# squawk studios > ideas production house ## Posts - [Dance of the Leaves](https://www.squawkstudios.com/dance-of-the-leaves-2/): A transcendent visual and sonic event, Dance of the Leaves has been performed to a packed audience in South Gippsland. The production, highlighting the inventive mind of Samara Cunningham, blends local and Melbourne dancers in a compelling spectacle. - [Dance of the Leaves](https://www.squawkstudios.com/dance-of-the-leaves/): A transcendent visual and sonic event, Dance of the Leaves has been performed to a packed audience in South Gippsland. The production, highlighting the inventive mind of Samara Cunningham, blends local and Melbourne-based dancers in a compelling spectacle. - [Melt](https://www.squawkstudios.com/19911-2/): The big production for (it’s no) drama physical performance ensemble for 2024 is Melt—an impressionistic telling of the story of the Lady of the Swamp. This tale—an extant and unsolved true crime mystery—tells of the strange life and unexplained disappearance, in the 1950s, of South Gippsland woman Margaret Clement. - [Melt](https://www.squawkstudios.com/melt/): The big production for (it’s no) drama physical performance ensemble for 2024 is Melt—an impressionistic telling of the story of the Lady of the Swamp. This tale—an extant and unsolved true crime mystery—tells of the strange life and unexplained disappearance, in the 1950s, of South Gippsland woman Margaret Clement. - [Front Foot | Back Beat](https://www.squawkstudios.com/front-foot-back-beat/): Front Foot | Back Beat is a public dance collaboration that brought together a diverse range of people to create a new dance work. The project is the third in a trilogy of dance initiatives, under the guidance of dancer and community artist Samara Cunningham, combining trained and untrained dancers, across a range of ages and abilities. - [Front Foot | Back Beat](https://www.squawkstudios.com/front-foot-back-beat-2/): Front Foot | Back Beat is a public dance collaboration that brought together a diverse range of people to create a new dance work. The project is the third in a trilogy of dance initiatives, under the guidance of dancer and community artist Samara Cunningham, combining trained and untrained dancers, across a range of ages and abilities. - [Wild Woods](https://www.squawkstudios.com/19816-2/): Wild Woods is the major production for 2023 from the much acclaimed (it's no) drama physical performance ensemble. Staged at the Leongatha Memorial Hall, the South Gippsland group mesmerised the audience with a magical journey into a mystical space. - [Wild Woods](https://www.squawkstudios.com/wild-woods/): Wild Woods is the major production for 2023 from the much acclaimed (it's no) drama physical performance ensemble. Staged at the Leongatha Memorial Hall, the South Gippsland group mesmerised the audience with a magical journey into a mystical space. - [Dance Hall](https://www.squawkstudios.com/dance-hall/): Dance Hall is a dance lab experiment, drawing together five professionally trained dancers from South Gippsland in Victoria, each with different backgrounds and histories, to create a new work—a dance sketch—all in the space of six weeks. - [Dance Hall](https://www.squawkstudios.com/dance-hall-2/): Dance Hall is a dance lab experiment, drawing together five professionally trained dancers from South Gippsland in Victoria, each with different backgrounds and histories, to create a new work—a dance sketch—all in the space of six weeks. - [Action Station](https://www.squawkstudios.com/action-station-2/): Action Station is the second in a series of community dance projects, which matched a group of professional artists with a diverse range of community members, of all ages and skill levels, to collectively create an original and distinctive dance work. - [Action Station](https://www.squawkstudios.com/action-station/): Action Station is the second in a series of community dance projects, which matched a group of professional artists with a diverse range of community members, of all ages and skill levels, to collectively create an original and distinctive dance work. - [History In The Making](https://www.squawkstudios.com/history-in-the-makinghow-long-form-journalism-frames-contemporary-histories-building-mosaics-out-of-ruins-fragments-and-ephemera/): This is a PhD reflecting on narrative theories influencing my long-form radio journalism on recent instabilities and disunity in Europe. It also examines how and why long-form journalism equates with the telling of contemporary history. - [Fill The Void](https://www.squawkstudios.com/fill-the-void-2/): On a cool August night 2021, in the midst of