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.
Season 2
1. Dr Catriona Murray: A Royal Awakening - Bringing the Court of King James VI and I to Life
Step inside the world of King James VI and I! Art historian Dr Catriona Murray and Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland Kate Anderson reveal how sensory spectacle shaped royal court experiences—think fragrance, music, light and sound. Discover how their collaborative work is reanimating the exhibition of early modern art through scent, soundscapes and digital interventions. A fresh take on history that speaks to 21st-century audiences.
Listen to episode 1 on Spotify
Dr Catriona Murray's profile on the ECA website
2. Dr Caterina Moruzzi: Authenticity Unmasked - AI and the Future of Creativity
Can creativity and AI co-exist responsibly? Dr Caterina Moruzzi explores how Generative AI is reshaping creative work—from art to ethics—and what skills we’ll need to adapt. Hear from artists Georgia Gardner and Theodore Koterwas and dive into the ideas behind Authenticity Unmasked, a provocative new exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival. Tune in for insight into what creativity looks - and feels - like in the age of AI.
Listen to episode 2 on Spotify
Dr Caterina Moruzzi's profile on the ECA website
3. Dr Alistair Fair: Building Modern Scotland - The Social Histories of New Towns
What does it mean to build a better future? From radical architecture to modernist dreams, Scotland’s postwar new towns were bold experiments in planning, housing and community. Join Dr Alistair Fair and Dr Valerie Wright as they explore these new towns’ stories—of families, work, homes and hope. Discover what they reveal about social change and what lessons they hold for today’s urban futures.
Listen to episode 3 on Spotify
Dr Alistair Fair's profile on the ECA website
Dr Valerie Wright's profile on the University of Edinburgh website
4. Dr Lucy Weir: What Moves Them - The Global History of Modern Dance
The history of modern dance is far richer and more diverse than we thought. In this episode, we speak to Dr Lucy Weir, author of What Moves Them, a sweeping global history of modern dance that begins in East Asia and ends in West Africa. Discover how migration, protest, and chance encounters shaped the language of movement—and what modern dance reveals about the people, cultures and moments that moved the world.
Listen to episode 4 on Spotify
Dr Lucy Weir's profile on the ECA website
5. Dr Tim Cooper: Early Music, Modern Ears - Collaborating with Electroacoustic Composition
What happens when Renaissance sound meets 21st-century tech? Artists Lucia Capellaro and Laszlo Rozsa join composer and researcher Dr Tim Cooper to explore how early music, live improvisation and electroacoustic music collide in innovative new works. From John Dowland to Robert Hooke, this episode dives into creative collaboration, historical soundscapes and reshaping the past with cutting-edge composition. Tune in to hear how history becomes music—and music becomes research.
Listen to episode 5 on Spotify
Dr Tim Cooper's profile on the ECA website
6. Melissa Terras and Frauke Zeller: Scotland’s Creative Industries and the Power of Data - The Story Behind CoSTAR
Film, TV, games—Scotland’s creative future is being built now. This episode unpacks CoSTAR, a £75m UK-wide programme revolutionising screen production. We spotlight Edinburgh’s new Foresight and Realtime Labs, cutting-edge data analysis and virtual production tools, and why creative industries matter more than ever. Hear how researchers, artists and technologists are shaping new ways to tell stories—and how you could get involved.
Listen to episode 6 on Spotify
Professor Melissa Terras's profile on the ECA website
Professor Frauke Zeller's profile on the ECA website
Season 1
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
Dr Morag Grant's profile on the ECA website
2. Professor 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. Dr Una MacGlone and Professor 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
Professor 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. Dr 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.