Journey To Nutopia

PAST EVENTS

Prof. Robert Temple is a scholar who knows a thing or two about cosmic anomalies. The author of a dozen orthodoxy-challenging and provocative books, including the international best-seller, The Sirius Mystery, Robert’s latest book A New Science of Heaven examines plasma - the fourth state of matter that makes up 99% of the universe. The other three states - gas, liquid and solids - emerge from plasma, first discovered and described in the 19th century by Sir Wililam Crookes as "radiant matter". Two gigantic clouds of plasma, called the Kordylewski Clouds, hovering between the Earth and the Moon, have recently been discovered by astronomers in Hungary - and they are throwing up questions and challenges for established scientific orthodoxies.

Plus, we explore the world of D&D role playing games, and fictional pantheons and cosmologies from some of the greatest architects of the imagination, including Alan Moore and Terry Pratchett, read by Daisy Campbell and The Bohemianauts' Tom Baker.

FURTHER READING/NOTES/LINKS FROM THE NIGHT

READINGS LIST
Robert Temple's A New Science of Heaven
Alan Moore's Illuminations
Ovid's Metamorphoses
Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic
Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (Earthseed poem)
Minna Salami's Sensuous Knowledge - A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone
Phillip Pullman on Dust in His Dark Materials
Robert Temple's The Tree's Sadness

THE INITIAL SINGULARITY/SPIRITUAL MURMUR
Video on spiral murmuring activating expanded awareness HERE

PAPERS QUESTIONING THE BIG BANG THEORY
Prof. Robert Temple: A New Explanation for the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Temperature
Michael John Olley and Jeff Yee: The Effect of a Fundamental Particle on the Standard Model of Cosmology
Michael John Olley: Hubble Motion without Dark Energy giving an Alternative Model of the Universe
Michael John Olley: Will the Standard Model of Cosmology be confirmed by Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope? If not, what then?

LOUIS WAIN
Victorian cat artist Louis Wain's fascination with electricity
"Louis Wain always believed that there was electricity that everybody had in them, be it cats or humans themselves. Electricity that pushes us through time into the future and brings back old memories from the past."

THE METATRON
Plasma meets the Kabbalah

 

Wednesday 7 DECEMBER, 7:00pm with special guests:

JOHN HIGGS on LOVE & LET DIE: BOND, THE BEATLES & THE BRITISH PSYCHE

ANDREW O'NEILL

THE HOVE SPACE PROGRAM

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING OF THE EVENING - FREE - HERE:

The Beatles are the biggest band there has ever been. James Bond is the single most successful movie character of all time. They are also twins. Dr No, the first Bond film, and Love Me Do, the first Beatles record, were both released on the same day – Friday 5 October 1962. Most countries can only dream of a cultural export becoming a worldwide phenomenon on this scale. For Britain to produce two on the same windy October afternoon is unprecedented.

John Higgs talks about how Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of Britain, and ideas about male identity. His latest book LOVE AND LET DIE is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

John Higgs is a writer who specialises in finding previously unsuspected narratives, hidden in obscure corners of our history and culture, which can change the way we see the world. In the words of MOJO magazine, “Reading John Higgs is like being shot with a diamond. Suddenly everything becomes terrifyingly clear”. The Times agreed, saying that “Higgs’s prose has a diamond-hard quality. He knows how to make us relate.”  “A while ago I decided to read anything Higgs writes,” said Frank Cottrell Boyce, “He seems to be able to take any subject — pop music, Watling Street, conspiracy theories, robotics — and poke at it until it yields up its secrets.” Russell Brand described him succinctly as “a great writer […] who pulls shit together in an interesting way.”

Twitter: @johnhiggs
Newsletter: https://johnhiggs.com/newsletter/

Andrew O'Neill is an award-winning comedian, musician and best-selling writer. A psychedelic non-binary whirlwind, they combine surrealism, polemic and good old-fashioned stagecraft to produce uniquely counter-cultural stand-up who has performed in over a dozen different countries, at over a hundred different festivals and is equally at home in rowdy comedy clubs as performing to their own cult following.

They co-write and star in Radio 4’s occult sitcom Damned Andrew; they are the author of the book A History Of Heavy Metal, described by living legend Alan Moore as "a comprehensive landmark analysis of an enormous area of music that has been too long without such a thing, and has the massive advantage of the funny being turned up to twelve. A loud and thoroughly engrossing love-story."