rolling COVID-19 lockdowns, a magical thing happened. A small group of performers managed to stage a performance in a small, rural hall. Against a backdrop of pandemic fear and isolation, this was a strange and wonderful thing to occur. - [Fill The Void](https://www.squawkstudios.com/fill-the-void/): On a cool August night 2021, in the midst of rolling COVID-19 lockdowns, a magical thing happened. A small group of performers managed to stage a performance in a small, rural hall. Against a backdrop of pandemic fear and isolation, this was a strange and wonderful thing to occur. - [Walter Benjamin | proto-multimedia journo?](https://www.squawkstudios.com/walter-benjamin-proto-multimedia-journo/): One of the most important intellectual figures of the last century, Benjamin’s writings have given us a critical window onto the psyche of Europe in the early 20th Century. But was he, in fact, our first multi-media journalist? - [Walter Benjamin | proto-multimedia journo?](https://www.squawkstudios.com/walter-benjamin-proto-multimedia-journo-2/): One of the most important intellectual figures of the last century, Benjamin’s writings have given us a critical window onto the psyche of Europe in the early 20th Century. But was he, in fact, our first multi-media journalist? - [The fate of the Common Good](https://www.squawkstudios.com/fate-of-the-common-good/): Do we still believe in the idea of the common good, a concept that seemed ubiquitous through the 20th Century? Renowned philosopher Prof. Hans Sluga, seeks to explain why respect for the role of the Common Good, within Europe and the European Union, is in decline. - [The fate of the Common Good](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-fate-of-the-common-good/): Do we still believe in the idea of the common good, a concept that seemed ubiquitous through the 20th Century? Renowned philosopher Prof. Hans Sluga, seeks to explain why respect for the role of the Common Good, within Europe and the European Union, is in decline. - [Germany: Globally-minded from birth? The pianoforte example](https://www.squawkstudios.com/germany-globally-minded-from-birth-the-pianoforte-example/): Why is Berlin sometimes colloquially referred to as an outer suburb of Melbourne? And is there a link between Germany's amazing success selling of pianos at the Melbourne Exhibitions of 1880/1888, and the present-day openness of Germany to Australian musicians and cultural conversation? - [An end to discord](https://www.squawkstudios.com/an-end-to-discord/): Music is music, right? But through the middle of the 20th Century, our evolving appetite for innovation took us on some pretty weird detours, especially in the world of classical music. So, in the midst of all this, what happened to the familiar tradition of tonal composition? - [An end to discord](https://www.squawkstudios.com/an-end-to-discord-2/): Music is music, right? But through the middle of the 20th Century, our evolving appetite for innovation took us on some pretty weird detours, especially in the world of classical music. So, in the midst of all this, what happened to the familiar tradition of tonal composition? - [Flying Small Planes](https://www.squawkstudios.com/flying-small-planes/): At some point in 2017, in a strange fit of madness, I was convinced of the need to learn to fly planes. - [Flying Virtuosi](https://www.squawkstudios.com/19269-2/): A tiny plane, loads of heart and the finest music in the most remote outback locations. Musician and pilot John Morrison flies world-class violinist Ian Cooper and virtuoso pianist Ambre Hammond around the top end of Australia. - [Crisis & Creativity
—a 4 part radio series](https://www.squawkstudios.com/crisis-creativity-a-4-part-radio-series-2/): The European Union is struggling. Not just because of Brexit, the GFC, and the arrival of millions of refugees, but because Europe as an idea of fairness, democracy and freedom is under attack. However, this radio series finds optimism in creative strategies keeping the heart of the EU beating. - [Crisis & Creativity
—a 4 part radio series](https://www.squawkstudios.com/crisis-creativity-a-4-part-radio-series/): The European Union is struggling. Not just because of Brexit, the GFC, and the arrival of millions of refugees, but because Europe as an idea of fairness, democracy and freedom is under attack. However, this radio series finds optimism in creative strategies keeping the heart of the EU beating. - [Crisis & Creativity
