Great & Tiny War featured on BBC Look North (North East & Cumbria)

Tonight (Monday 10th September) BBC Look North (North East & Cumbria) featured Bobby Baker's Great & Tiny War.

Sharuna Sagar visited the Great & Tiny War house today.

She was given a tour by one of my fellow hosts, Hannah.

Like everyone who does the tour, she ended in the kitchen where she was offered a cup of tea (other beverages available!) and a biscuit

If you missed the live version at 6:30pm, fear not as it is available on BBC iplayer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bjcgpt/look-north-north-east-and-cumbria-evening-news-10092018

The voices in my head - BBC Documentary

This moving documentary uses audio reconstruction to "take viewers in to the world of three people who hear voices as a result of mental illness. Around 1 in 10 adults hear voices in their heads as a result of a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia.

Kyle started hearing a voice after he lost his job, house and girlfriend in quick succession, he then attacked himself. As Kyle tries to control the voice, he has to come to terms with the possibility that he may have to get used to life with it.

Emmalina has been hearing a collection of voices since she was a child and has found that by welcoming them in, they can all live relatively peacefully - except when the voice of 'the devil' appears. After traumatic experiences earlier in her life, the voices have become a source of comfort and companionship, but they have also made her more isolated. We follow Emmalina as she strives to become more independent.

After four years Chaz is still fighting her voice, which keeps up a steady stream of abuse in Chaz's ear. She has jumped off a bridge twice, leaving her reliant on a wheelchair - but still she feels drawn back to a nearby bridge. The film follows her attempts to resist, as she looks to poetry as a way to cope."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066kvg5

Tones, Drones and Arpeggios : The Magic of Minimalism - Episode 2 - New York

In this episode Charles Hazlewood meets Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

"Across the 1960s these New Yorkers added new orchestral dimensions to compositions based on repetition, transcendence and new technology, and broke into the mainstream in the following decade. Charles explores how breakthrough techniques Reich first explored on tape were transposed for orchestral performance. Glass's experiments with repetitive structures, along with his innovative work in opera - Einstein on the Beach - revealed new possibilities for classical music.

The episode includes excerpts from minimalist pieces, including Reich's Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards performed by the Army of Generals orchestra. Charles Hazlewood's All Stars Collective performs part of Mike Oldfield's minimalist-inspired Tubular Bells.



The key attributes of minimalism, its reliance on repetition, its mesmerizing transcendent qualities and innovative use of technology are also discussed with broadcaster and writer Tom Service; director of music at the Southbank Centre, Gillian Moore; composers Laurie Spiegel, Nico Muhly, Julia Wolfe, Max Richter and Bryce Dessner; and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Adrian Utley."


Although I thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as well as La Monte Young and Terry Riley, whom were featured in episode 1, I am disappointed at the lack of recognition for female musicians who made a vital contribution to the minimalist genre. 

Thanks to my incredibly knowledgeable and talented friend Jez, for alerting me to a series of posts highlighting some of the names & influences that have been overlooked in this series:

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/here-in-uk-bbc-is-screening-series-on.html

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/ahead-of-episode-2-of-tones-drones-and.html

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/following-on-from-two-recent-posts.html

Tones, Drones and Arpeggios : The Magic of Minimalism - Episode 1 - California

"In this episode Charles Hazlewood tracks down the pioneers of minimalism, which began on America's west coast in the 1950s. Describing them as 'prophets without honour', Charles explores La Monte Young's groundbreaking experiments with musical form that included notes held for exceptionally long periods of time, and drones inspired by Eastern classical music and Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath.

La Monte Young

He drives out into the Californian countryside to the ranch of Terry Riley and discusses the musician's revolutionary experiments with tape recording looping and phasing, along with early synthesizer sound. The episode includes excerpts from key early minimalist pieces, including Riley's now famous In C, performed by Charles Hazlewood's All Stars Collective and detailed workshopping by Hazlewood where pieces are deconstructed musically.

Terry Riley

The key attributes of minimalism, its reliance on repetition, its mesmerizing transcendent qualities and innovative use of technology are also discussed with broadcaster and writer Tom Service; Gillian Moore, Director of Music at the Southbank Centre; composers Morton Subotnick, Max Richter and Bryce Dessner, and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Adrian Utley."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09tbh10/tones-drones-and-arpeggios-the-magic-of-minimalism-series-1-1-california

Spoken Word in the news

"The rising popularity of spoken word poetry is giving a voice to artists like Dylema.

She tells the BBC's Izin Akhabau that it's "so amazing" to have platforms to be on stage and say her truth."

Torn between her Nigerian roots and upbringing in Britain, she didn't know where to call home and so she decided to make poetry her home.

When asked how Spoken Word differs from written poetry, she explains that Spoken Word takes more of a performative stance than more conventional poetry on a page.




Her favourite Spoken Word artists are "those that are the bravest, that say it and deliver it in a way that is entertaining, striking and forges a connection between the performer and the audience."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-41770258/spoken-word-poetry-is-one-of-the-purest-artforms

Losing a voice through Motor Neurone Disease and gaining a voice through Voicebank

This is a powerful and emotional documentary about Lucy Lintott, the youngest person with motor neurone disease in Scotland.