Twitter: @destructo9000
Newsletter: https://www.andrewoneill.co.uk/contact

HOVE SPACE PROGRAM
Re-entering earth’s atmosphere for the evening are Brighton-based arts collective The Hove Space Program. The Hove Space Program are a mostly fictional band of transcendental freedom fighters who act as mycelic energy nodes and multidimensional tricksters. They like to bring the party, and also enjoy a nice cup of tea and a sit down.

DOLLY RAE STAR//WILL HELM RIGHTLY  POETRY Dolly Rae Star plays in sound, poetry, and magic. Movement, play and transcendence. Let’s dance!
Dolly's published poetry work includes Quest)ion) (Veer2) and Play Stance (Polyversity Press). A poem of theirs was once described as “a bold anthem” in an article on magic poetry The New Statesman (wtf). Sometimes they're possessed by Will Helm Rightly.

WILL HELM RIGHTLY graced the Cockpit stage at Journey to Nutopia’s night on Wilhelm Reich. This time, he will be your host and guiding spirit. He's here to remind you that you were born to be alive, and that the menu is not the meal, but the salad at the bar is. Please use the tongs provided!
Will Helm Rightly Youtube: https://youtu.be/XiTTHEdZu64

Poet and music journalist BEN GRAHAM will be reading an excerpt from his novel-in-progress about occult psychedelia in 1960s California. He is the author of books on the 13th Floor Elevators, The Butthole Surfers, and the disastrous 1970 Yorkshire Folk, Blues & Jazz Festival at Krumlin, as well as the Discordian Sci-Fi novel Amorphous Albion.

Twitter: @bengrahamwriter
Newsletter: https://www.tinyletter.com/BenGraham

OMAR IBRAHIM// COMEDY Omar is an actor and comedian who takes being stupid extremely seriously. He co-runs an alternative comedy night in Brighton as part of double act ‘Omar and Lee’ and is currently developing and performing his new solo show; Decolonise This. If he wanted to sound clever, he’d say his work seeks to invoke a deeper sense of meaning, beauty and unity through paradox and absurdity. A philosophical fool who enjoys non sensical sense making, his current addictions (that’s he’s aware of) include heretodoxy, ‘nuance’ and thoughtfully stroking his little beard.

Twitter: @omaribrahimawan

VERITY SPOTT// POETRY
Verity Spott is a puzzle solver in the British show Jigsaw from the years 1979-1984. She played a silent character with a long protruding nose who tried to solve a multitude of puzzles, which ranged from golfing to finding an air pumper. Verity's books include "Hopelessness", "Click Away Close Door Say" and "WE WILL BURY YOU". In 2020, Spott was lecturing some students about how she is superior to Mr. Bean. Nobody listened so she began chasing them around with a knife. She managed to kill three people. Before she could harm any more people Ratafak Plachta arrived to stop her. She tried to kill Ratafak Plachta when Ratafak was trying to convince her to stop being angry and to accept the fact that Mr. Bean is more popular but she didn't want to so he tried killing him. Ratafak Plachta then proceeded to grab her and beat her to death.

Twitter: @VeritySpott
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/verityspott

MYRA STUART PUPPETS  WILLIAM BLAKE & ALAN WATTS
Myra Stuart channels the wisdom and weirdness of ages through cuddly fleece. Expect Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets meets the Ancient of Days.

“We’ll (probably) never experience what it’s like to be in Alan (Watts)’s presence for one of his talks. Fortunately we can come pretty darned close with his puppet incarnation!” The Daily Grail.

Newsletter: https://www.tinyletter.com/BenGraham
Twitter: @KaliGeo

Sunday 25 September -
WATCH LIVE RECORDING OF EVENT (FREE) HERE:

with
PROF. ANNEBELLA POLLEN - Professor of Visual and Material Culture at University of Brighton on Nude Utopia: Uncovering Britain’s Golden Age

MICHAEL KENNARD - Compost Club Founder on Nutrient Cycling Cities: Using food waste to regenerate soil.

WRITERS REBEL - XR's JESSICA TOWNSEND & TOBY LITT

This September, Nutopia is bringing you potentially planet-saving innovations in soil biodiversity, gets to the bottom of British naturism’s cultural impact and salutes the storytellers in the burgeoning climate justice movement.