—a 4 part radio series](https://www.squawkstudios.com/crisis-creativity-a-4-part-radio-series-3/): The European Union is struggling. Not just because of Brexit, the GFC, and the arrival of millions of refugees, but because Europe as an idea of fairness, democracy and freedom is under attack. However, this radio series finds optimism in creative strategies keeping the heart of the EU beating. - [Marsha Mehran: An open verdict](https://www.squawkstudios.com/marsha-mehran-an-open-verdict/): I was commissioned to record interviews for a radio documentary, broadcast on Ireland's RTÉ Radio 1 program Documentary On One in 2016. The program looked at the tragic story of the Iranian born writer, Marsha Mehran, who inexplicably in a small cottage on the West Coast of Ireland in 2014, alone and in deep poverty. - [Remember Me ... I am forgetting You](https://www.squawkstudios.com/remember-me-i-am-forgetting-you/) - [Ships That Sail The Air](https://www.squawkstudios.com/ships-that-sail-the-air/): There’s a long tradition, or maybe many long traditions, of ships that sail the sky. They've been turning up in different parts of the world for around 1000 years. Two of these ancient magical vessels are particularly intriguing: the Broighter Boat from Ireland and the Ales Stenar from Sweden. - [Southern Sun, Aegean Light—The poetry of second-generation Greek-Australian poets](https://www.squawkstudios.com/southern-sun-aegean-light-the-poetry-of-second-generation-greek-australian-poets-2/): What does it mean to be a second generation Greek-Australian? How clear is your sense of identity and of belonging? Against the backdrop of Greece's rich history of language and ideas, there's been a great modern tradition of writing from across the Greek diaspora. Southern Sun, Aegean Light is a diverse collection of poems from second generation Greek-Australians. - [Southern Sun, Aegean Light—The poetry of second-generation Greek-Australian poets](https://www.squawkstudios.com/southern-sun-aegean-light-the-poetry-of-second-generation-greek-australian-poets/): What does it mean to be a second generation Greek-Australian? How clear is your sense of identity and of belonging? Against the backdrop of Greece's rich history of language and ideas, there's been a great modern tradition of writing from across the Greek diaspora. - [Requiems for the 21st Century](https://www.squawkstudios.com/requiems-for-the-21st-century/): How do requiems help atheists and heathens to grieve in the 21st Century? Through the 20th Century the form became increasingly abstracted and in a way secularised, to a point where today we have works that are not merely ecumenical—they're universally accessible. - [Requiems for the 21st Century](https://www.squawkstudios.com/requiems-for-the-21st-century-2/): How do requiems help atheists and heathens to grieve in the 21st Century? Through the 20th Century the form became increasingly abstracted and in a way secularised, to a point where today we have works that are not merely ecumenical—they're universally accessible. - [Noel Coward: His talks in Australia](https://www.squawkstudios.com/noel-coward-his-talks-in-australia/): It is 1940 and wherever he goes in Australia, Noel Coward receives rapturous applause. His tour of the great Southern land is tightly packed with luncheons, concerts and fundraisers, and, as he is leaving Sydney, 900 business girls mob him in Market Street. - [Tricky business, this thing called opera](https://www.squawkstudios.com/tricky-business-this-thing-called-opera/): In 1954 Aaron Copland, one of the darlings of 20th Century American music, created an opera that was damned with faint praise. Everything else Copland touched seemed to turn to gold. So was it a bad opera, or was it just bad timing? - [Aaron Copland and The Tender Land](https://www.squawkstudios.com/aaron-copland-and-the-tender-land/): The 1950s turned out to be a tricky time for Aaron Copland, the master of Americana, to create his first major opera. In a period of mass-neuroses typified by Senator McCarthy's Communist witch-hunts, Copland found himself less sure of his standing as a darling of the music world. - [Finding the right words: Australia's failure to embrace multilingualism](https://www.squawkstudios.com/finding-the-right-words-australias-failure-to-embrace-multilingualism/): Language is the key to unlocking culture and, in a shrinking, swirling, multicultural world, multilingualism is a crucial tool. Michael Shirrefs asks why Australia, a country that proudly spruiks its multicultural credentials, is still so monolingual. - [Monolingual in a Multilingual World](https://www.squawkstudios.com/monolingual-in-a-multilingual-world/): a radio feature produced by Michael Shirrefs 360-Documentaries—ABC RN—Sunday 22nd June 2014   Learning foreign languages—it’s not rocket science, surely. No, for most Australians