Saturday Morning for Saturday 16 April 2022

8.10 Prof Mabel Berezin: French elections reveal rightward shift

The second round of the French presidential elections will see the incumbent centrist Emmanuel Macron once again face off against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, whom Macron easily beat in the 2017 elections.

However, this time may not be such a cake walk, and some observers say the tight race is an indicator of the seismic shift in France’s political culture.

Mabel Berezin is a sociology professor and Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University. Her work explores fascist, nationalist and populist movements in Europe and associated threats to democracy.

8.35 Aidan Hart: the allure of religious iconography 

In the early 80s Aidan Hart left his job as a teacher and took up sculpting full-time, embarking on a quest to find art that would help him express the inner spirituality of man. This exploration drew him to religious icons, and eventually led him to becoming a member of the Orthodox Church.

While continuing to work as an iconographer, from 1988 to 2000 Hart lived as a monk, including spending two years on Mount Athos in Greece and six as a hermit in Shropshire, UK. 

Hart has been a helping hand in putting together the Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World, open now at Auckland Art Gallery.

In August, Hart will be giving a painting demonstration as part of the exhibition, details here.
 

 

9.05 Keith Kahn-Harris: the surprising journey spurred by Kinder eggs

London-based sociologist Dr Keith Kahn Harris has written about some weighty issues, including the heavy metal music scene and antisemitism, but his latest book sprang out of a fascination with the omnipresent Kinder Surprise Egg.

The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, came out of Kahn-Harris’ obsession with the cautionary message included inside every egg, printed on multiple pages and in dozens of languages - WARNING, read and keep: Toy not suitable for children under 3 years. Small parts might be swallowed or inhaled.

Khan-Harris is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College, an associate lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of seven books, including the upcoming title What Does A Jew Look Like?, co-authored with Robert Stothard.

 

10.05 Playing Favourites with veteran journalist Jim Tucker

Jim Tucker started his journalism career in 1965 as a 18-year-old cadet at the Taranaki Herald, where he spent the next 11 years before moving to the Auckland Star. There, Tucker led a team that created the first major newspaper set up in New Zealand since the 1920s, the Sunday Star (now Sunday Star Times).

In 1987, Tucker emerged from the trenches to start teaching the next generation, eventually taking up positions as the head of journalism schools at Auckland University of Technology, Western Institute of Technology and Whitireia Polytechnic.

In 2021, he was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to journalism. Now in semi-retirement in Taranaki, Tucker has been reflecting on his life as a member of the fourth estate, and has been putting together his memoirs.

 

11.05 Julia Croft: taking Terrapolis to the stage

Experimental theatre-maker Julia Croft seeks to reimagine a more sustainable way of living in her new solo show Terrapolis. The show takes its title from 'A Cyborg Manifesto', an essay written in 1985 by feminist scholar and scientist Donna Haraway which devises the formula for the possible utopian world of Terrapolis.

Croft’s new work is directed by Nisha Madhan, with whom she collaborates frequently. The pair’s last project Working on My Night Moves won the Total Theatre Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 and an Auckland Theatre Award for Excellence in Overall Production.

Terrapolis is on at Auckland’s Q Theatre from 19 April until 23 April. Head over here for more details.

 

11.35 Megan Dunn: is the future of art a Femmebot? 

This week Megan Dunn looks at the first ‘humanoid’ robot artist Ai-Da, who is about to present her exhibition, Leaping into the Metaverse at the Venice Biennale. Leading to the question, does art belong exclusively to human consciousness? 

In the art world, Megan says, there is a shift towards the ‘post-human’. Artists like Pierre Huyghe are creating multi-disciplinary works which include intelligent lifeforms and other forms of consciousness beyond the human. 

Can a robot – with no consciousness, let alone a subconscious - have true agency as an artist?  

Megan Dunn is an art writer and author of books Tinderbox and Things I Learned at Art School.

 

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Babel Message
By Keith Kahn-Harris
Published by Icon
ISBN: 9781785787379

Flair and Loathing from the Front Page
By Jim Tucker
Self published as an e-book, available here.

 

Music featured on this show:

Are You Lonesome Tonight
Elvis
Played at 10.15am

When Joanna Loved Me
Scott Walker
Played at 10.30am

Massachusetts
Bee Gees
Played at 10.51am

My Electric Husband
Bacherlorette
Played at 11.35am