Join us for a lively evening where we will learn how a new generation of gardeners are saving the topsoil, how naturism was a mirror for Britain’s rapid social change, plus inspirational words from Extinction Rebellion’s Writers Rebel movement.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:

MICHAEL KENNARD and his company Compost Club are working to disrupt the current waste stream, specifically food waste but also how we make and define compost. Michael studied the soil food web with Soil Foodweb Inc. founder Dr. Elaine Ingham and uses this knowledge to regenerate soil and produce a living compost.
Twitter: @CompostMichael & @ClubCompost

PROF. ANNEBELLA POLLEN is Professor of Visual and Material Culture at the University of Brighton. Her research areas include mass photography and the popular image, and histories of art, craft, design and dress, especially marginal, alternative and non-canonical forms. Some Nutopians will remember Annebella and her winning argument at the JAMMS’ Welcome to the Dark Ages 2017 event in Liverpool. She proposed that the KLF’s burning of a million quid was adjacent to ideas of British folk ritual explored in her award-winning monograph, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians. These countercultural communities inspired Annebella's latest book - and the subject of her talk for us, Nudism in a Cold Climate: The Visual Culture of Naturists in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain.
Twitter @AnnebellaPollen

JESSICA TOWNSEND began her career as a theatre writer. She was researching a novel about 2030 when she found out about the climate crisis and has since been an activist who writes on the side. She started the XR podcast which ran for 40 episodes and featured luminaries such as Margaret Atwood Amitav Ghosh KateRaworth and Jason Hickel. She co founded Writers Rebel and is the founder of MP Watch a non party political group pressurising MPs to urgently address the environmental crisis.
Twitter: @JessDenialWatch

TOBY LITT has published novels, short story collections and comics. His most recent book is Patience (Galley Beggar, 2019), which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. He teaches Creative Writing at Birkbeck College. He is a member of English Pen and editor of the Writers Rebel website. He is currently publishing his next book, A Writer’s Diary, in daily entries on Substack. When he is not writing, he likes sitting doing nothing.
Twitter: @tobylitt

WATCH PREVIOUS NUTOPIAS ON DEMAND, here, for FREE

Tuesday 31 May: Salena Godden and Friends - an Evening of poetry, spoken word and music
With Special Guests: Kat François, Heidi James, Oakley Flanagan, Rosa Rankin-Gee, Oli Spleen and Salena Godden

Watch the whole thing back, right here.

Sunday 31 October 2021: JOURNEY BEYOND LIMITS// Talks, suitably spooky tales and conversation

With Special Guests:

Justin Robertson, reading from his new eco-horror novel: The Tangle

The Keeper from The Museum of Sex Objects

Plus, reading from: Robert Anton Wilson's Sex, Drugs & Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits:

Andrew O'Neill
Bang Crosby
Daisy Campbell
Francesca Way

Anwen Fryer Burrows leading an opening ceremony
        
This All Hallows’ Eve, Nutopia was JOURNEYING BEYOND LIMITS, with the help of The Tangle, The Keeper and a micro-dose of a counter-culture pulp classic: Sex, Drugs & Magick…

The evening was dedicated to the loving memory of the recently departed actor/activist/poet/friend/sister/aunt//seeker/Eris incarnator Claudia Boulton

The Museum of Sex Objects is a response to renewed interest in identity and sexual freedom. The museum’s collection of storytelling objects celebrates sexual heroes, moments, and places. The pieces are like historical novels, woven from fragmented records and whispers. The Keeper of the Museum of Sex Objects considers it essential to share these compelling tales of sexual history and identity from our collective past. Tonight, The Keeper will share with us an object - and story - in fitting with this evening’s theme...

Justin Robertson is a renowned DJ, music producer, painter and broadcaster. For the past 30 years he has been a leading figure in the dance music world. He headlines clubs and festivals around the globe as a DJ and formerly with his band Lionrock. Justin has exhibited six acclaimed collections of his art around the UK and Europe. He hosts two popular shows "The Temple of Wonders" and "The Rotating Institute" on Soho Radio. Tonight, he reads from his debut novel, THE TANGLE - an eco horror tale billed as "a time travelling account of what occurs when unknowable frontiers are breached and humanity finds itself".