it’s much harder than that. - [Welcome to Swan Hill](https://www.squawkstudios.com/welcome-to-swan-hill/): Why are refugees from Afghanistan and Africa clamouring to settle in the town of Swan Hill in regional Victoria? What is it about this Mallee town, on the edge of the Murray, that is causing it to buck the National trend? - [A place called Morley](https://www.squawkstudios.com/a-place-called-morley/): It's one of the most important institutions for English music in the 20th Century—a place that Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Tippett poured their heart and soul into. The buildings witnessed the creation of some of the best known works of the last century. But it’s almost certain you’ll not know of it, and it’s barely mentioned in the conventional histories of the period. - [Hungary: Democracy Distorted](https://www.squawkstudios.com/hungary-democracy-distorted/): Ultra-nationalism, anti-Semitism, censorship and intimidation of opponents. How has Hungary gone from having one of the most admired legal systems in the world, to becoming the most worrying symbol of democratic decline within Europe? - [Woolf and Wagner](https://www.squawkstudios.com/woolf-and-wagner/): In 1940, Virginia Woolf wrote, 'I think of all my books as music before I write them'. But which music is which book? And why did she come to both love and hate Wagner with such passion? - [Ali Alizadeh](https://www.squawkstudios.com/ali-alizadeh/): Ali Alizadeh was born in Tehran in 1976. He grew up with the love of literature and strong Marxist ideologies of his immediate family, while a Revolution went horribly wrong across wider Iran. Today Ali Alizadeh is a highly respected writer and poet with a voice that is clear and uncompromising. - [Counihan's Cage](https://www.squawkstudios.com/counihans-cage/): The story of Noel Counihan and his role in the ‘free speech’ fights is an important one because it continues to bring into focus our ideas of what constitutes an egalitarian society and what it means to have a ‘fair go’. - [Radio Yak Yak](https://www.squawkstudios.com/radio-yak-yak/): Radio Yak Yak is one element of an international exhibition called Yak Yak, being hosted by the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery in northern Victoria. - [Radio Yak Yak](https://www.squawkstudios.com/radio-yak-yak-2/): Radio Yak Yak is an interactive sound installation ... one element of an international exhibition called Yak Yak, being hosted by the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery in northern Victoria. - [Sonic Structures](https://www.squawkstudios.com/sonic-structures/): Our world is a complex organism, more interrelated than the silos in which we typically place it. One area of research to recognise this is the new discipline of participatory architecture, which explores among other things the relationship between music and buildings. Michael Shirrefs explores the search for harmony in the built environment. - [Archive Fever](https://www.squawkstudios.com/archive-fever/): Australia is leading the world in a new approach to archives. It is challenging traditional archivists to embrace a more multilateral approach, one which suggests many versions of the past. But what does this mean archives are about to become? - [Acoustic Architecture](https://www.squawkstudios.com/acoustic-architecture/): How does music speak to the buildings that house it? Music has always been a conversation with its environment, but from the 15th Century on, the craft became much more deliberate. And acoustic architecture has changed a lot since Dufay and the Gabrielis were composing their choral works for the Basilicas of Italy. - [The Catalpa Escape](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-catalpa-escape/): This is the most successful prison break in Australian history. It was an international rescue effort which finally freed six Irish prisoners from Fremantle Gaol. - [Ishan Khosla—Designs on India](https://www.squawkstudios.com/in-the-field-ishan-khosla/): RN’s Michael Shirrefs is talking to Ishan Khosla who returned to India from the US five years ago and quickly realised that the rapid rise of the Indian Tiger economy was coming at a cost. In the headlong rush to be a big global player, India was at great risk of losing its unique design traditions. - [Remotely Connected: A big rural orbit](https://www.squawkstudios.com/remotely-connected-a-big-rural-orbit/): Rural artists have typically found themselves trying to translate their experiences of living on the land to gate-keeping gallery owners in the major cities. But new informal networks of artists, brought together on the internet, are