[NetBehaviour] The Free University of the Airwaves. (UK Radio)

[marc garrett]

The Free University of the Airwaves.
Monday 18 August to Friday 22 August 2008, daily from 10am to 3pm, 
repeated nightly 7pm to midnight.

Resonance 104.4 FM, broadcasting in central London on FM, with live 
simultaneous streaming worldwide via www.resonancefm.com

Resonance FM announces a "summer school on the radio" for a week during 
the holidays. Designed to appeal to the general (adult) listener, this 
series of lectures ranges restlessly across many subjects. "The Free 
University allows listeners to dip into a vast range of material," 
explains project instigator and Resonance programming director Ed 
Baxter. "What we are aiming for is a snapshot of contemporary thought, 
subject matter we find provocative and intriguing. The result is 
digressive, for sure, but always stimulating and unusual."

The Free University is certainly that. Historian Ariel Hessayon 
(Goldsmiths) speaks on two subjects: about Jews in England from their 
expulsion in 1290 to their readmission in 1659; and "Restoring the 
Garden of Eden in England's Green and Pleasant Land," which takes a new 
view of the seventeenth century Diggers. There is more visionary stuff 
from Plymouth's Professor Malcolm Miles, who specialises in concepts of 
Utopia, while at the other end of the scale Mark Miodownik of King's 
College's Materials Library takes us through an elemental reading of the 
making of a cup of coffee - illustrated in robust fashion in the 
station's kitchen. Oneupmanship not intended, Professor Steven Connor 
(Birkbeck) talks about The History of Air; and, refreshing beverages 
sorted, ethnographer Caroline Osella asks, How do you make a man?

There is a strong anthropological strand, with contributions from Monica 
Janowski (Potency, Hierarchy and Food in Borneo), Magnus Marsden (Muslim 
village intellectuals) and Edward Simpson (Remembering natural disasters 
and memorials in Gujurat); while Alpa Shah asks, Would Yosemite be a 
better place for the Elephants of Eastern India? Only Resonance FM can 
provide the answer.

Influential professor of design Peter Rea offers various insights into 
Visual Literacy, illustrated with audio from Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd and 
the rural blues of the 1930s; Dr.Julian Stallabrass talks about visual 
representations of war; Professor Jean Seaton has recourse to George 
Orwell's enduring relevance; and Roberta Mock asks what constitutes 
avant-garde performance.

Philosophers AC Grayling and Jonathan Wolff, cultural theorist Nicolas 
Bourriaud, "new complexity" composer Richard Barrett, folk music 
specialist Professor Reg Hall and Christine Kinnon, Professor of 
Molecular Immunology at UCL, are among others of the two dozen 
contributors to this extraordinary project. The station will post brief 
and user-friendly on-line reference material, photographs and 
bibliographies for the lectures.  
For audio, further information, pictures etc, call Richard Thomas on 020 
7089 2170.