Is There a Relationship Between Sign and Signify?

Deciphering Dickens's shorthand, how the National Health Service uses graphic art to convey messages, creating a comic strip from Greek myths: these are some of the events taking place at the annual Being Human Festival in which universities around the UK introduce their research in a series of public talks, walks, workshops and performances. Laurence Scott meets some of those taking part and discusses different ways of recording and presenting information from comics to coded notebooks, to a scheme that projected books onto the ceilings of hospitals, which made it possible for thousands of people with disabilities to read after the Second World War.

Dr Claire Wood is at the University of Leicester. Her event is called Cracking the Dickens Code

Professor Anna Feigenbaum is at the University of Bournemouth. Her event is called Covid Comics and Me. Find out more at https://www.covidcomics.org/

Dr Amanda Potter is at the Open University. Her event is called Greek Mythology Comic Writing Workshop

Professor Matthew Rubery is at Queen Mary University of London. His event is called Projected Books for Veterans of the Second World War

The Being Human Festival runs from November 11th to 20th https://beinghumanfestival.org/

Producer: Phoebe McFarlane.

This New Thinking episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast was made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. You can find other programmes hearing insights from academics in our New Research playlist on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90