cutting out the middle man and staging their own shows and happenings. - [Remotely Connected](https://www.squawkstudios.com/remotely-connected/): On the NSW Central Coast lives farmer and artist Neil Berecry-Brown. For him, those two titles describe what he does in equal measure and the roles are interchangeable. However, while living on the land has always meant being relatively isolated, this is starting to change. And for many rural artists around the world, technology has allowed them to find each other and form strong networks. - [The Last Whale](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-last-whale-2/): This is the story of the end of whaling in Australia. It’s also the beginning of Greenpeace International and Australia’s first big direct action environmental campaign. And it's a story of a group of whalers who went from being whale killers to whale lovers. - [Canberra: Green Tights & Camomile Tea](https://www.squawkstudios.com/canberra-green-tights-camomile-tea/): Australia’s Capital is keen to move into a new era as it passes 100 years since its inception. But what does it mean to be a Canberran? For the rest of Australia, Canberra has remained a staple of parody and caricature for its entire, short life, but surprisingly the residents of Canberra aren’t quite as quick to shrug off the old clichés as you might think. - [Gaspard de la Nuit](https://www.squawkstudios.com/gaspard-de-la-nuit/): Why did that very modern 20th Century composer, Maurice Ravel, compose images of spectres, goblins and death? Gaspard de la Nuit is the title of one of the most arresting and spectacularly difficult works ever written for the piano, but the name of this 3-part suite has it’s origins much earlier. - [Faust's Ghost](https://www.squawkstudios.com/fausts-ghost-2/): In 1888, Federici, the singer in Gounod’s Faust playing the part of Mephistopheles died on stage while descending into hell. And his ghost has haunted Melbourne’s Princess Theatre ever since. So, is it foolhardy to make a bargain with the devil, or should Faust go to heaven in the end? Would that relieve the ghost of its anxious haunting? - [Crucial Europe](https://www.squawkstudios.com/crucial-europe/): There’s a problem in Australia, with regard to Europe. It’s not just the media, although we’re certainly among the biggest culprits. The pervasive attitude, in Australia, is that Europe is a history subject. Europe represents the past ... Asia is the future ... we’ve got Europe under control. So, we can tick the European box and move on. - [Crucial Europe](https://www.squawkstudios.com/european-australian-relations-today/): There’s a problem in Australia, with regard to Europe. It’s not just the media, although we’re certainly among the biggest culprits. The pervasive attitude, in Australia, is that Europe is a history subject. Europe represents the past ... Asia is the future ... we’ve got Europe under control. So, we can tick the European box and move on. - [about](https://www.squawkstudios.com/about/): My name is Michael Shirrefs. My life has been a wonderful mix of radio, music, art and people’s stories, placing me in a luxurious space where I can engage with creative ideas and creative people. With nearly three decades experience as a radio program-maker with the ABC, I’ve gained extraordinary freedom in the range and scope of the stories that I can communicate. ABC Radio National is one of the few, rare public spaces in the media world where ideas are still privileged over all else. And in recent years I’ve been able to spread my focus to stories across Australia and […] - [Who is Germany?
—a 3 part radio series](https://www.squawkstudios.com/who-is-germany-3-part-radio-series/): In a world of global ambitions and amorphous regions, Europe has become emblematic of the struggle between the need for collective cooperation and the fear of becoming lost in a vast, culturally homogenous mass. And in the current crisis of confidence about the future of the European ‘project’, one country sits as a symbol of all the tension and all the uncertainty. - [The Urban Vistas of Antonio Sant'Elia](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-urban-vistas-of-antonio-santelia/): Born in 1888 into an industrial age full of machines, the young Antonia Sant’Elia began to articulate the collective obsession with the future through his remarkable sketched designs for the idealised city. - [CJ Dennis, through the eyes of his wife](https://www.squawkstudios.com/cj-dennis-through-the-eyes-of-his-wife/): This week's Hindsight approaches C.J Dennis, that most larrikin of Australian poets, through the eyes of his wife, a tough minded woman whose name