Halloween treat: New episodes of Monster Talks out!

Image: The Monster Talks logo (Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger).

Monster Talks is a podcast series that explores the figure of the monster and the concept of the monstrous as important thinking tools for addressing dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and violence. The podcast is produced by The Monster Network in collaboration with Network for Gender Studies at UiS.

All episodes and their transcripts are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.

Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger.

Strange Futures, Unruly Origins: Collectives revolves around community building as well as structures of inclusion and exclusion, or inclusiveness and exclusiveness. We invite a discussion on the politics and ethics as well as aesthetics of communities and collective voices in order to explore the premises but also the limitations of monstrous kinship, family, and community in the now, in the past and in potential futures. One of the questions behind the organising of this panel has been, in times of crisis, be they for example ecological political, medical, or technological, who get to belong and who are marginalised and potentially monsterised. With professor, Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK) and two collectives: Not Lone Wolf Collective and The Monster Network. Hosted by Aino-Kaisa Koistinen from The Monster Network.

You can find a transcription here (pdf, opens in new tab)

Strange Futures, Unruly Origins: Science Fiction

Strange Futures, Unruly Origins: Science Fiction explores the role of the monster in arts and storytelling practices, with a particular focus on how stories of monsters and the monstrous as a methodological perspective and a methodological tool may and also sometimes may not challenge our understanding of the past and open up to unexpected and potentially more promising futures. We ask what are perhaps the limits to the figure of the monster and what are the challenges when working with the monstrous in art and storytelling the idea of futures and the power of speculation. With Regina Kanyu Wang(PhD candidate in Co-Futures, University of Oslo, Norway and writer of speculative fiction), Marietta Radomska (associate prof., Linköpings University, Sweden), Susanne Winterling (Artist and Professor of fine arts), and Sami Ahmad Khan (Co-Futures, University of Oslo, Norway). Hosted by Line Henriksen from The Monster Network.

You can find a transcription here (pdf, opens in new tab)

Monster Talks transcribed – and a Halloween treat!

In the recent years, The Monster Network has taken up measures to make our activities more accessible. We are therefore happy to let you know that all of our Monster Talks podcasts are now transcribed! The transcriptions can be found here.

And that’s not all! As you might now, The Monster Network has a tradition of hosting/publishing a Halloween special, and there might be something special coming your way this Halloween, too. Stay tuned!

New episode of Monster Talks: Halloween Special!

Image: The Monster Talks logo (Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger).

In this Halloween-episode of Monster Talks, we talk about fiction writer Becky Chambers’ novel The Galaxy and the Ground Within (2021) This is a rich novel that brings out questions of colonialism, power and vulnerability through a chance meeting of three travelers from various species on a transport hub in the galaxy. Chambers weaves their different stories through how they listen (or not) to each other, and through how they pay attention to (or not) the small details of everyday life and survival for each one of them.

Dr. Donna McCormack (Strathclyde University, Scotland) and Dr. Ingvil Hellstrand (University of Stavanger, Norway) from the Monster Network excitedly share their thoughts about the novel and what we can learn from its negotiations of normativity, accessibility and power dynamics.

There is a downloadable transcript for the podcast that can be accessed here.

All episodes and their transcripts are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.

Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger.

Monster Talks 9: Digital Horror

Ghosts and monsters thrive in online storytelling – but why? What are the interconnections between digital media and the supernatural? And can you become cursed by listening to a podcast? Join Erika Kvistad and Line Henriksen in a discussion of their shared love of online horror stories. The topics range from creepypasta (digital urban legends), to the annual Jezebel Halloween scary story contest, Twitter horror stories, digital haunted houses, and the history of found footage storytelling as well as cursed literature – digital as well as analogue.

Guest star:

Erika Kvistad is associate professor of English at the University of South-East Norway, and works on sexuality, horror, digital narratives, and the nineteenth century. She is currently writing about digital haunted houses, and her most recent publication, in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (2020), is on haunted spaces in creepypasta and Twitter horror.

Host:

Line Henriksen is postdoctoral researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen and co-founder of the international research and art network The Monster Network. Her research interests include creative methods, hauntology and monster theory, and she is the author of the monograph In the Company of Ghosts – Hauntology, Ethics, Digital Monsters (2016).

(Scroll down for information on the transcript.)

Episode credits:

Stories:

There’s Something on The Stairs by Snarkychu
Untitled story by Melwithoudiner5

Narrated by Line Henriksen.

Sound-art:

PhoneRinging.flac by Acclivity of freesound.org, used under an Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license.
Spooky Ambiance #1 by KRISTIANKULTA, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
doorbell.wav by sjturia, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Quickly Walking Up Stairs by deleted_user_7146007, used under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal License.

Monster Talks podcast series credits:

All episodes and their transcripts are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.

Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger.

The Monster Talks jingle: Narration and violin by Sara Orning. Voiced by Ingvil Hellstrand, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Donna McCormack, Sara Orning and Line Henriksen. Mixed by Line Henriksen. Sound-art:

Broken printer, stalled machine.wav by SpliceSound, used under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal License.
Knock_the_door.wav by Anagar, used under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal License.

Monster Talks 8: Writing With

With whom do we write when we write?

In this episode of Monster Talks, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (University of Jyväskylä) and Line Henriksen (IT University of Copenhagen) talk about the people, thoughts, creatures, objects and events that keep us company when we write, and that make writing possible – or sometimes impossible, even monstrously disturbing. They talk about their own writing companions, a cat and procrastination, and Kaisa Kortekallio (University of Helsinki) shares a story about writing with darkness, Katrine Meldgaard Kjær (IT University of Copenhagen) talks about writing with music, and Nina Lykke (Linköping University) introduces us to a series of writing companions and their stories.

Guest stars:

Katrine Meldgaard Kjær is an assistant professor at ITU. She works with interdisciplinary approaches to studying digital health, and is currently working on a project about medicinal cannabis. She has her PhD from the Department for the study of culture at University of Southern Denmark, and is based in Copenhagen.

Kaisa Kortekallio works on environmental speculations and embodied estrangement at the University of Helsinki. Whether dealing with climate change or winter depression, she prefers strategies of adaptation to those of warfare.

Nina Lykke is Professor Emerita, Dr. Phil. Gender Studies, Linköping University, Sweden, and Adjunct Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark. Author of numerous books, such as Cosmodolphins. Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology, Animals and the Sacred (with Mette Bryld, 2000), Feminist Studies (2010), and Vibrant Death. A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning (forthcoming, 2021).

Music featured in this episode: Ana Bogner: Monsters (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ana_Bogner/Multiple_Proportions/Ana_Bogner_-_Multiple_Proportions_03)

Nuno Adelaide: I’m a Monster (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nuno_Adelaida/none_given_1662/Nuno_Adelaida_04_Im_A_Monster) from the Free Music Archive. The Free Music Archive offers free downloads under Creative Commons and other licenses.

(For the transcript in .pdf, click here.)

All episodes and their transcripts are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.

Artwork by Joanne Teresa Taylor, NettOp, University of Stavanger.

The Monster Talks jingle: Narration and violin by Sara Orning. Voices by Ingvil Hellstrand, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Line Henriksen and Sara Orning. Mixed by Line Henriksen. Sounds by SpliceSound (https://freesound.org/people/SpliceSound/sounds/188187/) and Anagar (https://freesound.org/people/anagar/sounds/267931/), www.freesound.org, Creative Commons 0 License.