a code using colours.”

e.g.

1 = A

2 = B

3 = C

24 (2 and 4) = X

25 (2 and 5) = Y

26 (2 and 6) = Z



This was then used for the Blue Monday album cover.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006dqn

Only Artists - Writer Tracy Chevalier meets ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal

I came across a fascinating conversation between the writer Tracy Chevalier and the ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal when catching up on older episodes of the BBC Radio 4 programme, Only Artists.

Tracy Chevalier has written eight novels including the international best-seller Girl with a Pearl Earring. Her latest book 'A Single Thread' is set in Winchester Cathedral. 



Edmund de Waal is a ceramicist and author. His book 'The Hare with Amber Eyes' is a family biography about the loss and survival of art objects through time. His porcelain installations often respond to history, museum collections and archives.

 

The conversation took place sat at the potter's wheel in Edmund de Waal's studio. As de Waal demonstrated the process of making a small cup, he spoke of the importance of touch and the connection with the material.



Chevalier agreed and the two authors discussed how, when writing they use pen and paper as opposed to using a computer because their mind is connected to the hand which is connected to the paper, and they think at the pace of writing, not typing. Chevalier also noted how she likes to be able to see the 'road maps' of edits - the bits that she has crossed out, the mistakes and edits. Although 'track changes' does a similar job, she finds these hard to follow. Both shared the importance of feeling what they are doing without overworking it; for de Waal this is in clay, for Chevalier, this is in words. 

Chevalier spoke about the importance of authenticity, and remarked that she can't write about something well unless she has done it herself. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00094hg

Ian Sansom Is Waiting - BBC Radio 4

Ian Sansom Is Waiting on BBC Radio 4 was an interesting examination of the familiar act of waiting. Whether that be waiting for a bus, waiting for your name being called out on the register, waiting for the weekend, waiting for that career break that you have been longing for, waiting for the right moment to propose to the love of your life, or simply waiting for a sunny day in which you can hang your washing outside; 

"We're always waiting for something. 

Sometimes, it feels like it might never arrive. But what if the secret to getting what you want lies in the space between things, rather than in the destination itself? Through terminal spaces, waiting rooms and traffic jams, Ian Sansom offers a delayed deliberation on those moments when someone or something makes us... wait. As Ian puts us on hold, forms an orderly queue and sits down to watch a slow film in the company of filmmaker Spencer Slovic, he experiences a sense of delayed gratification with philosopher Professor Harold Schweizer, tunes up in the orchestra pit with percussionist Sam Staunton, and endures the protracted delay in getting published with Northern Irish author Wendy Erskine. Maybe if he's able hang around long enough, Ian might just arrive at his conclusion."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00047tf

Beginners Mind

Beginner's Mind

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00040gl

In this BBC radio 4 radio programme, 'Suryagupta, chair of the London Buddhist Centre, explores the Zen Buddhist concept of Beginner’s Mind, which encourages the viewing of the familiar with fresh eyes.

She discusses the first time she discovered the benefits of Beginner’s Mind, at a retreat in Wales. While meditating, Suryagupta became fascinated by the sound of birdsong, feeling as if she was hearing it for the very first time. This meditation encouraged her to experience life anew, through help from texts such as Suzuki Roshi’s classic title Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.



Suryagupta considers the obstacles that can hinder Beginner’s Mind, such as pressure and the burden of expectations. She suggests that attempting to return to the simple and spontaneous innocence of the child’s mind can help us overcome these obstructions, in order to experience moments of revelation and wonder. She concludes with a quote from Henry Miller, who celebrates the benefits of sharing these discoveries with others. In doing so, we can connect deeply with one another, and experience an interdependence that is freeing and refreshing.'

I found this way of thinking to be hugely helpful in my studio practice and in life more generally. In the arts there are no answers and so it can be difficult to get a real sense of achievement because the artistic process is always evolving and has no set end conclusion.

Feelings, and feelings, and feelings

Historian of emotions Professor Thomas Dixon explains how looking to the past can help us understand our feelings in the present.

Many of us still remember the images of Paul Gascoigne crying at the 1990 World Cup, Mrs Thatcher’s red eyes on leaving Downing Street, and the national mourning for Princess Diana. Over twenty years later, the tide of tears shows no sign of receding. From public inquiries to primetime TV, the Premier League to Prime Minister’s Questions, emotions seem to be everywhere in public life. With a cool head and some much-needed historical perspective, Professor Thomas Dixon opens the Free Thinking festival 2019 by showing that our emotions themselves have a history.