Robert Anton Wilson’s Sex, Drugs & Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits
“Training the rainbow searchlight of his signature wit and searing intelligence on what many of us might regard as the three main ingredients for a good night out, Wilson sets himself the task of examining and countering the misinformation and myths around the Sex, Drugs & Magick of the title, while making clear the ways in which each can be used separately but most importantly together as powerful practical pathways to transcendence and self-transformation.” Grant Morrison’s Foreword to Sex, Drugs & Magick

For Halloween, Nutopia celebrated the re-issue of this myth-busting, mythos-boosting counter-culture classic with readings from and discussion with: occult comedian and author of one of the books eight forewords and afterwords, Andrew O’Neill, Cosmic Trigger Play’s author and director Daisy Campbell, The Bad Fractals’ Bang Crosby and performer, photographer and fun-maker, Francesca Way

BONUS CONTENT! Magician, author and cunning man CAT VINCENT reads his intro to Sex, Drugs & Magick - view his intro HERE

 The evening included a short opening ceremony to welcome down the ancestors, lead by Airy Fairy and Festival 23’s Anwen Fryer Burrows,

Museum of Sex Objects: https://www.museumofsexobjects.co.uk/
Psycare UK: https://www.psycareuk.org/
Buy the book, Robert Anton Wilson's Sex, Drugs & Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits HERE
Buy Justin Robertson's The Tangle HERE

WATCH PAST BROADCASTS HERE!

After the live broadcast, we put all of the previous episodes here, completely free of charge.

Click on the arrow on the left to open up the drop down list and dive in (for individual show details/line-up scroll down this page). 

If you can spare us a few quid and donate to The Cockpit so we can continue to make this work, that would be superb. Thank you and Keep the Lasagna flying...

DONATE

PAST EPISODES

Sunday 12 September 2021: OPERATION MINDFIX

Artists addressing anxiety and alienation

With Special Guests:
Artist & Mental Health Advocate: Leigh De Vries
Musician and Filmmaker: Tim Arnold
Plus new sounds from the Music for Healing series by Richard Norris

We’re all finding our own way through these strange times. There is no map for ‘where we are right now’. Consensus reality (if it ever existed) is shifting. The future - political, ecological, economical - seems more uncertain than ever, and statistics show we are seeing spikes in anxiety, depression and the ability to cope across the board (though particularly in children and health workers). For September’s Nutopia we spoke with three creatives about their latest projects which address some of these issues through art, music and film.

Leigh de Vries draws inspiration for most of her work from her own experience with body dysmorphia. Her work explores identity, the perception and representation of mental health and our inner emotional lives in contemporary culture. Leigh's public installations and events seek to creatively foster open dialogue around these issues, connecting art, artists and a diverse international public.

Super Connected is the new feature-length film and album from singer songwriter/filmmaker Tim Arnold. Super Connected deals with the seductive power of social media and its potentially corrosive real-world effect on our mental health.The work was originally inspired by a mental health professional friend of Tim’s working with young people with Selective Mutism. Some of her patients were struggling with human interaction but also addicted to social media.  In a post-lockdown world, this subject has become a vital area of research across the globe.

Richard Norris has been creating original pieces of music to soothe the soul, every month since the start of lockdown in 2020. Music For Healing is a series of long form tracks to aid stress and anxiety relief in these challenging times. The series totals four hours of listening time. Use them as background ambience, as immersive deep listening, in combination with meditation or any other practice. Music For Healing tracks are crafted and recorded in real time with no Artificial Intelligence involved.

Find out more about Leigh de Vries HERE
Find out more about Tim Arnold's Super Connected project HERE
Find out more about Richard Norris's Music For Helaing project HERE
 

Sunday 27 June 2021: BREAKING NEWS

Behind the Headlines with BYLINE TIMES founders STEPHEN COLEGRAVE & PETER JUKES
Plus Special Guests:
THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Hosted by Michelle Olley

Free from Fear or Favour - The Story of Byline and Byline Times

Independent news media that cuts through is a rare and precious thing.

Over 90% of the UK’s newspaper market is controlled by just three corporations - News UK (Murdoch), Daily Mail Group and Reach (Daily Mirror). The same three companies are responsible for over 80% of online newsreach. It’s increasingly easy to make a case that the BBC’s ability to compete with news coverage at the highest level has been compromised by a series of budget cuts, partisan top job appointees and now an ominous-sounding review (thanks Martin Bashir).

