Mind Labs

We’ve created this short audiodrama based on the opening scene of the feature film script ‘Jocasta Plays with Dead Things’, to help promote and get more people interested in this future film production. So to find out more about this story and the production company behind it; visit http://www.bloodcurdlingfilms.com/jocasta It’s the story of a very peculiar young woman, who lives in an isolated shop in rural Victorian England, with only her dying father and her taxidermy collection for company. But one day, whilst out collecting road-kill, she spots a beautiful young man and falls hopelessly in love with him. However, her clumsy attempts to woo him go awry when she accidentally murders him. Still, a dead boyfriend is better than no boyfriend at all…

Matt McAteer introduces us to someone who is interested in art but alienated by the language of the art world.

The Long Journey is a story about a man who sets out across a blizzard of snow in a vain attempt to reach a destination which he has no hope of ever reaching, but still he tries. Written by Ziemowit Holda (the story was originally called Sisyphus) and performed by Felix Orion, this work is a powerful examination of singular dedication.

My name is Maureen Atkin and I am a widowed Mother of five wonderful sons and will celebrate my 73rd birthday on New Years Eve. For over six and a quarter years I have been happily living in the Kirkhill Residential Care Home on Lowedges Road in Sheffield. I’m regarded as a prime example of how someone who has suffered so many severe bouts of the deepest depression, can, with encouragement, praise, and support, become, through sustained effort and sheer determination, a person who has had pride fully restored and become strong enough to succeed and has found happiness in a positive new beginning. This is my creative journey…

The way we treat our dead tells us much about our attitude towards life, as it does about our belief in an afterlife. In ancient times, people were buried with objects befitting their rank; as if they were ordained to continue that role after death. Today, several hundred people have had their bodies frozen having placed such faith in science, in that they hope to be preserved until a cure for death is discovered. In this programme we’ll be looking at the treatment of Sheffield’s dead at the beginning of the 19th century and asking what this can tell us about the birth of this modern city.

In this episode of ‘Mind Labs’, we take a listen to the early days of sound recording. Highlighting some of the very first recordings made of the world around us. Featuring pioneering work by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. Presented by Roderick Shearer.

Graham Marshall uses this weeks ‘Mind Labs’ to tell us a heartbreaking true story about his life. One that until now; only a handful of people ever knew about. But today, on the airwaves of Sheffield Live! we can finally hear the remarkable tale of friendship, hope, courage, pencilcases, and soup. Oh, so much soup…

Today's stop is different to the previous ones. In contrast to the others, today I am in a 'non place'. I am standing in front of what was my art school, of what was the Psalter Lane campus, but now it is just rubble. Is it possible to understand a city like this that changes so rapidly? Maybe the very essence of the city does not change. Like the stable and still eye of a hurricance.

There are places that bring us closer to the urban essence for their speed, movement, plurality and capacity for change, and there are other sites that get us closer to the ultimate substance of a city by paradox and opposition, experiencing other types of priorities, where plants, animals and people are obviously part of the same order.This brings me to my third stop, a place within the city but also, a great contrast to it. This place is Heeley City Farm.

Walking Sheffield from West to East, I couldn’t help but stopping where I feel is generally one of the most relevant places of a city, the point that both welcomes and bids farewell to visitors, commuters and locals. I have decided to stop by the main and central Sheffield Train Station. Once it was a little terminal dramatically surrounded by green fields but today it is the first arrival point of a city that welcomes students from more than one hundred and twenty countries from Azerbaijan to Zambia, as well as the witness of more than eight million annual passengers.

I looked at Sheffield on a map and realised that its shape is nestled in the countryside. It looks like it is supported by or relaxed on the big green area. This large area of green even looks a little ‘motherly’, supporting Sheffield on the map. This threshold between the city and the countryside brings me to the one of the most western borders of Sheffield. I have decided to begin my journey here, in an open area used by the community for recreational purposes: the ‘Bole Hill Recreation Ground’.

This week’s first program in our occasional ‘Mind Labs’ series is a new original music and comedy sketch show from Boona Wallace & Anxious Andrews. It’s called the “Steam Powered Radio Show” and if you press play; you can have a listen! (ain’t modern technology wonderful?)

This week ‘Mind Labs’ presents a report called ‘Martin Luther King - Auburn Avenue’ by Steve Buckley, the Treasurer for Sheffield Live! and President of AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters. The Programme was made last year, with recordings made during Steve’s visit to Atlanta, ahead of the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. The 4th of April, is the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, the American civil rights leader. King was born and brought up in Atlanta, Georgia. He rose to prominence in the civil rights movement when he led the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, in 1955. He returned to Atlanta in 1960 to work as Pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and it remained his home base until his death in 1968. On this week last year, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, held its annual conference in Atlanta. Steve Buckley of Sheffield Live, was invited to take part. He took the opportunity to bring us this report from Auburn Avenue.

In June 2007 the River Don over topped its banks causing widespread flooding in the Don Valley area of our city. During this time a 14-year-old boy was swept away by the swollen River Sheaf and a 68 year old man died after attempting to cross a flooded road in Sheffield city centre. The Meadowhall shopping centre also had close due to flooding and the Sheffield Wednesday football ground, Hillsborough was under 6 feet of water. To mark the event, we present a reworking of the Sheffield Floods documentary we made in 2008. This is a collaborative work; featuring contributions from Fabian Beckett, Alan Fransman Joe Fowler, Kit Lawrenson, Graham Marshall, Hannah Patnick, Kevin Resley and Dave Williams. Special thanks go to the residents of Chapel Town, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield University and Sheffield Wednesday football club.

This week’s feature in our ‘Mind Labs’ slot is a programme about the, importance of media literacy. The programme was made possible with a grant from the Community Media Association and the UK Media Regulator Ofcom. Ofcom has a duty to promote media literacy and community media is seen as an important partner in this process. The programme follows on from a media literacy workshop at Sheffield Live! and is a collaborative work with contributions from Irini Apostolidou, Fabian Beckett, Alan Fransman, Paul Gregory and Harry Stevens. In this programme we examine the idea of media literacy and look at its importance to citizens. As a case study, the programme looks at media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more specifically, the Israeli invasion of Gaza in January 2009.