Arts & Ideas

Around 3 million Bengali Pakistanis now live in Pakistan it is estimated and a research project has been exploring their experiences, mixing oral testimony and art projects with analysis of recent history. Humera Iqbal explains their findings to presenter Sarah Jilani. And Ahmad Naji Bakhti discusses his novel about the dreams of a boy growing up in Lebanon and how writing it in exile in Wales has led him to reflect on the language and phrasing he uses and what audience he is addressing. Humera Iqbal is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology at University College London. Her project is called Partition of Identity https://poistudy.com/ and has led to a film called BHASHAILI (ADRIFT) (2023) directed and produced by: Jawad Sharif and produced by: Humera Iqbal, Syeda Kashmala, Anushay Malik based on their research work and that of Maria Rashid. It is being screened at Rich Mix as part of the Being Human Festival on November 16th https://richmix.org.uk/events/paper-boats-the-pakistani-bengali-story/ Ahmad Naji Bakhti is a lecturer in creative writing at Aberystwyth University and the author of a novel called Between Beirut and the Moon published by Influx Press. He is also working on a project with Syrian residents in Aberystwyth. Dr Sarah Jilani is a Lecturer in English at City, University of London, looking at post-colonial world literatures and film and is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council to put research on the radio. This episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI.

Writers Teju Cole and Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tate curator Osei Bonsu talk to Laurence Scott.The exhibition A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography at Tate Modern has a mission statement - to confront reductive representations of African peoples and cultures. All the images are from an African perspective, and explore ideas about masks, spiritual worlds, royalty, family portraits and shared dreams.The lives of African settlers in China are at the heart of the new book Black Ghosts by Noo Sara-Wiwa. Opportunities for Africans to live and work in China are precarious and tightly controlled, the book explores why many choose to live under such restrictions.And Teju Cole’s new novel is entitled Tremor. His central character a teacher of photography considers the revaluation of contemporary and historical identity in both Africa and America.Producer: Julian SiddleYou can find more episodes exploring Black History including episodes on Octavia Butler, the Black Atlantic, Sankofa and Afro-futurism and Zimbabwean writing on the Free Thinking programme website and available on BBC Sounds and as the Arts & Ideas podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp

"Strange stories" is the way Robert Aickman (1914-1981) described his fiction and to be honest that's putting it mildly. When he wasn't writing fiction that leaves both his protagonists and his readers in some very weird places, he was involved in an investigation into the haunting of Borley Rectory, was a member of The Ghost Club and he also co-founded the British Inland Waterways Association to restore canals. Matthew Sweet is joined by three fans of his work - critic Suzy Feay, writer Andrew Male and publisher R.B. Russell.Producer: Torquil MacLeodRobert Aickman published the following collections of stories: Powers of Darkness (1966), Sub Rosa (1968), Cold Hand in Mine (1976), Tales of Love and Death (1977) and Intrusions (1980) You can find other spooky Free Thinking episodes including a discussion of Ghost Stories with Irving Finkel and Jeremy Dyson, a ghost hunt in Portsmouth and a discussion of Blade Runner and a programme about the TV programme Ghostwatch

The first live concert in 175 years of songs and music written by Eliza Flower (1803-1846) takes place tomorrow. A friend of JS Mill, Harriet Martineau and Robert Browning, Flower set to music some of Walter Scott's romantic songs, composed music for her sister Sarah Flower Adams, who penned hymns including Nearer, My God, to Thee. Singer Frances M Lynch, accompanied on piano by Laurence Panter, joins New Generation Thinker and historian Oskar Jensen and Dr Clare Stainthorp, who is researching the Freethought Movement: Atheism, Agnosticism, and Secularism, 1866–1907. Matthew Sweet hosts.Producer: Torquil MacLeodFlower of the Seasons: Politics, power and poverty takes place at Conway Hall in London on Friday 27th October at 7pm performed by Electric Voice Theatre. Clare Stainthorp will be leading an event - Great and Good? - at Conway Hall on Saturday 11th November as part of the Being Human Festival.

