Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Life through a Screen

Aoife McMahon and William Hope view the world through glass screens and handheld devices. With poems by Leontia Flynn, John Donne and Amy Lowell.

It is through computer monitors and handheld devices that so much of existence is experienced today. We view the world through screens, living and loving via smartphones and laptops. Contemporary poets and songwriters have been quick to delight in and reflect upon our age of collapsed distances, global connection and moments of beauty caught and shared via a phone camera. 鈥淵our world / is gleaming in my hands鈥 writes Victoria Gatehouse in Phosphorescence.

But the pervasiveness of technology and the increase in 鈥渟creentime鈥 come at a cost, challenging our notions of time, privacy, intimacy and human contact. As a dialogue by poet Leontia Flynn sets out, Ours is the Age of Interruption, or the Age of Participation, depending on how you see it. And, as Shakespeare鈥檚 Portia swipes through a list of suitors, or E.M. Forster鈥檚 Kuno longs for human contact without the aid of 鈥渢he machine鈥, our contemporary ways of dating and communicating and sharing ourselves appear not so new after all.

Aoife McMahon and William Hope are our readers, viewing the world through glass screens and handheld devices, with music from Mozart, Holst and Richard Hawley

Readings:
Leontia Flynn - Malone Hoard
Clint Smith - FaceTime
Imtiaz Dharker - Flight Radar
William Shakespeare - The Merchant Of Venice
Sherman Alexie - The Facebook Sonnet
John Donne - Elegy V: His Picture
Victoria Gatehouse - Phosphorescence
Andrew Marvell - The Gallery
Leontia Flynn - Poems Conceived As Dialogues Between Two Antagonistic Voices, Third Dialogue
Jill McDonoguh - Twelve-Hour Shifts
Debora Greger - The War After The War, I.
D.H. Lawrence - From A College Window
Amy Lowell - Towns in Colour, I. Red Slippers
Amy Lowell - Towns in Colour, V. An Aquarium
Dannie Abse - X-ray
Charles Eisenstein - The EcoSexual Awakening
E.M. Forster - The Machine Stops
J. Krishnamurti - Freedom From The Known

Produced by Phil Smith
A Reduced Listening Production for 大象传媒 Radio 3

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 30 May 2021 17:30

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

    Closed Circuit

    Composer: Suzanne Ciani.
    • FRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy.
    • RVNG Intl..
    • FRKWYS13.
    • 2.
  • English translation of Lux 忙terna

    Read by Aoife McMahon and William Hope

  • Leontia Flynn - Malone Hoard

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • English translation of Lux 忙terna

    Read by Aoife McMahon and William Hope

  • 00:02

    Alister Spence Trio

    Lux

    • Far Flung.
    • Rufus Records.
    • RF105.
    • 9.
  • Clint Smith - FaceTime

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:04

    Four Tet

    Reversing

    • There Is Love In You.
    • Domino.
    • DNO229.
    • 2.
  • Imtiaz Dharker - Flight Radar

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 00:07

    John Dowland

    Come again, sweet love doth now invite

    Performer: David Miller. Performer: Grace Davidson.
    • The First Booke of Songs or Ayres.
    • Signum.
    • SIGCD553.
    • 17.
  • William Shakespeare - The Merchant Of Venice

    Read by Aoife McMahon & William Hope

  • 00:09

    John Dowland

    Come again, sweet love doth now invite

    Performer: Grace Davidson. Performer: David Miller.
    • The First Booke of Songs or Ayres.
    • Signum.
    • SIGCD553.
    • 17.
  • 00:12

    William Walton

    Fa莽ade, I. Fanfare

    Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones. Ensemble: Nash Ensemble.
    • 贵补莽补诲别.
    • Hyperion.
    • CDA67239.
    • 1.
  • Sherman Alexie - The Facebook Sonnet

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:13

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Requiem in D Minor, K. 626: XIV. Lux Aeterna

    Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Orchestra: Concentus Musicus Wien.
    • Mozart: Requiem.
    • Warner.
    • CDATA.
    • 14.
  • 00:15

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Romeo and Juliet Suite No 1, Op. 64bis - 5: Masks

    Conductor: Yuri Temirkanov. Orchestra: St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Suites from Cinderella & Romeo and Juliet.
    • Signum.
    • SIGCD214.
    • 15.
  • Seneca - On the shortness of life (trans. C.D.N Costa)

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • John Donne - Elegy V: His Picture

    Read by William Hope

  • Victoria Gatehouse - Phosphorescence

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 00:22

    Benny Davis

    Oh, How I Miss You Tonight

    Performer: Perry Como. Ensemble: The Satisfiers. Orchestra: Russ Case And His Orchestra.
    • Dream Along With Me.
    • RCA Camden.
    • CAL 403.
    • 5.
  • Andrew Marvell - The Gallery

