The project Speaking:Writing:Research began as two six-part live radio series titled Paperweight: Explorations in Visual and Material Culture, broadcast weekly on Resonance 104.4FM. The first series was broadcast in September and October 2013; and the second series was broadcast in June and July 2014.

A live discussion show, this radio series brought together artists, designers, architects, curators, historians, theorists, writers and scientists to discuss topics within the field of Visual and Material Culture. The six themes for the first series were Ghosts, Light, Paper, Maker Culture, Mother/Daughter and The Ecological. The six themes for the second series were Collections, Animals, Domesticating the Modernist Body, Mixed Media, The Art School and Plastic.

My work as producer included conceiving of the concept for the show, developing the themes, identifying and booking guests, conducting pre-show interviews and research, drafting scripts and training guests for radio presentation of their work. I was also host of the live shows, introducing themes and topics and interviewing the guests.

The radio series evolved from an occasional newspaper I published and edited called Paperweight. I began this project as I was interested in the question of how academic work in visual and material culture could be communicated to a broad non-specialist audience. As the radio series developed, I also began to make links to how academic work is communicated more broadly, in terms of media theory and in relation to my own research focus on the history and theory of writing.

As a consequence of this radio work, I presented four papers in 2014 and 2015 at academic conferences on the relationship between speaking and writing in the academy, with particular reference to how this relationship is situated within our contemporary media landscape. These papers were ‘Writing Without Bodies: Telegrams from My Grandfather and Other Notes’; ‘Orality and Literacy in the Digital Age: Some Initial Notes’; ‘Speaking/Writing/Research’; and ‘Speaking for The Technical Body’.

The audiences for this project were Resonance 104.4FM’s radio audience of the live shows; and those who listened to shows following their archiving in the station’s digital space. The papers that resulted from this work on the radio series were given at specialist writing and oral history conferences.

The radio show brought together a diverse group of practitioners and specialists, and in sharing their work and material, there was an exchange of ideas and concerns, which furthered the guests’ own work and thinking. It also trained over 25 people in radio presentation.

In delivering the shows, the feedback received was centred on audiences being introduced to new ideas and new practices in an accessible and immediate form, which developed their own thinking into new subject areas. In terms of the academic papers, the audiences were keenly interested in the uncovering of the history of orality that sits unspoken within academic practices, and in how the contemporary media landscape offers scope for academic researchers to critically interrogate the modes of dissemination of research work through experimenting with different media forms.

• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Collections (S2, EP1). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Animals (S2, EP2). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Domesticating the Modernist Body (S2, EP3). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Mixed Media (S2, EP4). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: The Art School (S2, EP5). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. 'Writing Without Bodies: Telegrams from My Grandfather and Other Notes'. In: Making Letters Making Meaning. Institute of Historical Research, University of London, United Kingdom 24 June 2014. [Conference or Workshop Item]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Plastic (S2, EP6). [Broadcast]
• Kristensen, J C. 2015. 'Orality and Literacy in the Digital Age: Some Initial Notes'. In: Radio Now!. London College of Communications, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom 21 March 2015. [Conference or Workshop Item]
• Kristensen, J C. 2015. 'Speaking/Writing/Research'. In: Critical Waves. Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. [Conference or Workshop Item]
• Kristensen, J C. 2015. 'Speaking for The Technical Body'. In: Oral Histories of Science, Technology and Medicine: The Oral History Society Annual Conference. Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom 10-11 July 2015. [Conference or Workshop Item]
• Kristensen, J C. 2014. 'The Tools of Production, Media Myopia and the Legitimacy of Knowledge'. In: Sounds of Design History: Design History Society Teaching and Learning Workshop. Design History Society, United Kingdom 19 September 2014. [Conference or Workshop Item]

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/25349