Join leading academics from the University of Edinburgh in conversation with James Cook, ECA’s Director of Research, talking about music, art, media, architecture, design and new technologies. From AI to composition; creative practice to sustainability, our conversations bring insight and inspiration to curious minds. Whether you're an academic, student, or lifelong learner, tune in to discover how our work transforms ideas into real-world impact.
1. Dr Morag Grant: When Music Is Torture
Music is often portrayed as an essentially positive force. Yet for people deprived of their liberty, and detained for political or ideological reasons, music has often been a source of significant and lasting harm.
This episode examines the history of using music as a form of torture, including present day sensory overload/deprivation techniques, and their psychological and physical impacts. It also discusses the lack of legal preventive mechanisms against forms of torture relating to music and sound.
Listen to episode 1 on Spotify
Morag Grant's profile on the ECA website
2. Richard J. Williams: The Expressway World Revisited
What do you do with urban motorways when they’ve come to the end of their lives, or collapsed? And how have urban motorways become cultural objects, especially in art and film?
This episode explores two examples, the so- called Minhocão (‘Big Worm’) in São Paulo, Brazil which becomes a popular park at night, and London’s Westway, with its long history of counter-cultural activism and occupation. It also touches on the future of the M8 motorway in Glasgow.
Listen to episode 2 on Spotify
Professor Richard Williams's profile on the ECA website
3. Rebecca Collins and David Cerdeño: Listening to Dark Matter
Our Universe contains vast amounts of dark matter that neither emits nor absorbs light. While we can’t directly detect these invisible particles, its presence can be rendered more resonant.
This episode brings together theoretical physics and artistic research. We learn about the cosmic silence at Canfranc Underground Laboratory, 800m below the Pyrenees, and listen to particle collisions recorded by acoustic detectors 2.5.km below the surface of the Mediterranean.
Listen to episode 3 on Spotify
4. Una MacGlone and Raymond MacDonald: Diversifying Improvisation
Who gets to improvise? Artistic approaches to musical improvisation have the potential to tackle issues of politics, gender, race, economics, environment, community and AI. However, fixed conventions can reproduce barriers to participation.
This episode and presents new commissions by five musicians from marginalised groups to explore challenges and possibilities in working practices and artistic processes.
Listen to episode 4 on Spotify
Dr Una MacGlone's profile on the ECA website
Raymond MacDonald's profile on the ECA website
5. Anna Talley: Disinformation is Designed
Over the last decade, one of the biggest news stories has often been the news itself. Whether it's "true" or "fake", the rise of mis- and disinformation and the impact of 'information disorder' on everything from public health to elections has become one of the biggest challenges to our society.
This episode explores the role of communication design in disinformation, from sensationalist newspapers in the late nineteenth century to "fake news" websites today. We talk about typography, layout and images and how design can help stem the flow of disinformation online.
Listen to episode 5 on Spotify
Anna Talley's profile on the ECA website
6. Penny Travlou: Decolonising the City
The idea of “urban belonging” is rapidly changing. As people migrate to and settle in European cities, receiving societies are faced with the legacies of their colonial past.
This episode explores a participatory, arts-based methodological toolkit, co-designed with migrant communities in Greece, resulting in a festival, “I HAVE A DREAM: Second-Generation African Descent Migrants in Athens,” organised in partnership with ANASA Cultural Centre of African Arts and Music in 2023.