In recent decades, some scientists have claimed there are just five or six ‘basic emotions’, but the category of ‘emotions’ did not exist until the nineteenth century, and history reveals a much richer picture of passions, affections, and sentiments. Ranging from revolutionary feelings and the sentimental tales of Charles Dickens to the poetic rage of Audre Lorde, Thomas Dixon paints a historical panorama of emotions and ends by asking what we can learn from our ancestors about the value of stoical restraint. The lecture will be followed by an interview conducted by Matthew Sweet and questions from the Free Thinking Festival audience at Sage Gateshead.

Thomas Dixon was the first director of Queen Mary University of London's Centre for the History of the Emotions, the first of its kind in the UK. He is currently researching anger and has explored the histories of friendship, tears, and the British stiff upper lip in books Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears and The Invention of Altruism: Making Moral Meanings in Victorian Britain.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003rsw

Start the Week - Emotions at the Free Thinking Festival, Sage, Gateshead

At the weekend Sage, Gateshead was host to the Free Thinking Festival, which this year, was focused on emotions. This week's BBC Radio 4 Start the Week programme, presented by Tom Sutcliffe, explores the art and science of communication. 

The American diplomat William J Burns played a central role in American foreign policy from the end of the Cold War to the collapse of relations with Putin’s Russian, including secret talks with Iran. He explores the language of diplomacy.

Harriet Shawcross is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. She reflects on how as a teenager she stopped speaking for almost a year. In her book Unspeakable she considers the power of silence. Harriet Shawcross talks about how, when one does not speak about emotions, one begins to have a muted emotional experience. Speech makes the experience emotional. When writing a text message or an email, there is a lot of control, forethought and there is no room for spontaneity. She writes about ways to use speech as a cure to selective mutism. She discusses her experience of volunteering for the Samaritans and how volunteers are trained to not respond immediately (somewhat against the trend in social media), but sit with what is being said, not offering solutions, but trying to go alongside someone into the dark places that normal conversations do not normally go. It does not close down the emotion or dismiss it, but acknowledges that it is there and the person is guided through dealing with the emotion. 

The musician and composer Kathryn Tickell roots her work in in the landscape and people of Northumbria. She is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, and tells the story of Northumbria with - and without - words.

Thomas Dixon studies emotional outbursts as the director of the Centre for the History of Emotions. He unveils the scientific and philosophical underpinnings of anger and weeping. He talks about the importance of distinguishing between passions that may be troublesome violent and evil and affections that may be gentle and virtuous. We dont need more anger. There seems to be a change in how society judges the actions that we take in a given set of circumstances to what we feel in a given set of circumstances. Whereas we used to judge people on what they did, with the rise of social media we are tending to see the constant re-representation of feelings which might be miles away from any actual feelings. By talking about anger are politicians legitimising anger? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003t9g

Making Art with Frances Morris: Sophie Calle

I recognise that I like to be in control. I often find it easier to respond to instructions or a set of restrictions than I do to be given complete free-reign. Within my art practice (as well as in life), I often devise my own set of rules to follow. For instance, only use the colour white, fill the entire frame with pattern, only use materials that are edible. 

https://www.culturewhisper.com/r/visual_arts/the_artist_dining_room_sophie_calle_supper_club/7618

It is these tendencies that initially introduced me to the work of Sophie Calle, an artist who is famously controlling and who devises and implements "rules of the game". 'Sophie works with real life experiences we can all relate to – the death of a parent, the end of a relationship. Her work resonates with her preoccupations - death, absence, the mourning of the passing of life. "Growth is a series of mournings."

Calle recently produced an album of songs by 40 international musicians, in memory of her dead cat Souris. There’s Jarvis Cocker, Juliette Armanet, Bono, Michael Stipe to name a few. She’s made work out of her mother dying or her boyfriend ditching her. She’s had a job as a stripper, made a crazy road movie called No Sex Last Night. She's contacted everyone in a lost address book she found on the street. She’s asked people to describe their most exquisite pain, invited strangers to attend the funeral of their secrets. She’s asked museum staff to remember stolen paintings, blind people to describe the most beautiful thing they’ve seen. And although the work seems apparently dry - images and texts, books - it's deeply personal for those involved, and for us - the viewer.