was Olive Herron, although Dennis called her Biddy and she wrote under the pen name Margaret. - [Happy New Ears](https://www.squawkstudios.com/happy-new-ears/): This week on Into The Music, in honour of the centenary of John Cage's birth, Lyn Gallacher pays personal tribute to the composer who blew the future of music wide open by changing the way we listen. - [Cosmopolitanism + Culture](https://www.squawkstudios.com/cosmopolitanism-culture/): What role do artists and intellectuals play in the debate over displaced peoples? Cultural theorist Nikos Papastergiadis and artist and performer David Pledger have been trying to figure this out for many years. Both Nikos and David approach the subject of refugees, and our collective response to the ongoing drama, from different sides. But the questions they ask are very similar. - [Why do we have cultural precincts?](https://www.squawkstudios.com/why-do-we-have-cultural-precincts/): It’s been 30 years since one of Australia’s first major post-war cultural buildings, the National Gallery of Victoria, gained a sympathetic neighbour—the Melbourne Concert Hall—which was built in 1982. This pairing of institutions marked the start of what was to become known as Melbourne’s arts precinct. But why do cities love to plonk so many of their large cultural building in one area? - [Histrionics Vol.1](https://www.squawkstudios.com/histrionics-vol-1/): Histrionics is a collection of largely instrumental music pieces, composed by Michael Shirrefs between 2006 and 2012. Much of this work was written as themes, stings or incidental music for radio programs. - [Histrionics Vol.1](https://www.squawkstudios.com/histrionics-for-hairdressers/): Histrionics is a collection of largely instrumental music pieces, composed by Michael Shirrefs between 2006 and 2012. Much of this work was written as themes, stings or incidental music for radio programs. - [Histrionics Vol.2](https://www.squawkstudios.com/histrionics-vol-2/): Histrionics is a collection of largely instrumental music pieces, composed by Michael Shirrefs between 2006 and 2012. Much of this work was written as themes, stings or incidental music for radio programs. - [Histrionics Vol.2](https://www.squawkstudios.com/histrionics-vol-2-2/): Histrionics is a collection of largely instrumental music pieces, composed by Michael Shirrefs between 2006 and 2012. Much of this work was written as themes, stings or incidental music for radio programs. - [Asia+Europe=Australia?](https://www.squawkstudios.com/asiaeuropeaustralia/): In 2010, Australia joined the Asia-Europe Meeting. Australia has strong cultural connections with Europe, but our geographic location puts us in Asia. So were we invited to join the ASEM as part of Asia or Europe? - [Art on a Twig](https://www.squawkstudios.com/art-on-a-twig/): There’s an old tradition in parts of rural Australia of the ‘Twig’ or ‘Twiggy’—suddenly deciding, on a whim, to stop by the side of the road, light a camp-fire with some friends and sit around for a chat, or to play music. Now the idea’s being revived, as a series of artist-in-residence events on farms along the Victorian/NSW border. - [India: Future Traditions](https://www.squawkstudios.com/india-future-traditions/): There’s an idea that’s been percolating for a while in the minds of many people in India. What’s the price of change? Will Indians still recognise their country as it hurtles into a larger arena of influence and economic power? For many Indians, the country's myriad crafts and artistic traditions are the very things that will help India survive the future with its Indian-ness intact. - [Tales of Persia](https://www.squawkstudios.com/tales-of-persia/): Over the past few months, Australia’s been the fortunate beneficiary of an exhibition, driven by some quite original scholarship from local curators, and by the deep knowledge and finest treasures from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. And the result has been a rare glimpse into some of the earliest and most beautiful Persian manuscripts—lush works of art and literature. - [The Pinjarra Massacre](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-pinjarra-massacre/): The story of colonial Australia is as much a story of dispossession as it is of settlement, and dispossession often went hand in hand with terrible brutality. Today we’re looking at a violent incident that occurred in Western Australia 178 years ago, in which 21 Nyoongar people were killed in a raid by mounted troops. - [Learning to be dead](https://www.squawkstudios.com/learning-to-be-dead/): On The Night Aiir, it’s all about beginnings and endings and the idea that in the beginning