Talking with Claude

During a discussion about the possible meanings of cultural democracy Sophie Hope raised the concept of structures of feeling that Raymond Williams had developed. 
In this episode we examine this concept in more detail.
 
Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse
 
EPISODE 86 | MAY 1 | 2026 
 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly
 
COMMENTARY
Owen Kelly and Sophie Hope dig out their copies of Marxism & Literature and discuss the cultural theory that Raymond Williams develops there. They reflect on Williams’ insistence on keeping in mind that we live our lives as processes, and that cultural theory needs to avoid turning these into finished products that we can dissect at our leisure.
We examine some of the things that this might mean in practice, and what all this might mean for anyone interested in exploring ideas like cultural democracy.
This continues an argument that we have been developing over the last few episodes and the argument will conclude in the next episode, when all the threads (cultural democracy as process, the subtle perils of AI, and the structure of feelings) will come together into a total something that will appear (slightly) greater than the sum of its parts.
Note
The file uploaded on May 1 had some serious audio glitches. Apologies. We uploaded a repaired file on Saturday May 2. Please enjoy this one!
 
References
Oxford Reference online https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100538488
Sean Matthews on Structure & Feeling https://www.academia.edu/1196858/Change_and_theory_in_Raymond_Williamss_Structure_of_Feeling_2001_

Rebekah Cupitt and Owen Kelly discuss the possibility of artificial general intelligence; the nature of Claude, and the relationship (if any) between artificial intelligence and creativity. 
They also discuss the meaning of the word excode.
 Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse
 
APRIL 3 | 2026 | EPISODE 85 
PARTICIPANTS
Rebekah Cupitt | Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
Rebekah Cupitt has a BA (University of Queensland, Australia) and an MA in Social Anthropology (Stockholm University, Sweden) and holds a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction specialising in Mediated Communication. Rebekah's research focuses on the people who use technology in their everyday lives and the socio-cultural aspects of technology relevant to its design. 
More specifically, Rebekah examines the ways in which technology influences communication in Swedish Sign Language and how it then becomes an active participant in performances of deaf (and hearing) identity in technology and media-rich organisational contexts. 
Rebekah's research takes a post-human and anti-normative approach to techno-utopias which often haunt human-computer interactions and therefore have implications for design. 
In this episode she talks with Owen Kelly about a series of topics she discussed recently at a lecture she gave in the BIDA+ Critical AI series at Birkbeck, University of London. Her talk was entitled Piercing the veil of authority in techno-utopian and AGI-driven futures, although the discussion heads in slightly different directions.
REFERENCES
Anthropic’s blog post about Claude wanting to bloghttps://www.anthropic.com/research/deprecation-updates-opus-3
The Register’s comment on thishttps://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/anthropic_claude_opus_3_blog/
Claude’s Corner on Substackhttps://substack.com/@claudeopus3
Bringjord, S. and Ferucci, D 1999 Artificial Intelligence and Literary Creativity: Inside the Mind of Brutus, A Storytelling Machine. Psychology Press. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BDJ5AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Buolamwini, J. 2024 Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines. Random House 
Chan, A.S. 2013 Networking Peripheries. Technological Future and the Myth of Digital Universalism. The MIT Press.
Shane Legg, co-founder of DeepMind (now GoogleDeepMind) on AGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3u_FAv33G0
 

Owen Kelly has heard the terms “conscious consumption” and “ethical consumption” thrown around a lot recently. In this episode he tries to find out whether or not they count as synonyms, and whether or not the terms add any real value to our discussions, and to ideas of cultural democracy.
 Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse
 
MARCH 6 | SERIES 2026 | EPISODE 84 
PARTICIPANTS
Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
Owen Kelly has heard the term “conscious consumption” thrown around a lot recently. He has also heard people talk about “ethical consumption”, and started to wonder about whether or not they should count as synonyms.
In this episode he delves into their history and, with his tinfoil hat on, asks whether they constitute a giant diversionary tactic aimed at keeping people busy while discouraging them from seeking the changes that will actually “make a difference”.
They act as nouns when we ought to try to find verbs that describe what we can do, rather than label another imaginary object to join the legion that we can see all around us, weighing us down and separating us.
 
REFERENCES
 
Conscious Consumerism: What Is It? Where Did It Come From? https://builtin.com/articles/conscious-consumerism
Why Is Conscious Consumption so Important?https://lifestyle.sustainability-directory.com/question/why-is-conscious-consumption-so-important/
Sian Wilkerson: How can I practice conscious consumption? https://news.vcu.edu/article/2024/08/how-can-i-practice-conscious-consumption
What is the difference between ethical consumption and conscious consumption? https://bromundlaw.com/social-issues/ethical-consumption-vs-conscious-consumption
How Does Ethical Consumerism Relate to Conscious Consumption? https://lifestyle.sustainability-directory.com/question/how-does-ethical-consumerism-relate-to-conscious-consumption/
Why there is no “ethical consumption” under capitalism https://www.marxist.ca/article/why-there-is-no-ethical-consumption-under-capitalism
 

In November 2025 Sophie Hope gave a presentation at a conference called Collaborative Futures, organised in Dublin by Create. In this episode she talks with three participants to discuss the program, the outcomes,  and the possibilities inherent in the idea of collaborative futures.
 
