Arts & Ideas

Sculptures like mouldy fruit, sea creatures that look like oil, blocks of ice carved from a melting glacier and transported to a gallery, reforesting a disused quarry: Vid Simoniti looks at different examples of environmental art and asks whether they create empathy with nature and inspire behaviour change or do we really need pictures of loft insulation and ground source heat pumps displayed on gallery walls?Vid Simoniti lectures at the University of Liverpool. He hosted a series of podcasts Art Against the World for the Liverpool Biennial 2021. He was selected as a New Generation Thinker in 2021 on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear him taking part in this Free Thinking discussion about Who Needs Critics? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w5f3Producer: Luke Mulhall

The discovery of goffering irons, the tools used to shape ruffs, by an archaeological dig in North America, gives us clues about the way the first English settlers lived. Lauren Working's essay looks at the symbolism of the Elizabethan fashion for ruffs. Now back in fashion on zoom, they were denounced by Puritans, shown off in portraits of explorers like Raleigh and Drake, and seen by the Chesapeake as a symbol of colonisation, whilst the starch was used for porridge at a time of scarcity and war.Lauren Working teaches at the University of York and was chosen in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can find another Essay by Lauren called Boy with a Pearl Earring https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014y52 and hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about The Botanical Past https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wlgvProducer: Luke Mulhall

Henry VIII from a female perspective is on offer at the Globe Theatre this summer in a new adaptation of the play written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Globe writer in residence Hannah Khalil explains some of the more surprising innovations in this production, while New Generation Thinker Emma Whipday presents the familiar saga of Henry VIII as the story of a step-family and historian Joanne Paul reveals the machinations of the Dudley family in its quest for power and influence at the Tudor court. Catherine Fletcher presents.Joanne Paul's book The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England is out now Henry VIII runs at the Globe Theatre, London until 21st October 2022 Emma Whipday teaches at the University of Newcastle and is the author of a play The Defamation of Cicely Lee inspired by Shakespeare’s CymbelineProducer: Torquil MacLeodYou can find more conversations about Tudor England on the Free Thinking programme website and an episode of Radio 3's curated selection of readings and music - Words & Music - inspired by Tudor times is available on BBC Sounds for 28 days.

Royal Trumpeter John Blanke's image is on show alongside portraits of the Tudor monarchy in an exhibition opening at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool. Blanke is the only black Tudor for whom we have an identifiable picture, painted on horseback in the royal retinue. New Generation Thinker Christina Faraday has been looking at these and other Tudor artworks. She joins Helen Hackett, author of The Elizabethan Mind and music historian Eleanor Chan for a discussion chaired by New Generation Thinker John Gallagher. And what aspects of the Tudor mind do we see at work in the next generation writing of John Donne? Biographer Katherine Rundell has the answers.The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics runs at Liverpool's Walker Gallery 21 May 2022—29 Aug 2022John Gallagher is Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leeds and the author of Learning Languages in Early Modern EnglandChristina Faraday is a Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she is working on a project exploring Elizabethan art and music.Professor Helen Hackett teaches at University College London and her book The Elizabethan Mind is out now.Katherine Rundell's biography of John Donne is called Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John DonneEleanor Chan is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker who studies the links between music and art history. She's based at the University of Manchester.You can find a host of programmes about Vaughan Williams on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds broadcasting this May. His Tudor Portraits are being performed by the Britten Sinfonia and Norwich Philharmonic Chorus at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival on Sunday 29 MAY, 7.30PM at St Andrews and Blackfriars Hall.Producer: Luke Mulhall

The Forty Thieves gang, Buffalo Bill, designs chosen by sailors, convicts, lovers: Shahidha Bari looks at the history of tattoos with Matt Lodder, Zoe Alker and Tanya Buxton from the opening of the first commercial parlour in London’s West End in 1889 to the most popular images now and their use to enhance wellbeing.Zoe Alker has studied over 75,000 tattoos seen on convicts between 1790-1925. She teaches in the criminology department at the University of Liverpool. Matt Lodder is a Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory, and Director of American Studies at the University of Essex. His research primarily concerns the application of art-historical methods to history of Western tattooing from the 17th century to the present day. Tanya Buxton is a tattoo artist based in Cheltenham, specialising in medical tattoos.Producer: Torquil MacLeodWe've a whole collection of programmes exploring The Way We Live Now gathered together on the Free Thinking programme website. They include a discussion about Perfecting the Body, Mental Health, Gloves and Hitchhiking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072637b