nothing and nobody has experienced the end. Creation is only possible because of destruction -- and death is a natural part of that eternal cycle. But we can never actually know death ... we can only imagine. - [How To Henry](https://www.squawkstudios.com/how-to-henry/) - [The trials of Milk Wood](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-trials-of-milk-wood/): Under Milk Wood, that much loved classic by Dylan Thomas, came very close to never being written. This program is the tale of a masterpiece that almost wasn’t. - [कुम्हार Potters Recaste](https://www.squawkstudios.com/%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%81%e0%a4%ae%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b9%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%b0-potters-recaste/): An enduring collaboration between Indian and Australian potters is featured on Creative Instinct this week. Michael Shirrefs is on a journey to the outskirts of Delhi, to enter a labyrinthine series of pottery colonies. - [Gautam Bhatia's India](https://www.squawkstudios.com/gautam-bhatias-india/): There is no singular view of a country like India, either from within or from beyond. However, someone like Gautam Bhatia has a better perspective than many, having spent many years abroad, and then returning to his native land. - [Rama Mani: Art in Extremis](https://www.squawkstudios.com/rama-mani-art-in-extremis/): How important is art in times of genocide? Rama Mani, who’s worked in country after country, and across all continents, has seen that art reappears, phoenix-like, after the worst atrocities and inhumanity. Whenever societies are stifled with injustice, and crushed by physical and cultural violence, remarkably the human spirit of creativity refuses to die. - [One Pig : One Matthew Herbert](https://www.squawkstudios.com/one-pig-one-matthew-herbert/): This week the sonic biography of One Pig, from the studio of Matthew Herbert. He’s one of the most prolific composers in the UK, but not in any conventional sense of the word. Because Matthew Herbert has increasingly made his name as the master of music made from the audible world, using 'found sound'. - [Poetry Militant: Walt Whitman and Bernard O'Dowd](https://www.squawkstudios.com/poetry-militant-walt-whitman-and-bernard-odowd/): One of the most treasured objects in the State Library of Victoria is the Whitman Cabinet, a special box, purpose built by the Australian man of letters Bernard O’Dowd to house his personal correspondence with Walt Whitman. Today we take a peek inside that cabinet. - [Antoni Tàpies](https://www.squawkstudios.com/antoni-tapies/): On Creative Instinct this week, a celebration of the work of the late Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, who sadly died on 6 February 2012 at the age of 88, within days of the first broadcast of this feature. This program is therefore a tribute to his passing. - [Out there with MOFO](https://www.squawkstudios.com/out-there-with-mofo/): MONA FOMA is the wild child of arts festivals. It brings a rock festival edge to the arts, and an arts festival sense of play to music. Emerging from the mind of evil genius David Walsh, MONA FOMA (or MOFO) was created to see how far audiences could be pushed. - [The Worlds of Tove Jansson](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-worlds-of-tove-jansson/): How many of you grew up with funny little characters called Moomintrolls? Well, this week on the Artworks Feature we visit Finland and the fantastical world of the Moomins—a world created by one of Finland’s most beloved artists and writers—Tove Jansson. - [Bobbing!](https://www.squawkstudios.com/bobbing/): © 2011, Michael Shirrefs - [Brussels & the Art of the Graphic Novel](https://www.squawkstudios.com/brussels-the-art-of-the-graphic-novel/) - [Danish Children's Theatre](https://www.squawkstudios.com/danish-childrens-theatre/) - [Nancy Keesing: Riding the Elephant](https://www.squawkstudios.com/19432-2/): Meet Nancy Keesing: poet, prose writer, anthologist, reviewer and, among other things, chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council during a revolutionary period of Australian writing. - [The Art of Being Europe