In this BBC Radio 4 programme, Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern, meets French artist Sophie Calle in her studio in south west Paris.

Grayson Perry: En Garde

In this episode of Archive on Four (BBC Radio 4) Grayson Perry goes backwards in the archive in search of the moment the avant-garde died.

'It's a century since Marcel Duchamp submitted his artwork called Fountain to an exhibition staged by the Society of Independent Artists in New York. Fountain was a urinal -- not a painting of a urinal or a sculpture, just a urinal, bought from a Manhattan hardware store and signed R.Mutt.

(c) Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2017 / Photo (c) Tate

The Society of Independent Artists rejected Duchamp's provocation and the original object was lost. Nowadays Duchamp's urinal is canonised as the fountainhead of conceptual art and the high water (closet) mark of the avant garde. Replicas of the Fountain grace museums around the world - emblems of the avant-garde spirit of experimentation and confrontation. Somewhere in the intervening years though, something changed - contemporary art lost its ability to shock and critique. We're still hopelessly drawn to the idea of art that's 'cutting edge', 'ground-breaking', 'revolutionary'. But is that possible at this point -- haven't we seen it all before?

 
Maybe the death knell was sounded when the Saatchi Gallery opened on the South Bank? Or with the advent of protest and radical chic in the 1960s? Maybe it was when the CIA funded the abstract expressionists? Or when the post-war art market began to reign supreme? Or when the Museum of Modern Art opened its doors in 1927? Or maybe it was all a matter of style the very moment Duchamp's Fountain was conceived?'

Perry questions whether the avant garde over emphasises the importance of the individual at the expense of valuing the collective.

Can people be accidentally avant garde? One tends to think that people have somehow made a set of conscious decisions to 'break the mould' and do something groundbreaking, but quite often they have simply done something that they find interesting and have not considered the notion of the avant garde. 

This episode features Brian Eno, Kenneth Goldsmith, Nnenna Okore, Cornelia Parker, and Sarah Thornton.

Producer: Martin Williams.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b090v482

Silence - Episode 2 - BBC Radio 4

“We live in the age of noise. Silence is almost extinct.”

Philosopher and adventurer Erling Kagge, the first person to reach the ‘three poles’ of North, South and the summit of Everest, explores the power of silence. Struck by a vague angst about his constant need for distraction and reluctance to hold still for a single moment, the explorer asks how we lost silence and where we might go to find it again. 

Some of the main points of discussion in this second episode were the following.

Silence can be boring, uncomfortable, scary, a sign of loneliness or sorrow

We experience silence when we keep quiet when there is something that one does not want to talk about

Silence can also be a friend and comfort, reassuring

It can be daunting, one may rather do anything else as opposed to filling the silence with oneself

The problems faced by humanity stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone

One searches for fresh purposes that draw our attention outwards, away from ourselves

Such opportunities for interruption have increased dramatically over the last century

We live in the age of noise

Noise comes in the form of distracting sounds and images and as ones own fleeting thoughts

The more we are inundated with noise, the more we seek to be distracted

A chemical in the brain called opioid is meant to create the feelings of happiness that one gets when one has completed ones goals.

Dopamine is a chemical that helps regulate movement, attention, learning, and emotional responses. It also enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them.Dopamine is stronger than opioid, and is the reason why one is never content that they have fulfilled their desires.

It is more fulfilling to anticipate and seek rather than to value and appreciate the fact that you have fulfilled your desires

This form of noise engenders anxiety and negative feelings.

The basic business model of social networks such as twitter is to create a need for you to use an app, which the same app should then fill, but only temporarily

FOMO - Fear of Missing Out or fear of missing a special moment

Silence is the opposite of all of this. It is about experiencing rather than overthinking, allowing each moment to be big enough, shutting out the world and creating your own silence

How drawing improves memory

Claudia Hammond talks to Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds, Daryl O'Connor, about results from a new study on how drawing can improve your memory.

Over a number of years psychologists tested the memory of people in three different conditions. The challenge for all conditions was to remember a number of objects on a list.

CONDITION A
Memorise by writing the list of objects down

CONDITION B
Memorise by tracing drawings of pictures of the objects on the list


CONDITION C
Memorise by drawing pictures of the objects on the list.