From monumental sculpture from ancient Greece, Egypt and India, wall hangings from Japan and China, to Western fine art, a British Museum exhibition asks: what does female spiritual power mean past and present? Christopher Harding is joined by the curator Belinda Crerar and by Ronald Hutton, whose new book explores Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe, along with the writer Gavanndra Hodge who has investigated goddess cults of the past and present, and Anjali Sanyal from the London Durgostav Committee, dedicated to the worship of the Hindu goddess Kali.Feminine power: the divine to the demonic runs at the British Museum from 19 May 2022 - 25 Sep 2022 Queens Of The Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation by Ronald Hutton is out now.Producer: Luke MulhallA playlist on the Free Thinking website explores Religious Belief https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp and there's also an episode looking at Witchcraft and Margaret Murray which has guests including Ronald Hutton https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001271f

The man who killed Gandhi is the subject of a new play opening at the National Theatre by Anupama Chandrasekhar. She's one of Rana Mitter's guests along with Balkrishna Doshi, a Riba Gold Medal winner for his buildings, which include low-cost housing and research into environmental design. He studied with Le Corbusier and historian Vikram Visana joins Rana to trace the links between Corbusier, Doshi and Charles Correa. And as she directs a new play at Hampstead Theatre, the Tamasha Theatre Artistic Director Pooja Ghai is also in the Free Thinking studio.The Father and the Assassin - a new play by Anupama Chandrasekhar runs at the National Theatre from 12 May Vikram Visana teaches at the University of Leicester. His research has included the work of architect Charles Correa (1930 -2015).Lotus Beauty by Satinder Chohan is directed by Pooja Ghai at the Hampstead Theatre from May 13th to June 18th. You can find Tamasha Theatre company's podcast dramas online at https://tamasha.org.uk/projects/the-waves/ https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/royal-gold-medalProducer: Tim Bano

John Gallagher digs deep into the significance of soil with food grower and gardener Claire Ratinon, Dr Jim Scown, who has researched the role of soil in the novels of Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot, and Anna da Silva, Project Director of Northern Roots, the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park in the heart of Oldham in Greater Manchester. And philosopher and art historian Vid Simoniti reviews two major new exhibitions exploring our relationship with the world around us - Radical Landscapes at Tate Liverpool and Our Time on Earth at the Barbican in London.Producer: Ruth Thomson'Unearthed: On race and roots, and how the soil taught me I belong' by Claire Ratinon is published next month. Radical Landscapes runs at Tate Liverpool from 5 May – 4 Sep 2022 featuring over 150 artworks and live trees and plants in the gallery. Our Time on Earth runs at the Curve Gallery at the Barbican Centre from Thu 5 May—Mon 29 Aug 2022 Jim Scown is a 2022 New Generation Thinker at Cardiff University on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio. Vid Simoniti is a 2021 New Generation Thinker who teaches on art and philosophy at the University of Liverpool https://www.vidsimoniti.com/You can find a collection of programmes on the Free Thinking website exploring Green Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2

TV shows Hinterland and Hidden are bilingual using Welsh and English. Caryl Lewis, who has written scripts for these TV dramas and award-winning novels, joins Catherine Fletcher for an exploration of Cymraeg, the Welsh language. We hear from Richard King, whose book Brittle with Relics is an oral history of Wales in the second half of the twentieth century, Dr Elen Ifan from Cardiff University, and composer, performer and actor Seiriol Davies, whose new musical Milky Peaks is set in the 'bosom of Snowdonia'. Caryl Lewis's many novels include Martha, Jac a Sianco and Y Gemydd and she has just published her first novel written first in English and it is called Drift. Producer: Ruth Thomson

How decoding Erewash, Trent, Averham and other field, river and place names from old maps can help us understand flooding patterns in Britain. Dr Richard Jones, Associate Professor of Landscape History at the University of Leicester is one of Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough’s guests. Her second guest is Dr Rebecca Wright, a Social and Cultural Historian of Energy from Northumbria University.The research projects featured are:Flood and Flow: https://waternames.wordpress.com/team/ Forthcoming manuscript Moral Energy in America: From the Progressive Era to the Atomic Bomb which explores the birth of an ‘energy consciousness’ in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century.This episode was made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI Producer: Paula McFarlaneYou can find more conversations about New Research gathering into a playlist on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90