Despite promises to clean house after the findings of the Leveson Enquiry, press accountability remains hard to come by. Meanwhile, the ruling party with the 80 seat majority is slamming through legislation making it harder to vote and limiting people’s ability to protest. And two US-style right-leaning cable ‘news entertainment’ channels are in the pipeline. We need independent investigative journalism now more than ever.

Into this sorry state of affairs steps Byline - a crowdfunding platform for investigative journalism-turned digital and real world newspaper, free-speech and independent media festival, podcast and online TV channel. Byline have been concentrating their energies on ‘what the papers don’t say’. Because they are funded by their readers, no PR company, advertiser or press baron influences the stories they choose to cover. Which media outlet was referenced in the PPE contracts-for-cronies section of Cummings’ mammoth 7-hour testimony to the commons? Why, Bylines Times, thank you for asking...

We were delighted to be joined by Byline’s co-founders, Stephen Colegrave and Peter Jukes. We chatted about how Byline came into being, what they’re doing now and where things are heading.

Plus, music, film and itnerview with The Private Sector. We’ll just put the band's bio, from author and Nutopia guest John Higgs here. No reason. *cough*

“The Private Sector are as dreadful as a moment of clarity. They are traumatic, but necessary. They are psychologically damaged by expensive schooling and there is no alternative. They are part of the problem and not the solution. They are exactly what you deserve.    
Back when there was a counter-culture, The Private Sector would have been described as agit-pop. They would have been called political, or situationism, or dada. This is why we don’t have a counter-culture anymore; any movement that clueless was never going to last. Fucking amateurs. Eventually you need to get the professionals in. Somebody has to look the reality of the world in the face and frame it so that a sheep-like audience can understand. Somebody has to map the dead-end of western culture or else the tourists will never come. As we know, our current generation of supposed artists and musicians are either incapable, scared or too concerned with career advancement to do the work. When there’s a job that needs to be done, your only option is to outsource it to The Private Sector. Stop reading now.”

Explore the Byline Universe here:
Byline Times
Byline Festival
Byline TV

The Private Sector will see you now - here:
Official Website
YouTube Channel

“Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem. We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.”
Harold Evans
 

Sunday 25 April 2021: ALBION VOICE

The Art and Visionary Genius of William Blake

With special guests:
Author of William Blake Now & William Blake vs The World: JOHN HIGGS
Plus writers and artists:BEN GRAHAM, BISHI, CLAUDIA EGYPT, IKA RASTUS (THE ORIGINAL SYNA)

To celebrate the highly-anticipated forthcoming publication of cognitive historian John Higgs’ new book, William Blake vs The World, we are stepping back through the Doors of Perception and into the world of one of England’s most beloved poets, artists - and fiercest critics.

As John writes in his prelude to the book:
“William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. His life passed without recognition and he worked without reward, mocked, dismissed and misinterpreted. Yet from his ignoble end in a pauper’s grave, Blake now occupies a unique position – an artist that unites and attracts people from all corners of society, and a rare inclusive symbol of English identity.

Blake famously experienced visions, and it is these that shaped his attitude to politics, sex, religion, society and art. Thanks to the work of neuroscientists and psychologists, we are now in a better position to understand what was happening inside that remarkable mind, and gain a deeper appreciation of his brilliance. His timeless work, we will find, has never been more relevant.”

We talk to John about that relevance, plus we are joined by some of ‘Blake’s children’ - 21st century creatives with their own visionary takes on London, Albion and the wilder shores of the imagination…

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” William Blake

Order John's book Willliam Blakes vs The World here
Find Ben Graham's work (and sign up to his newsletter) here
Find Bishi's website here
Find IKa Rastus on vimeo, bandcamp & you tube

Sunday 28 March 2021: RAW Power

An evening in celebration of the life and work of Robert Anton Wilson

+ Book launch for Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger Play by Daisy Eris Campbell, published by Hilaritas Press
 

Special Guests: Rasa from RAW Trust/Hilaritas Press & Daisy Campbell.
PLUS, Special Surprise Guest: co-RAW Trustee & Hilaritas Press Publisher, Bob's daughter Christina Pearson!
Music/readings/performances from the play, including original cast members Oliver Senton, Kate Alderton and Tom Baker
Poetry from Arlen Wilson, read by Kate Alderton

Without Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger Play there probably wouldn’t be any Journey to Nutopia. We began as an event inspired by the talks and performances that were held during its 2017 run, here at The Cockpit. The play itself is coming out in print, so we thought we’d make an evening of it and celebrate the man who inspired us and many, many other seekers - Robert Anton Wilson - or Bob to his pals.

