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NSOTA is a radical experiment in alternative education, away from marketisation 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 September equinox, when dark and light equalize for a brief pause in the turn of the year, a short moment before the long exhale into the next season. The piece is curated and produced by Stephen Shiell and composed using original material from NSOTA scholars and friends.

Scholar contributions:

Stephen Shiell, a field recording at the bus station at LA airport, waiting for a bus to Hollywood, and a chance encounter with a fellow traveller, 2016, on the way to Burning Man festival.

Skye, a selection from work in progress, Notebook

Venetia Allen & Tim Rabjohns (aka shimmerglisten), Embrace the Surrender exploring the sounds of our natural world through ambient song

Rhona Eve Clews, field recording of fruit sellers, late Sunday night, London 

Michael Timmerman, the Introit of a Requiem, based on Fauré and introducing the theme that the harmonic series that grounds all music is a fact of physics. “Extracting” beautiful melodies from a universal phenomenon is a universal thing. The piece carries forward the beauty, balance and optimism placed in the Christ figure and offers a take on a requiem for a future that is unlikely to take place. Special thanks to Nainita Desai and Chris Watson for their track “A Glacier’s Journey, Iceland”, which is sampled here.

Pascal Sleigh and Elspeth Leitch, I hate the landfill, the persistent and carcinogenic chemicals which build up in Canterbury’s Shelford landfill site are re-practiced through speech and improvised piano. A delay effect imitates the way these materials pollute a future which is unlivable, and unlistenable.

Hannah White, Oyster Girl old english folk song depicting a tale of female resistance and retaliation on the streets of 18th century London

Simon McClelland Morris, Autumn is Now Falling, A brief comparison of trust systems, and the expectation that one season follows another as it always has, and always will, even in the time of climate collapse

Rhona Eve Clews, field recording of fruit sellers, late Sunday night, London 

Chris de Sel, South Downs Flat Time Holborn – Glyndebourne – Goodwood – Brent. Hydrophone recordings from deep time ecopoetics workshop with Hugh Dunkerley at the Artworkers Guild

Rhona Eve Clews, found broken intercom, Green lanes, London

Rhona Eve Clews, The body rumbles on (we’re iron filings after all), spoken poem

Rhona Eve Clews, field recordings from The Grange residency, Norfolk

Carol Melo, field recording of hollow monkeys in my morning walk in the tropical forest of La Sierra Nevada, Colombia. 

Breathing Space Collective, Ember, an improvisation dedicated to the element of fire, from the void before sparks to the roaring flames, echoed through organ drones and voice. Performed live at St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, as part of an immersive evening in collaboration with Sun At Night around the theme of 'Fire.' Using a multi-channel speaker system the audience was immersed in a sonic tapestry of voice, percussion, bell and organ, exploring resonance and harmonics.

Carol Melo recorded with ebird. An app that helps to identify bird spices through their song. This special recording shows so many species in one morning in my little house in the tropical forest.

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.