'Lucy Lintott, is becoming paralysed - she can no longer walk unassisted and she's losing her voice - not great for a chatterbox like Lucy. Even though she's been given only a few years to live, Lucy is determined to do what 22 year olds do - including dating. Over a six-month period, this lover of food and country music reveals how she is struggling to hold on to her personality and her infectious laugh.

Lucy visits Newcastle where she meets a stand-up comedian who can still crack a joke even though he can't speak.

In an emotional photographic sitting with portrait photographer Rankin, Lucy confronts two polarised parts of herself - the perfect Lucy pre-diagnosis, and the broken Lucy three years after diagnosis.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0904xtm/mnd-and-22yearold-me

Lucy visits Speak:Unique, a research project at the University of Edinburgh, where her voice was recorded in order for a synthetic voice to be made in case she loses her ability to talk.

For the best results, the person would record their voice before there has been any effect on their speech.

But, as is the case for Lucy, if there has already been some impact on the speech of the person, it may be possible to ‘repair’ some of the voice by adding in higher levels of another person's voice (a donor voice). Lucy's sister was a donor voice and also had her voice recorded.

During the recording session they said a selection of 400 sentences that include the various combinations of English speech sounds. While 400 sentences is an ideal number, a synthetic voice can be generated from as little as 100 sentences if people aren’t able to manage the 400. This voice recording is then “banked” and stored ready to create a synthetic voice for a communication aid if, and when, that person needs one. Using software developed by speech scientists, all the parameters of that unique voice can be automatically analysed and synthetically reproduced in a process called “voice cloning”.

During the voice cloning process the synthetically reproduced parameters of a patient’s voice are combined with those of healthy donor voices. Features of donor voices with the same age, sex and regional accent as the patient are pooled together to form an “average voice model”, which acts as a base on which to generate the synthetic voice.

The programme helped me realise how voice is such an important aspect of a person's individuality.

One participant of the Voicebank Research Project clinical pilot states:

“…I would far prefer to use it (their own personalised digital voice) than the annoyingly bland off the shelf version. The voice identifies the person and to a large extent its tone expresses both personality and character so to capture this is in a synthesised version is an important development for many of us who have speech issues.

To be able to communicate in a way in which sounds like my voice and therefore all that it portrays beyond the words themselves is a huge advance. Another important step towards maintaining personal dignity in the face of severe handicap which is an essential ingredient of compassionate care in my view. ”

For more information please visit

http://lucysfight.com/index.html

http://www.mndscotland.org.uk/

http://www.speakunique.org/

The Race to Fingerprint the Human Voice - Radio 4

A fascinating programme investigating the role of the human voice in forensic phonetics.

'Forensic phonetics - or voice identification - has long been used in legal proceedings to help determine if the voice on a recording is that of the defendant. But with the electronic age enabling the recording and storage of more data than ever before, its role in criminal investigations is changing rapidly and the race is on to "fingerprint the human voice".

Rory Bremner looks at some of the new research in this growing area of forensics - its applications in the fields of law enforcement and counterterrorism, and why there is such resistance to it in the UK, where we still prefer to rely on the human voice analyst than on an automated system. He hears about high profile cases involving speaker identification - including Michael Stone's conviction for the murder and Lin and Megan Russell and the conviction of John Humble as the hoax caller claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper.

Rory also talks to Francis Nolan, Professor of Phonetics, about how the way we think of people as having "a voice" oversimplifies matters. Compared to a fingerprint pattern, which is always a constant, physical characteristic, the voice is the product of two mechanisms which vary considerably - the speech organs and language. Fingerprints are identified through literal analysis; voices are identified through comparative voiceprints. Your voice as your password is now becoming an everyday reality rather than a SciFi cliche. But can it really be said that every voice is unique, as some have claimed?

The development of increasingly sophisticated automated speaker recognition systems is now bringing the prospect of a "voiceprint" enticingly close. But how accurate are these systems? Can they differentiate between 'real' Trump and Rory's impression of Trump...?'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b090293g

Contributors:
Professor Peter French
Professor Hugh McLachlan
Dr Helen Fraser
Dr Kirsty McDougall
Professor Francis Nolan
Erica Thomson

Presented by Rory Bremner

Radio 4's 'Something Understood' ponders Is Art Good For Us?

In the latest episode of BBC Radio 4's Something Understood (Sunday 18th December 2016) "the poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the idea that the arts are good for us - body and soul - and considers whether they can be both tonic and threat to society.

He says, "Art is as various as we are, and its moral weight and status is unstable, unpredictable. In times when people are losing trust in politics and religion, art can start to look like a replacement. But if we put too much of our moral weight and hope into art, we imperil it, and it can imperil us too."

Some of the great Victorian philanthropists thought art would benefit society and used their wealth to make art freely available to the masses. Whether or not the original Turner paintings offered in a Manchester museum,improved the lives of the working class is not evidenced, but the continued idea that the arts are of moral benefit persists.