—a 6 part radio series](https://www.squawkstudios.com/the-art-of-being-europe-a-6-part-radio-series/): How robust is European culture? After the economic impact of the GFC, how have the region's creative industries fared? This series checks the health of the cultural canary in the European coal mine. - [S3 S-Bahn Journey—a short video](https://www.squawkstudios.com/s3-s-bahn-journey/): © 2010, Michael Shirrefs - [Paris to Melbourne with an Atlas](https://www.squawkstudios.com/paris-to-melbourne-with-an-atlas/): An exhibition, celebrating the extraordinary gift of books, made by the Government of France to the City of Melbourne in 1880, which was recently rediscovered at the State Library of Victoria. - [Paris to Melbourne with an Atlas](https://www.squawkstudios.com/paris-to-melbourne-with-an-atlas-2/): An exhibition, celebrating the extraordinary gift of books, made by the Government of France to the City of Melbourne in 1880, which was recently rediscovered at the State Library of Victoria. - [President Danilo Türk and the Iconotheca Valvasoriana](https://www.squawkstudios.com/iconotheca-valvasoriana/): In this interview for Artworks, Michael Shirrefs is speaking to the President of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, about his Country’s extraordinary gift of an exceptional set of books to the State Library of Victoria—called the Iconotheca Valvasoriana. - [Adventures with an Atlas](https://www.squawkstudios.com/adventures-with-an-atlas/): A chance encounter with a large volume of maps, behind the scenes of the State Library of Victoria, led to a discovery, twenty years later, of a vast, long forgotten collection of books scattered around the library. All were part of a gift, from France to Australia in 1880. - [Adventures with an Atlas](https://www.squawkstudios.com/adventures-with-an-atlas-2/): A chance encounter with a large volume of maps, behind the scenes of the State Library of Victoria, led to a discovery, twenty years later, of a vast, long forgotten collection of books scattered around the library. All were part of a gift, from France to Australia in 1880. - [Firing The Canon](https://www.squawkstudios.com/firing-the-canon/): Sometimes find myself thinking not just about the books but the connections between the books. Take Australian fiction for instance, what actually is the link between a handful of novels and the national subconscious?   ABC Radio National’s The Book Show is about to broadcast a series of programs called ‘Five Classic Australian Novels’. The novels are Marcus Clarke’s His Natural Life, Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, Patrick White’s The Solid Mandala, Thea Astley’s The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow and Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia. The selection of these five novels was a little bit random. It was based […] - [It Talks](https://www.squawkstudios.com/it-talks/) ## Pages - [Lyn Gallacher - bio](https://www.squawkstudios.com/lyn-gallacher-bio/) - [Lyn Gallacher - about](https://www.squawkstudios.com/about-lyn-gallacher/) - [Michael Shirrefs - home](https://www.squawkstudios.com/michael-shirrefs/) - [Lyn Gallacher - home](https://www.squawkstudios.com/lyn-gallacher/) - [Squawk - where](https://www.squawkstudios.com/squawk-where/) - [Squawk - what](https://www.squawkstudios.com/squawk-what/) - [Squawk Studios - home](https://www.squawkstudios.com/) - [Squawk - who](https://www.squawkstudios.com/squawk-who/) - [Michael Shirrefs - contact](https://www.squawkstudios.com/contact/) - [Squawk links](https://www.squawkstudios.com/links/): 360documentaries—ABC Radio National—abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/ ABC Radio National—abc.net.au/radionational/ ACRE—Australia’s Creative Rural Economy—acreart.wordpress.com/ And so on—Radio feature-maker & writer Lyn Gallacher—lyngallacher.net/ Ariane Pauls—Berlin-based photographer—arianepauls.com/ Creative Instinct—ABC Radio National—abc.net.au/radionational/programs/creativeinstinct/ Crosshatched—crosshatched.multiply.com/ Garry Havrillay—havrillay.com/garry Gelareh Pour—A wonderful Persian musician whose new CD Tanin-e Melbourne is a remarkable collaboration with some of Melbourne’s finest experimental musicians—gelareh.bandcamp.com/ Goethe-Institut—German Culture & Language Orgnisation—www.goethe.de/ Hindsight—ABC Radio National—www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/ The Identity Papers—Squawk Studios—theidentitypapers.com Into The Music—ABC Radio National—www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/intothemusic/ ISFAR—Institute for the Study of French-Australian Relations—www.isfar.org.au/ Not Yet It’s Difficult—Interdisciplinary arts & performance group—www.notyet.com.au/ Poetica—ABC Radio National—www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/ Sandra Bowkett—Australian potter—www.sandrabowkett.com/ Squawk Studios—Michael Shirrefs & Lyn Gallacher—squawkstudios.com - [Michael Shirrefs - bio](https://www.squawkstudios.com/bio/) - [Michael Shirrefs - about](https://www.squawkstudios.com/about/) [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)