Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly continue their discussion with David Teevan, who has worked for 25 years as a cultural producer in the professional arts sector in Ireland.
In this episode David discusses some of the people and places that helped to shape the development of participatory arts in Ireland.
He also looks at how this relates to ideas of cultural democracy, and how these ideas have been discussed in Ireland.

David Teevan has worked for 25 years as a cultural producer in the professional arts sector in Ireland. He has recently completed a doctorate that examines the complex history of collaborative and participatory arts in Ireland.
In this episode he looks at some aspects of that history, as he experienced and witnessed it. He also talks about the research that he undertook and the underlying issues that his findings revealed.
David discusses all this with Sophie Hope, who took part in the examination of his thesis, and Owen Kelly, who didn’t.

A Little Piece of Land operates as a cultural project and creative exploration on a small triangle of land near Sheffield, about half an acre in size and surrounded on all sides by miles of industrial scale agriculture.
Monika Dutta and Jake Harries use it to “develop ideas and formulate questions which we can mediate via artistic production. It gives focus to our responses to: the politics and economics of globalisation; climate change; accelerations in urbanisation; the increase in an urbanised, colonising world view and the decrease in agency experienced by ordinary people in areas of activity that our ancestors would have taken for granted; and to researching and re-imagining what kind of food landscape people living on this land would have recognised before the arrival of farming”.
In this episode Monika and Jake discuss with Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly. They explain “what it is actually like” to engage in this work, not just in theory but in day to day practice. How does rewilding work? How do they know what they can eat? How do they know how to cook it? How does this fit into their wider practice, and to the struggle towards cultural democracy?

Andrew Demetrius works as curator at the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, where he conducts doctoral research on a project currently titled The Town art of Glenrothes and David Harding.
In this episode Sophie and Andrew talk about the history of the town artist movement in Scotland, the political and economic context in which the new towns were built and the different approaches the planners and artists took to the role of artists and art in these urban developments.
They focus on the embedded approach of David Harding who lived and worked in Glenrothes for 10 years employed by the Development Corporation as an artist. They reflect on the influences Harding’s approach has had on art and regeneration processes today.

Owen Kelly talks with Jake Harries, the director of art and innovation at Access Space, in Sheffield, England.
Access Space offers people interested in art, design, computers, recycling, music, electronics, photography and more, opportunities to meet like-minded people, share and develop skills and work on creative, enterprising and technical projects.
Access Space runs Refab Space, a DIY FabLab, developed and completed in 2012. With its suite of rapid prototyping tools, including a laser cutter, 3D printer and CNC router, this benefits artists, business start-ups and the community as a whole.
Access Space offers an inclusive environment. As well as working with artists, academics, creative technologists, programmers, scientists, other professionals and students, 50% of the participation in Access Space’s activities has been from people in danger of exclusion and on the margins of society, including: people with disabilities, homeless people, ex-offenders, asylum seekers, refugees and people with mental health issues.
They discuss the ways in which the current lockdown has affected Access Space, as well as a range of issues including the commons, laser printing, open source, and possible futures.

In the previous two episodes Owen Kelly looked at cultural commons from a geographical and then an historical perspective. He played music and introduced a vintage radio programme.
In this episode he joins Sophie Hope for a detailed examination of the commons, and its possible relationship to ideas of cultural democracy.
They base their discussion on a reading of Guy Standing’s book Plunder of the Commons. They also borrow ideas from David Bollier’s book Think Like a Commoner.

In the previous episode Owen Kelly looked at songs available through the Free Music Archive, Jamendo and Tribe of Noise. We traversed the geography of the musical commons. In this episode we dive into the historical cultural commons.
We listen to the very first episode of The Shadow, a radio series that ran for thirteen seasons from 1937 to 1954. For the first eighteen months a young Orson Welles played The Shadow, and allegedly added to the dramatic quality of the series by looking at the script for the first time when he read it live on air.
Listening to this episode takes us back to the cultural diet of American families sitting around a radio at peak listening hour. We can hear how their Saturday evening entertainment sounded, rather than reading about it. We can only do this because the copyright on these broadcasts has expired. This episode serves as an example of the cultural histories that we will miss out on if the corporate hold over intellectual property continues to increase.
Our cultural history is under attack. The Shadow Knows!

In this episode Owen Kelly looks at the range of musics currently available under a creative commons licence.
He looks at some artist-released music as well as songs available through the Free Music Archive, Jamendo and Tribe of Noise. We pass through a varied landscape that includes modern pop, country, Indian jazz, folk and North African music. There is more to this than meets the ear.
You will hear David Rovics, Samie Power, Kat Penkin, Solsar, Jon Worthy & the Bends, Radha Thomas, Shoemansky, Starmob, ...mmm and Lessazo. Mmm, indeed!