MEANWHILE IN AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
EPISODE 83 | February 6 | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Megan Atkinson | Sophie Hope | Silver Kezir | Damien McGlynn
 
COMMENTARY
In November 2025 Sophie Hope made a presentation at a conference called Collaborative Futures, organised by Create in Dublin, Ireland.
In this episode Sophie talks with Damien McGlynn, Director of Create; artist and scientist Silver Kezir; and artist and community worker Megan Atkinson, who all attended the conference on 19 November 2025, in the Rialto area of Dublin. 
They reflect on what happened during the day; the importance of intercultural and intergenerational solidarity; the Open Space format of the event; and the significance of good catering!
The conversation took place online on 12 January 2026.
 
REFERENCES
Create website: https://www.create-ireland.ie/
Documentation of the event: https://www.create-ireland.ie/networking-day-2025-collaborative-futures/
The Artist in the Community Scheme: https://www.create-ireland.ie/programme/artist-in-the-community-scheme/
History on the F2 Centre and Fatima Mansions: https://www.fgu.ie/gallery-3
The Figures of 8 project: https://www.create-ireland.ie/projectsubpage/sharing-practice-figures-of-eight/

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received to her paper Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, and what she hopes happens next.
 Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | Episode 82
January 2nd | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope | Su Jones | Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
Last summer Su Jones finished writing <strong>Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience</strong>, a report formed around case studies of 14 visual artists from three English regions. She had been working on it for the last two years.
In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received, and her feelings about them. She discusses the position of an independent researcher and the influence she has, or doesn’t have. She talks about the precarious position that visual artists occupy in a country in which increasing numbers of people occupy precarious positions.
Should artists receive a basic incomes, as they have in Irish experiments, or does that simply amount to special pleading? Would a better proposal involve everyone receiving a universal basic income which artists can use to enable them to practice as artists, golfers can use to practice golf, and chess players can use to practice chess?
REFERENCES
Su Jones: Artists’ Lives: ecologies for resistance, an overview
Su Jones’ writings at Arts Professional
Su Jones’ article at Arts Professional (paywall)
Su Jones’ article at Arts Monthly (paywall)
Ireland: basic income for artists

When Arlene Goldbard is not being a cultural activist or a consultant, she paints. When she is not painting she writes. She writes essays and novels. Her latest novel <em>The Intercessor</em> has just come out.
Owen Kelly talks to Arlene about how this specific burst of writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. DECEMBER 5 | SERIES 2025
STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 81 
PARTICIPANTS
Arlene Goldbard | Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
This month Owen Kelly discusses Arlene Goldbard’s new book, a novel titled <em>The Intercessor</em>, and asks why she chose to write this unusual kind of novel at this particular time.
The novel offers a linked series of short stories, each foregrounding one character from a group whose stories eventually interlock. All of the characters have political, social or spiritual issues which come to seem less like categories than like different coloured lenses through which we can approach the world.
The novel explores the Jewish Renewal movement, among other themes, without wanting its audience limited to Jews or even less to Jews with an interest in the Jewish Renewal movement.
Arlene explains how this specific writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. 
REFERENCES
Arlene on Wikipedia 
Arlene’s website 
Arlene Goldbard: Clarity (2004) 
Arlene Goldbard: The Wave (2013)
Arlene Goldbard: The Intercessor (2025)
Jewish Renewal, described on Wikipedia 
Adin Steinsaltz: The Thirteen Petalled Rose

This month Owen Kelly looks at some of the deeper meanings of Katie Lam’s recent remarks on cultural coherence.
 
NOVEMBER 7 | SERIES 2025
STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 80
 PARTICIPANT
Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
In this episode Owen Kelly looks into the idea of cultural coherence, something that bubbled to the surface after Katie Lam, a member of parliament for the Conservative Party used it in an interview with the Sunday Times. She appeared to use it one way, and then later claimed she meant it in a rather different way.
What do people mean by cultural coherence? Should we regard the idea as dog-whistle politics, or should we see it as a useful idea we need to claim for ourselves, before it gets claimed by those who would whistle to dogs…
REFERENCES
Sam Leith: In Defence of the Rules-based Order, in The Spectator 
Tali Fraser: The Tories and the search for cultural coherence on ConservativeHome
The Sustainability Directory

According to Wikipedia, Jon Savage “is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his book about the Sex Pistols and punk music, England's Dreaming”.He has also written a lengthy and very detailed book called Teenage: the creation of youth 1875 - 1945, and in this episode Owen Kelly looks at that, and points to some of the many interesting and useful connections and examples that Savage has dug up.The blurb on the back of the book says that “Savage fuses popular culture, politics, and social history into a stunning chronicle of modern life”. Certainly it provides a mass of detailed examples drawn from an extraordinarily wide range of sources, that will provide many surprises for everyone who has not spent the last decade reading exactly the same sources as Jon Savage.