Shows
Very Very Far AwayLive #23 - Design And Critical Fables - at Goldsmiths DesignThis is a recording of a lecture for the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, presenting a design framework developed to explore the discursive practices of design within educational settings. Special thanks to Tim Miller for the invitation.
Abstract:
Imagine, if you will, a world where the narratives we tell ourselves are not truths etched in the firmament but fabrications—fragile, deliberate, and often cruel. Critical fables are a design practice that lays bare these fabrications, exposing the fragile and constructed nature of the realities we inhabit.
Critical fables use the crafted object, the tangible story, to unravel en...
2025-02-091h 02
Very Very Far AwayLive #22 - Alchemy Of Ruins - ft. MAID at CSM's Studio TheatreIn this episode—Alchemy of Ruins—we bring you into a moment of transformation: a live recording of a performance by first-year students of the MA Industrial Design course at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
For their first unit, the students responded to a text—a fictional fragment from another time and place, rich with peculiar detail.
From this fragment, they conjured life from its ruins. They designed and crafted objects and sounds that might hold meaning in this imagined world, weaving rituals that reconstruct time and space.
What you hear is not a narrative in the tradit...
2025-01-1943 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #21 - Boots on MarsThis is a story of parallels, inhabitation and belonging; a story about a place described through the memories of those who visited it, the nature of the places we directly inhabit, and the ones we fantasise.
A special, bilingual (French/English), episode commissioned by Diaspore for Manifesta 13, the Nomadic European Biennale of art and culture. This edition of the biennale is hosted by the southern French city of Marseille.
To help us in this we were joined by photographer and Marseille native Mona Grid, Former resident of the city, graphic designer Amelie Bonhomme, Artist and soon to be living in...
2020-10-0545 min
Very Very Far AwayVoices from Earth, on the outskirts of space - EP.1 Co-creation and TogethernessAn audio essay that reflects on our conversations at the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington DC. In this episode, Joseph Popper and Sitraka Rakotoniaina explore what diversity can mean at the largest gathering of the space industry.
We speak to artists, designers, engineers and anthropologists who share their experiences of the congress and tell us about their different practices. From the conversations, we learn that outer space exploration demands multicultural and multidisciplinary approaches, in action and in attitude.
Thanks to our interviewees, Tamara Alvarez, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Sands Fish, Barbara Imhof, Prathima Muniyappa, Ufuoma Ovienmhada, Angelo Vermeulen and Chris...
2020-08-221h 01
Very Very Far AwayLive #20 - Normal Now Act 3Normal Now, Act 3, As we get accustomed to the new normalities imposed upon us over the last 6 months we examine how we got to this point, and where things could escalate to. The bridges between what is and what might be real / true / fictitious are blurred in this, the final act of VVFA's Normal Now investigation.
Mixed and arranged by Matthew Motte
2020-08-2140 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #19 - Normal Now Act 2 [pt.2]Andrew and Sitraka are joined by guests Malena Arcucci, Simone Rebaudengo, Nestor Pestana and Hugo Pilate, along with Michael and Chris Lewis to develop the co-enquiry expanding on themes of Automation and changing patterns of work. How are things evolving on our way out of lockdown, and how might we want things to shift once the lockdown is lifted?
2020-05-0854 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #18 - Normal Now Act 2 [pt.1]Guests Malena Arcucci, Simone Rebaudengo, Nestor Pestana and Hugo Pilate join Andrew and Sitraka along with Michael and Chris Lewis to continue their exploration of a world in lockdown, Part 1 of a co-enquiry examining what could, and what we might like to change in a post covid society.
2020-05-0731 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #17 - Normal Now Act 1The first in a triptych of broadcasts exploring the world on lockdown, the implications of social isolation and the possible changes that could result from this strange new normality.
A conversation between Andrew Friend, Sitraka Rakotoniaina, Christopher Lewis and Michael Lewis.
2020-04-1650 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #16 - A More Familiar Unknown - VVFA at Tate BritainExcerpt from VVFA's live broadcast "A More Familiar Unknown", for Late at Tate Britain: "From Tomorrow". An event curated by Tate Collective, on the 7th of february 2020. Participants were tasked with exploring the future of education and learning, and record their stories whilst using our soundscaping "engine", a nine people instrument.
Thumbnail photo by Dan Weill
2020-02-1113 min
Very Very Far AwayEP.2 The Great RuptureIn this episode, our narrator examines the ins and outs of the "Astrological Stock Exchange" (ASE), interviewing traders Michael Bradford and Magdalena Arriaga.
2019-12-2919 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #15 - Familiar Unknown - VVFA at Jupiter WoodsExract of the Familiar Unknown's final chapter at Jupiter Woods and organised by Diaspore as part of the Forest Rangers series of readings. Taking the format of an open mic evening, participants were invited to impersonate fictional charaters and play a 9 oscillators, drone generator, instrument specifically made for the occasion.
2019-12-2023 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #14 - If you don't organise yourselves, you will be organised - VVFA at Goldsmiths DesignThe result of a week long workshop run at Goldsmiths University with the 3rd Year BA design students, as part of their accelerator month. The students created a series of radio plays looking at multiple societal issues in critical and playful ways.
This is an edited version of the broadcast, few performances are missing, as we couldn't accomodate all of them in this archive. Apologies!
The performances included in this edit are: Techno Pussy, Jellypocalypse, Tomato, Badassrobot, Catch the Whale, Money Voice, Turing test, Funky Pigeon, Project Yellow Submarine, Waste Wonderland
2019-11-1855 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #13 - Objects as narratives - VVFA at DublabAudio (narrative) essay on design methods and objects as embodiment of narratives, taking the transportation systems in Los Angeles as starting point.
