NSOTA is a radical experiment in alternative education, away from marketization and arcane specialism towards co-sensing systems change through creative practice.

This is an ecological transmission of DIY ethics, non-hierarchical structures, radical networks, interconnected sensing through sound, text, voice, spoken word, human and more-than-human collaborative practice, patchwork group thinking, and radio art.

This episode is created for the March equinox, a time where northern and southern hemispheres experience equal amounts of dark and light, night and day, before tipping towards or away from the sun. The piece is curated and produced by Stephen Shiell and composed using original and borrowed material from NSOTA scholars.

Scholar contributions:

Stephen Shiell radio dowsing composition, playing with EVP

Hannah White ‘Equal Breath’, a text score for the equinox

David Lea Harringay Nocturne: An Ultrasound Medley - performed by Common Noctule, Lesser Noctule, Serotine, Daubenton’s Bat, Common Pipistrelle and Soprano Pipistrelle. Recorded in Harringay, London

Chris de Sel Spring Radio from Vauxhall City Farm with India on a train, a collection of recordings from 2014 and 2025

Stephen Shiell composition of bike and dome bells, ringing in the Spring

Sk.ye cut up poem snatched from various texts

Venetia Allen ‘We don’t even know’ an elegy for the world we are losing

Rhona Eve Clews ‘Weirdos in the same ways/ his cobra move’ voice note from Fiona 

Hannah White toning the ‘Equal Breath’ score

Pascal Sleigh Earth to Earth, composed on Lossenham Farm. The kind work of the people there and the resources they so thoughtfully shared enabled this music-making to happen.

This composition is generously played by: Hugh Webb - harp, Melanie Henry - flute, Nick Cooper - cello, Sam Bailey - piano

Rhona Eve Clews climbing the stairs of Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (BOARC), whilst in Liverpool, thinking about the comings and goings of winter and spring

Rhona Eve Clews ‘Bells of Oda Park’ audio recording, Netherlands, recalling birdsong

Naomi ZP Three moments of Kama Muta

Simon McClelland Morris The Church of Matt Johnson, following on from the Neon Valley concept album No Boundary, a sonic response to the idea of the parish boundary, The Church of Matt Johnson speaks instead of freeing the confinement of a boundary (under the guise of a god). Instead offering us the idea of a church to anything and all that captivates our spirit and invigorates the heart.

https://theneonvalley.bandcamp.com/album/post-poetry-blues

Rhona Eve Clews ‘My first ever snog’ voice note from Sarah

Rhona Eve Clews feet descending the stairs, BOARC

Hannah White “Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness” a reading from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s ‘Hospicing Modernity’

Stephen Shiell Tocante drone, powered by light and moisture from my skin

Rhona Eve Clews ‘Latvia melts’, water as it passes through melting icicles and gutters, Riga

Michelle Watson Wonderest Manifesto, written by Moksha Poetess (Michelle Watson)

performed by Moksha Poetess and Tommy Calderbank, music production by Massimo Fiocco

Stephen Shiell field recording of Festival de Santa Maria, Giari di Gesturi, Sardinia

Rhona Eve Clews me recording a natural spring on the borders of Wales

Blanc Sceol recording of ‘Equal Breath’ with harmonicas and parakeets

This radio show is a quarterly reflection of the global network of artists and thinkers gathered through the New School of the Anthropocene’s hybrid learning environment, a seasonal almanac-like montage of creative responses to the interdisciplinary thinking of the school and the discussions, collaborations and systems solutions being nurtured there.

The seasonal transmissions follow the sun-earth movements, each year beginning at the December solstice, moving through March equinox and June solstice and ending with September equinox.