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:24

    Kae Tempest

    Pictures On A Screen

    • Let Them Eat Chaos.
    • Caroline International 鈥.
    • CHAOS23.
    • 1.
  • 00:27

    George Frideric Handel

    Il pastor fido, Overture HWVa: III. Allegro

    Conductor: Trevor Pinnock. Ensemble: The English Concert.
    • Water Music - Overture "Il Pastor Fido".
    • Archiv Produktion.
    • 471 723-2.
    • 22.
  • Leontia Flynn - Poems Conceived As Dialogues Between Two Antagonistic Voices, Third Dialogue

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:28

    Isambard Khroustaliov

    Eb-Ub-Ob-Aa

    • This Is My Private Beach, This Is My Jetsam.
    • Not Applicable.
    • none.
    • 3.
  • Leontia Flynn - Poems Conceived As Dialogues Between Two Antagonistic Voices, Third Dialogue

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 00:29

    George Frideric Handel

    Il pastor fido, Overture HWVa: III. Allegro

    Conductor: Trevor Pinnock. Ensemble: The English Concert.
    • Water Music - Overture "Il Pastor Fido".
    • Archiv Produktion 鈥.
    • 471 723-2.
    • 22.
  • Leontia Flynn - Poems Conceived As Dialogues Between Two Antagonistic Voices, Third Dialogue

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:29

    J眉rg Frey

    Circular Music #7

    Ensemble: University Of South Carolina Experimental Music Workshop Ensemble.
    • Ephemeral Constructions.
    • Edition Wandelweiser Records.
    • EWR 1709.
    • 2.
  • Leontia Flynn - Poems Conceived As Dialogues Between Two Antagonistic Voices, Third Dialogue

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • Jill McDonoguh - Twelve-Hour Shifts

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:34

    Gustav Holst

    The Planets, Op.32 : 1. Mars, the Bringer of War

    Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • The Planets.
    • LPO.
    • LPO-0047.
    • 1.
  • Debora Greger - The War After The War, I.

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 00:37

    Gil Scott鈥怘eron

    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

    • The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
    • RCA.
    • NL 86994.
    • 1.
  • D.H. Lawrence - From A College Window

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:41

    Nico Muhly

    Two Boys, Act I, Scene 4: Chorus: U there? / Who is this?

    Conductor: David Robertson. Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra.
    • Two Boys.
    • Nonesuch.
    • 541941.
    • 04.
  • 00:46

    Father John Misty

    True Affection

    • I Love You, Honeybear.
    • Bella Union.
    • BELLA476V.
    • 3.
  • Amy Lowell - Towns in Colour, I. Red Slippers

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 00:50

    Patti Page

    The Doggie In The Window?

    • The Doggie In The Window / My Jealous Eyes.
    • Mercury 鈥.
    • 70070-X45.
    • 1.
  • Amy Lowell - Towns in Colour, V. An Aquarium

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns

    The Aquarium

    Conductor: Louis Fr茅maux. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Brenda Lucas. Performer: John Ogdon.
    • The Carnival Of The Animals.
    • His Master鈥檚 Voice.
    • ASD 2753.
    • 7.
  • Dannie Abse - X-ray

    Read by William Hope

  • 00:56

    Alec Roth

    Part II: Contemplation Of The Earth Seen From Space

    Conductor: Jeffrey Skidmore. Ensemble: Ex Cathedra.
    • Earthrise.
    • Signum.
    • SIGCD270.
    • 21.
  • Charles Eisenstein - The EcoSexual Awakening

    Read by William Hope

  • 01:02

    Rued Langgaard

    I. Like sunbeams on a coffin decorated with sweet smelling flowers

    Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard. Orchestra: Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
    • Music of the Spheres.
    • Dacapo Records.
    • 6220535.
    • 1.
  • E.M. Forster - The Machine Stops

    Read by William Hope

  • 01:07

    Richard Hawley

    The World Looks Down

    • Hollow Meadows.
    • Parlophone.
    • 0825646056460.
    • 2.
  • J. Krishnamurti - Freedom From The Known

    Read by Aoife McMahon

  • 01:11

    The Beatles

    I'm Looking Through You

    • Rubber Soul.
    • Apple Records (2009 Stereo Remaster).
    • 0946 3 82418 2 9.
    • 10.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 1 Sep 2019 18:15
  • Sun 30 May 2021 17:30

Featured in...

The hidden history of plant-based diets

The hidden history of plant-based diets

Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.

Books website

Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.