Roberts offers the example of Ken Loach's groundbreaking film Cathy Come Home as a sign that society can be improved through the arts - along with the way Bob Dylan and others used their music to effect social change in the US during the 1960s.

But he also strikes a note of caution. "The arts can act as the conscience of the state, a challenging force for good. But they can equally be used as an instrument of propaganda. Whenever I hear the arts per se being touted as a positive moral and political force in society, I start to feel uneasy." Using evidence of Nazi propaganda from the Second World War, he also points out that a love of art is not necessarily an indication of a healthy morality.

Roberts concludes that art is not per se a good thing for us, but that he 'couldn't imagine, and wouldn't want to, a life without music or poetry or films or paintings'."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08557zj

Storyville: 2015-2016: 12. The Golden Age of Circus: The Show of Shows

As I develop my ideas for the Circus Between Worlds project, the latest episode of Storyville provided a fascinating insight into the world of the circus through the years.



http://bbc.in/1llzm2Y

This film tells the story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and vaudeville and fairground attractions. Rarities and never-before-seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment are chronicled from the 19th and 20th centuries. Featuring early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families.

The Front Row debate - Are artists owed a living?

An interesting discussion...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0536jp5

Are artists owed a living? John Wilson hosts a public debate with dancer Deborah Bull, playwright Richard Bean, economist Philip Booth, commentator Ekow Eshun, sociologist Tiffany Jenkins and an audience at the Hull Truck Theatre to mark the launch of the BBC's Get Creative campaign and to open a national conversation exploring the relationship between the state and the arts.

Magnificent Obsessions on Front Row

I have a fascination with, and am attracted to collections. The psychology of collecting interests me, as well as the method of displays.

Damien Hirst, Birds display

 Danh Vo I M U U R 2, 2013 (detail)

The new exhibition, Magnificent Obsessions at the Barbican in London is featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme, Front Row. The exhibition focuses on the artist as collector. Many post-war and contemporary artists are represented, including the possessions of Howard Hodgkin, Edmund de Waal, Damien Hirst and Peter Blake. The show's curator Lydia Yee gives John Wilson a personal tour.

Edmund de Waal from the collection of a private man, 2011

Sol LeWitt, Autobiography, 1980

Featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme, Front Row, 11th February http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051s2m1

Art School, Smart School on BBC Radio 4

This pertinent radio programme addresses some of the current challenges to face Universities, and Art Schools in particular.

'British art schools have produced some of the world's most successful artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians. Britain has built up a strong reputation for creativity around the world and politicians are interested in capitalising on our creative brand.

Brian Eno was at art school at a particularly exciting time. In the sixties, art colleges were independent and experimental; students were challenged to rethink what art and art education were about. Brian relates his memories of Ipswich College of Art under the radical educationalist Roy Ascot, and reflects on the importance of this experience. But he also sounds a warning note - he says art schools are under huge pressures and the effects are threatening creativity.

This programme brings together artists, musicians, art tutors and archive recordings to explore the last half century of art education and the state of Britain's art schools today.

We hear the perspectives of high profile figures in art and design - Grayson Perry, Richard Wentworth, Eileen Cooper, Peter Kindersley, and Jay Osgerby to name a few.

Britain depends on its art schools if it's to sustain its reputation for creativity. But are art schools becoming too much like universities and excluding those very people who will produce the innovations of the future?'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04pr1w2

A couple of recommendations for your ears

There have been some excellent arts radio programmes recently, and so here are a couple of recommendations.

Democracy Has Bad Taste

BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 16th October 

The Reith Lectures,

Grayson Perry: Playing to the Gallery: 2013

In the first of four lectures, recorded in front of an audience at Tate Modern in London, the artist Grayson Perry reflects on the idea of quality and examines who and what defines what we see and value as art. He argues that there is no empirical way to judge quality in art. Instead the validation of quality rests in the hands of a tightknit group of people at the heart of the art world including curators, dealers, collectors and critics who decide in the end what ends up in galleries and museums. Often the last to have a say are the public.

Perry examines the words and language that have developed around art critique, including what he sees as the growing tendency to over-intellectualise the response to art. He analyses the art market and quotes - with some irony - an insider who says that certain colours sell better than others. He queries whether familiarity makes us like certain artworks more, and encourages the public to learn to appreciate different forms of art through exploration and open-mindedness.

Perry was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, and is known for his ceramic works, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and tapestry as well as for his cross-dressing and alter-ego, Claire.

A masterpiece in a primary school classroom; 

Front Row

BBC Radio 4

Thursday 17th October

In this Front Row episode Mark Lawson visits a Luton primary school, as the children get to see a Frank Auerbach painting, on loan for the day. The work came from the Ben Uri Gallery as part of the Masterpieces in Schools programme, a partnership between the Public Catalogue Foundation and BBC Learning. Mark joins the children as they prepare to see a masterpiece first-hand, many of them for the very first time, and hears their thoughts about Auerbach's Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II.