2019-03-0620 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #12 - The sound of space and sonic futures with Nicole Lhuillier - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosA short conversion with Nicole Lhuillier PhD candidate and research assistant at MIT Media Lab, Opera of the Future group, about her research and most recent work dealing with the potential for a "Mapufuturism".
More information on her work can be found at http://nicolelhuillier.com
(Apologies for the sound quality)
2018-09-2632 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #11 - A reading of "The Ascent" a play by Ilona Gaynor - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosThe Ascent is written as a four act play, centred around a simulated plane crash that takes place as part of a morale boosting training day for the staff of a mid-sized American law firm. It was written as parable comedy about the ecosystems of power, and attempts to examine the nature of class politics; looking through the lens of the contemporary workplace from multiple vantage points. The four acts become increasingly perilous for the passengers inside; leaving them no choice, but to out maneuver one another… and in some case murder one another before they all eventually drown in th...
2018-09-2638 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #10 - A Post-Workers Theatre discussion with David Frayne - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosFollowing Nicholas Mortimer radio play, a Post-Workers Theatre discussion: With Dash Macdonald and special guest David Frayne- writer, social researcher and the author of the 2015 Book "The Refusal of Work" (35 mins 40 secs)
More information on nicholasmortimer.net, and find Nicholas and David on Twitter: @nicholasmortimer and @TheWorkDogma
2018-09-2635 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #9 - "What were you expecting?" and "5 to 9" by Nicholas Mortimer - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosRadio Play - "What Were you expecting" - (an ode of post-work imaginaries) Written the didactic style of past workers-theatre . Featuring the voice of Ruth Urquhart and the Natural Readers ensemble. (14 mins 40 sec)
The embodiment of expectation is joined by a neural network and 3 chat-bots on a journey of transformation and song. In a distant parallel desert reality, a fortune teller working in a job centre suffers a moment of clarity. The arrival of a new piece of hardware begins a process of critical consciousness, examining the expectations and design of future job roles.
Musical Interlude : "5 to 9" - Vocaloid song...
2018-09-2521 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #8 - Special mix by A---Z - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosA—-Z presents a mash up from various researchers, theorists, celebrities & some sounds by musicians from the future.
(Angela davis, Octavia Butler, Jlin, bonaventure, RICO Nasty etc..)
About Anne & A—-Z
Anne has collaborated in various projects with ArtLicks, CGP Gallery, V22, Danielle Arnaud, Please Stand By, or-bits.com, jury member at PAF Olomouc (2017) & Tenderflix (2017)... She works at the Royal College of Art as the Curriculum and Special Projects Coordinator for the School of Fine Art and runs the StudioRCA Riverlight in Nine Elms. Currently developing newly commissioned installations around the idea of displacement and otherness at the StudioRCA. The seri...
2018-09-2538 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #7 - Speculative Design's Normalisation with J. Paul Neeley - VVFA at Sugarhouse studiosJ. Paul Neely discusses with us Speculative Design, and its normalisation within a corporate setting.
For more information visit his website https://www.jpaulneeley.com/ you can also find him on Twitter @jape and @neeleyworldwide
2018-09-2452 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #6 - Forecasting Futures with David Benqué - VVFA at V & ADavid Benqué discusses his design practice and research with his High School friend Jasmin Blasco; from typography to the study of tools for speculation and the spatial mathematics of prediction.
2017-11-1726 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #5 - Predicting The Future From The Stars w/ David Benqué and Dr Roberto Trotta - VVFA at V & ADavid Benqué and Dr Roberto Trotta discuss big data, astrophysics and predicting the future from the stars.
2017-10-2750 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #4 - Democratising the Future with Elliott Montgomery (Extrapolation Factory) - VVFA at V & AElliott Montgomery, from the Extrapolation Factory, discussing their methods for co-designing futures with Andrew Friend and Sitraka Rakotoniaina.
2017-10-2743 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #3 - Space Dreamer with Joseph Popper - VVFA at V & AJoseph Popper discusses his practice and interest in narratives related to Space Exploration with Jasmin Blasco
2017-10-1824 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #2 - Critical Making with Garnet Hertz - VVFA at V & AAndrew and Jasmin chat about "Disobedient Electronics" and the power of Making with Dr. Garnet Hertz, live at the Victoria and Albert museum, London.
September 2017
2017-10-0423 min
Very Very Far AwayLive #1 – An introduction to the Very Very Far Away – VVFA at V & AAndrew Friend and Jasmin Blasco discuss the "Very Very Far Away", live at the Victoria and Albert museum, London.
September 2017
2017-10-0427 min
Very Very Far AwayEP.1 Digital Ghost3 years ago, lab technician, Will Herschel, went missing from a space station.
Starring Jordan Rountree, Jade Sealey and Miriam Katz. Mixed and recorded by Jeremy Emery and Elliot Hartley in Glendale, CA.
2017-07-1412 min
Very Very Far AwayEP.0 MoonshinersJohn Beckman, a retired miner, tells our narrator, about his home brewing activity.
Starring Dan Hoal, JJ Nolan, Jordan Rountree
Mixed and recorded by Jeremy Emery and Elliot Hartley in Downtown LA, CA. And Karl Sadler in London, UK.
Produced by Andrew Friend, Jasmin Blasco and Sitraka Rakotoniaina
2017-01-1014 min