The group with the best memory was Condition C; those who had drawn a picture of the objects from the list. It is thought that this is because drawing requires a deeper level of observation and attention in order to identify the object

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06tvxt5

BBC Radio 4 Front investigates acoustics in architecture

The look of a building has always been an essential element in architectural design, but less conspicuous are its acoustic properties. Specialists in acoustic design are frequently engaged to enhance the aural experience of people in a room or a building. Their work ranges from blocking out unwanted noise, such as from passing trains, to providing the optimal sound for the audience and musicians in a concert hall. 

In Wednesday's episode of Front Row, Stig Abell visits Arup,
an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists, working across every aspect of today’s built environment.

Arup has a virtual sound laboratory which they use to inform the design of some of the world’s best arts and culture venues. A look at Arups website, in particular the projects section, reveals the wealth of incredible buildings that they have worked on. 

https://www.arup.com/projects/arts-and-culture 

I am lucky enough to have worked in a variety of their buildings in the UK including Glasgow City Halls, RSNO Centre at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and The Reid Building at Glasgow School of Art. I have also visited a number of their other projects such as Angel of the North, Gateshead, Tate Modern, London and The Tetley in Leeds. 

They demonstrate how the same piece of music can change according to where it is played, and explain that they use SoundLab’s sound simulations (auralisations) to demonstrate to clients the impact that major infrastructure projects such as HS2 will have on communities. These sounds can then be taken into consideration when designing the building.

Stig also talks to Trevor Cox, professor of acoustic engineering, about the history and importance of sound in building design.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ygw

Art on prescription on Front Row

Last Thursday's episode of Front Row on BBC Radio 4 included a feature about Art on prescription. 'Earlier this month Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that "arts on prescription" is an indispensable tool in tackling loneliness, mental health and other long-term conditions. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001bqn

The programme features Wellcome Research Fellow Daisy Fancourt, Gavin Clayton, head of the Arts and Minds charity and GP Dr Simon Opher, and they discuss arts and healthcare.



It is based on the thought that changing people's environment can have a positive effect on mental wellbeing. Although ideas like this have been around for some time now, it is believed that about 20% of GP's are now making use of "arts on prescription." Sometimes artists are based in the doctors surgery and the GPs refer the patient directly to the artist, and other times the patient is directed to an organisation such as Arts and Minds that are based in museums and run workshops for groups that involve making art inspired by the heritage artifacts.

Something worth noting is that the government seem to acknowledge the importance of the arts for health, but its status within the school curriculum and in libraries and museums are under threat.

Front Row investigates how winter affects the mental health of creatives

Following the turning back of the clocks, Monday's edition of Front Row on BBC Radio 4 investigated the affect the darkening days has on writers, particularly those with mental health issues. 

Poet Helen Mort and novelist Matt Haig examined how the character of their work, their productivity and their routine changes during the winter months.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xxy

The Joy of Text on BBC Radio 4

Artist and broadcaster Bob and Roberta Smith, famed for his hand-painted slogans, goes on a personal journey to explore how text and language are used in art. 

From monks in Cistercian Abbeys and medieval bureaucrats, to conceptual art subversives challenging who could be considered artists, Bob and Roberta Smith draws on a wide range of traditions. He also re-examines his own formative experiences with the interplay of words, colour and form to bring listeners into the present. 

Tom Phillips

Over the course of the programme, we're led on an emotional trip through a world of cut up Victorian novellas - and we encounter pop-art printing making nuns working at the coal face of the civil rights. Bob and Roberta Smith meets political cartoonists creating new languages, artists fusing text and images to give voices to the marginalised, and a group of women democratising art through text, images and a Risograph printing machine. 

Corita Kent

This programme reveals that - away from plays, novels or song lyrics - text and language have been adopted by artists in contrasting and ever-evolving ways, but these all reveal that text is an art form in itself. Featuring Steve Bell, Corita Kent, Janette Parris, Tom Phillips, Donna Steele and Sofia Niazi.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bkqv3x

Great & Tiny War on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme

Get a flavour for 4,701 meals by listening to @BobbytheBaker talking about her Great & Tiny War on @BBCr4today here on iPlayer, 1hr42 in. http://

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bgp8g6