Sleep science pioneer Nathaniel Kleitman descended into a cave in 1938 to investigate the nature of our sleep cycle. The experiment was not a success. And while it may not have yielded much evidence - a thrilling news report detailing the subterranean sleep project caught the public imagination. It's one of the stories told in a new book by Kenneth Miller tracing the history of research into sleeping patterns and the impact of sleep deprivation which takes in figures including Pavlov, Joe Borelli, William Dement and Mary Carskadon. John Gallagher talks to Kenneth Miller and to - Dr Diletta da Cristaforo about how contemporary writers are dealing with our fraught relationship with a good night's sleep. Professor Sasha Handley is an expert in the approach to sleep of early modern people - and we consider if they have any tips to help us now. Dr Emily Scott Dearing discusses Turn it Up - a new exhibition at the London Science Museum which explores the soothing sounds - and surprising power of the lullaby.Producer in Salford: Kevin CoreRadio 3's evening programmes include Night Tracks and Night Tracks mixes presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Hannah Peel, Unclassified on Thursday evenings with Elizabeth Alker and six hours of music Through the Night - all available to listen at any time on BBC Sounds Mapping the Darkness by Kenneth Miller is out now Dr Diletta de Cristofaro is an Assistant Professor at Northumbria University and is working on a project Writing the Sleep Crisis https://www.writingsleep.com/ Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World is a project run at Manchester University by Professor Sasha Handley https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/sleeping-well/ It includes a series of public events at Ordsall Hall near Salford Quays. Turn it Up an exhibition about music which was at Manchester Science Museum opens in London's Science Museum and includes a section about sleep and music.The BBC Philharmonic Concert at Bridgewater Hall on Saturday October 28th takes us from dawn to dusk in a programme of music by Finnish composers and in London on the same evening Hannah Peel presents a 4 hour concert of Night Tracks Live at Kings Place. Both will become available on BBC Sounds and broadcast on Radio 3. You can find a Free Thinking Festival lecture about the need to sleep from Professor Russell Foster available on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hz9yw

Ekow Eshun is curating an exhibition exploring the idea of Sankofa, taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present. Sarah Jilani teaches novels written by Ama Ata Aidoo (1942-2023) and Flora Nwapa (1931-1993). Sculptor Zak Ové is showing a work called The Mothership Connection as part of Frieze Sculpture display in London's Regents Park which brings together the form of a Pacific Northwest totem and a rocket with elements relating to African culture like tribal masks. They join Shahidha Bari for a conversation exploring African ideas about a better future.Producer: Marcus SmithThe Mothership Connection is on display in Regents Park as part of Frieze London's sculpture display and he has work on show in an exhibition opening at the Saatchi Gallery. He also in the past curated an exhibition called Get Up Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers Power to the People: Horace Ové’s Radical Vision is running at the BFI in London and Pressure, his film which was Britain’s first Black feature, has been newly restored by the BFI National Archive and is screening. Sarah Jilani teaches world literatures in English at City, University of London and is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to showcase new research on radio. Ekow Eshun is a writer and curator. His most recent show In and Out of Time runs at Accra’s Gallery 157 until December 12th 2023. You can hear him discussing ideas about The Black Fantastic in a previous episode of Free Thinking. You can find a collection of episodes exploring Black History on the Free Thinking programme website and available to download as Arts and Ideas podcasts https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp

A series of revelatory hallucinations that Philip K Dick experienced in 1974, radically altering his view of belief, time and history, were the inspiration for his quasi-autobiographical novel Valis which was published in 1981. Roger Luckhurst, Sarah Dillon, Beth Singler and Adam Scovell join Matthew Sweet to unravel this deeply strange book and to discuss how Dick's experience of mental illness and his tireless attempts at self-diagnosis thread their way through his novels and short stories, despite being largely absent from the many film and TV adaptations of his work, including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Bach's view of the body and how that comes through in his cantatas is being studied by violinist and contributor to Radio 3's Early Music Show, Mark Seow. He joins presenter Naomi Paxton and historians of medicine Alanna Skuse and Michelle Pfeffer, alongside evolutionary biochemist Nick Lane. Together they look at music, metaphors and the idea that vital bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) and links with five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) could regulate our health.Producer: Luke MulhallAlanna Skuse is an Associate Professor at the University of Reading. She has researched representations of self-wounding in plays, ballads, moral writings and medical texts from 1580-1740. Her first book is called Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England: Ravenous Natures and her second Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England.Michelle Pfeffer is an early modern historian at Oxford with research interests in the history of science, religion, and scholarship in Europe. Nick Lane is Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London.Mark Seow is a violinist and academic who teaches at the University of Cambridge https://markseow.co.uk/aboutRadio 3's Early Music Show is broadcast each Sunday afternoon at 2pm and available on BBC Sounds.You can hear former Radio 3 controller Nicholas Kenyon exploring The Early Music Revolution in the Sunday Feature broadcasting on October 22nd.Radio 3's weekly selection of Words and Music has a recent episode called Blow winds, blow.

Man-made gems are the subject of research being undertaken by jeweller Sofie Boons. She joins presenter Nandini Das alongside Matthew Winterbottom, the curator of an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford which explores the explosion of colour in design, textiles, paintings and jewellery in the Victorian period. Dinah Roe has been looking at the the way colour infuses the pages of Victorian literature and in 1773, Birmingham Assay Office was founded to provide testing and hallmarking of precious metal items - Chris Corker from the University of York has been researching that history.Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford runs until 18 Feb 2024 and Matthew Winterbottom is its co-curator and Assistant Keeper, Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Ashmolean. You can find out more about "the alchemical jeweller" at https://sofieboons.com/ Dr Chris Corker lectures at the School for Business and Society at the University of York and you can hear more about his research in a previous episode of Free Thinking called Tin cans, cutlery and sewing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jcr0 Dinah Roe is Reader in Nineteenth Century Literature at Oxford Brookes University. You can hear her discussing the writing and artwork of the Rosetti family which was displayed in an exhibition at Tate Britain in a previous episode of Free Thinking.Nandini Das is a historian and New Generation Thinker based at the University of Oxford. She is the author of a book called Courting India and has presented Essays and Sunday Features for BBC Radio 3 including Rainsong in Five Senses and A Jig Into History about a bet undertaken by Shakespeare's former clown Will Kemp https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001j4rz

Jane Eyre and Shirley by Charlotte Bronte both refer to the unrest in Yorkshire which took place in the early years of the nineteenth century as new technology threatened jobs in the mills. Literary historian Sophie Coulombeau discusses parallels between the Luddites and concerns over AI now, and looks at what is real and what is fictional in the novels studied by Jonathan Brockbank of the University of York. Tania Shew shares some of the accounts of strikes outside the workplace which she has uncovered in her research. These include a charity worker strike and school strikes organised by pupils in 1911. How far do they strike a chord with more modern strike action? Dr Jonathan Brockbank is a Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of York who is exploring Luddite protests and their depiction in literature. Dr Tania Shew is the holder of the Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford researching the women’s suffrage movement. You can hear her discussing her work on suffrage sex strikes in this episode of New Thinking called Women’s History https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bsjyr8 Dr Sophie Coulombeau teaches literature at the University of York and has published articles on the writing of Frances Burney, Elizabeth Montagu, William Godwin and Jeremy Bentham. She is editing a volume of essays, Mary Hamilton and Her Circles, alongside colleagues working on the “Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers” project at the John Rylands Library and is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which promotes research on the radio. This New Thinking episode of the Arts & Ideas podcast was made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UKRI. You can find more collected on the Free Thinking programme website of BBC Radio 3 under New Research or if you sign up for the Arts & Ideas podcast you can hear discussions about a range of topics.