We were delighted to be joined by one of those pals, Meta-programming Director of the RAW Trust and co-publisher of Hilaritas Press: Rasa. Hilaritas are keeping the words and ideas of Bob alive with their luminous new editions of counter-culture classics like Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising, the wondrous Illuminatus Chronicles and many more. (These books, incidentally, have fantastic new covers by graphic artist amoeba - who also created the digital sets for the Cosmic Trigger play). We chat about Bob, books and the RAW mindset in a post-truth world. AND - as a surprise bonus! - we were joined by Bob's daughter Christina - who shared words of wisdom and wonder with us. What a night to remember!

To celebrate the publication of the Cosmic Trigger play, were also spoke with its writer and director, Daisy Eris Campbell. Plus some of the cast members from the original stage productions, including ‘our Bob’, Oliver Senton, and Kate Alderton who played the role of poet and wife to Bob, Arlen Wilson perform key scenes from the play, while Kate blew us away reading Arlen's poetry whilst in character...

Enquire within and witness that lasagna flying!

More info Here:
www.hilaritaspress.com
www.rawtrust.com
www.cosmictriggerplay.com

AUDIOBOOKS of the Cosmic Trigger series, featuring Oliver Senton as the voice of Bob available here

ORDER THE BOOK OF THE PLAY:
www.hilaritaspress.com/portfolio-item/cosmic-trigger-the-play/

"Only the madman is absolutely sure." Robert Anton Wilson

Sunday 28 February 2021: PSYCHOPOMPS & CELEBRANTS - Bringing Death Out of the Shadows

Hosted by Michelle Olley, with guests: Claire Callender Phillips & Ru Callender from The Green Funeral Company & CCCD, with Salena Godden, poet and author of new novel  Mrs Death Misses Death

 Most of us moderns are uneasy talking about death. Yet it is the one absolute fact of life: all things must pass, including us.

 75% of funerals today are conducted by faith leaders, even though only 12% of us regularly attend church/places of worship. For too many of us there’s a disconnect, a growing gap between how we could be earnestly celebrating the lives of our loved ones and the performative stoicism of a bog standard religious or secular funeral.It doesn’t have to be this way. Ru and Claire are part of a new generation of undertakers and celebrants actively engaged in enabling a more truthful, present funeral for anyone seeking something more than a hastily compiled biography read out by a stranger in a dog collar. We spoke with them about the future of death and their work as The Green Funeral Company. We also discussed their intruiging involvement with mumufication, the People’s Pyramid and Toxteth Day of the Dead.

Plus, poet, author and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Salena Godden will be joining us to chat with Ru and Claire and to share some extracts from her incredible new book: Mrs Death Misses Death.

 Read The Guardian review of the book HERE

See Ru & Claire’s TED talk HERE

Sunday 31 January 2021: BOOOM)))> IN DRONE WE TRUST././.

Music for healing, feeling and mind-congealing...

Guests: Matthew Shaw in conversation with Harry Sword (The Quietus)

Live ambient set from Richard Norris with visuals from Bill Borez/Blue Carbon

Hosted by Michelle Olley

The transformative power of Sound is the theme for January’s Nutopia, specifically the kind of music that keys in to our timeless relationship with the repetitive beat. Writer and musician Matthew Shaw will be joining us for a conversation with Harry Sword, Quietus journalist and author of the upcoming paen to drone: Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion, published by Rought Trade Books.

About Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion:
Monolithic Undertow alights a crooked path across musical, religious and subcultural frontiers. It traces the line from ancient traditions to the modern underground, navigating archaeoacoustics, ringing feedback, chest plate sub-bass, avant-garde eccentricity, sound weaponry and fervent spiritualism. From Neolithic beginnings to bawdy medieval troubadours, Sufi mystics to Indian raga masters, cone shattering dubwise bass, Hawkwind's Ladbroke Grove to the outer reaches of Faust and Ash Ra Temple; the hash-fueled fug of The Theatre of Eternal Music to the cough syrup reverse hardcore of Melvins, seedy VHS hinterland of Electric Wizard, ritual amp worship of Earth and Sunn O))) and the many touch points in between, Monolithic Undertow explores the power of the drone - an audio carrier vessel capable of evoking womb like warmth or cavernous dread alike.

Get Harry Sword's Monolithic Undertow book HERE

Matthew Shaw's music, writing and photography here:  https://www.matthewshaw.org

“The earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.”
― Sun Ra 

Watch the full show here:

Sunday 22 November 2020: GOOD VIBES

Shamanism, Reiki and Finding Your Flow with Sushma Sagar 

Music by Richard Norris

For November’s Nutopia, we took a Journey Within, exploring the healing power of chakras, the manifestations of the shaman in modern times and the magic of ‘Flow’... 

We were delighted to be joined by The Calmery clinic founder, Reiki master, shamanic healer and author, Sushma Sagar.

As a change of pace, Sushma started us off with a 20 minute guided meditation, accompanied by music from Richard Norris and followed by a live discussion and Q&A.

You are made of energy. Within your body are 7 important energy centres that look after and influence the health of your body and mind - the chakras.

With this short and simple expert guide, understand how the chakras can influence your everyday life.

Discover how to draw on your energy to invite the good vibes in and heal your energy field to empower yourself every day to achieve your goals.

Order yours HERE

Sign up for The Calmery/Sushma's newsletter HERE
 

More info on the Intergalactic Memorial Carnival HERE
 

 Friday 10 July 2020: SOUL MINING

For our July event, host Michelle Olley was joined by spiritual adept and digital sage, Vinay Gupta.

 Vice Magazine described Vinay in 2015 as ‘The Man Whose Job It Is to Constantly Imagine the Total Collapse of Humanity in Order to Save It’.

 Ultraculture’s Jason Louv described him as ‘Hindu tantric, Bucky Fuller-style engineer and blockchain evangelist’

When the 'rona arrived, it was Mattereum CEO Vinay Gupta’s Twitter threads we hit up first. Not only for a bigger picture reading, but for the baseline, practical, what-to-do-now of the societal breakdown, bog roll wars of the situation.

As we move into the ‘end’ of the UK’s first wave of the corona crisis, with restrictions and financial support receding, how can we build something new without bringing with us the obsolete, self-serving baggage of the 20th century? Or the 18th, for that matter?

Vinay Gupta’s recent essay Cutting Through Spiritual Colonialism is a khanda blade through a ton of that baggage. We will get into the rags and the riches of that essay and suppose around some ways forward that don't suck.

Vinay has never been afraid to grasp the nettle - but he also knows where to find the burdock…

Plus, tending to our wounds and lifting our spirits with Spoken Words of wonder we have Festival 23 co-founder Tim Holmes, AKA poet Buddhist Punk.
 

Friday 5 June 2020: PESSIMISM IS FOR LIGHTWEIGHTS

With the lockdown starting to ease, we are entering a new, liminal phase between the old and the new ‘normal’. Are we ready, to paraphrase Ghandi - to be the change - above and beyond the claps and rainbows?

To discuss where we’re at, how we got here and where we could be going, Nutopia host Michelle Olley was joined by cognitive historian and author, John Higgs and poet and author, Salena Godden.

As well as bringing a fresh perspective to the past/collective memory, John Higgs has a history of exploring possible futures. He’s also the man who coined the phrase Pessimism is for Lightweights. Salena Godden took that phrase and turned it into an inspirational poem, inspiring us, in part, to begin the Nutopian project.

To see more of Salena’s work, check out her latest EP, released earlier this month HERE. All proceeds to NHS Charities supplying PPE and mental health support for key workers.

Thursday 14 May 2020: SHADOWS OF TOMORROW

Many possible futures that were unimaginable in December now lie before us. What comes next? What do we want to keep and what do we want to discard from the ‘old normal’? And how much agency will we have in those shifts?

To discuss some possible outcomes good, bad and unpredictable, Nutopia host Michelle Olley was joined by futurist and cultural strategist Adah Parris and author and LSE Politics and Communication professor Baart Cammaerts.

Conversation + Q&A.Plus, poetry from The Wonderists, featuring Moksha & Tommy Calderbank.

“Chaos” - as the salty Game of Thrones character Little Finger famously said - “is a ladder.”