Hebridean Dark Skies Festival podcast

What does a sunset mean to you?

Sunset Reports, screening as part of the 2022 Hebridean Dark Skies Festival's opening night on Friday 11 February, is a 52-minute film in which artist Juliana Capes describes an entire sunset, moment by moment. In episode eight of our podcast, Juliana explains how the film was shaped by her work describing art for visually impaired people, but also by grief, her fascination with colour, and a career making work about brief moments in time. 

Is it possible to explain the mysteries of the Universe using only the 1000 most commonly used words in English? Or Gaelic?

The Edge of the Sky | Oir Nan Speur is a unique new theatre show, adapted from a book in which award-winning science communicator Roberto Trotta tries to explain some of the most complex ideas in astronomy using only the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language. For the stage version, Hebridean theatre director Laura Cameron-Lewis has added another challenge – what if you add the 1000 most commonly used words in Gaelic to that list? 

Episode 7 of our podcast is a fascinating meeting of minds in which Roberto and Laura discuss everything from ancient storytelling traditions and how language shapes the way we think to interstellar travel, aliens, climate change, dark matter, and the end of the Universe.

The Edge of the Sky | Oir Nan Speur is produced by sruth-mara and supported by Creative Scotland and Bord na Gaidhlig.

Catherine Heymans is Scotland's Astronomer Royal and a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh. Joe Zuntz is a Reader in Astrophysics at the University Of Edinburgh. Together they perform a comedy show called The Universe: Does Anything Matter?, which is coming to the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival in 2022. In episode six of our festival podcast they talk to festival director Andrew Eaton-Lewis about the evolution of the show, from an impromptu stand-up night at an astronomy conference to the Edinburgh Fringe. They also discuss dark matter maps, diversity in the astronomy world, and their favourite space jokes.

The Outer Hebrides’ relationship with astronomy, Bethany Rigby says, “embodies humanity’s changing view of our place within the universe”. The designer, researcher and writer, above, is now the creator of Outer Hebrides // Outer Space, a new research project that explores our islands’ astronomical significance, from the Neolithic Age of celestial observation to present day plans for Spaceport 1, the UK’s first vertical satellite launch site. The project began during an Island Going residency in June 2019 and Bethany is set to exhibit her work at An Lanntair later in 2021. She also knows some fascinating facts about shooting stars and Scottish place names on Mars. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. To find out more about the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

An astrophysicist who has lived and worked all over the world, Sheona Urquhart spent much of her childhood in the north of Scotland gazing at the stars, and is as fascinated by myths and legends, from the Hebrides to Hawaii, as she is by Extragalactic Astrophysics, the subject of her PHD from the University of Victoria in Canada. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. To find out more about the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

A musician, composer and sound artist, Renzo Spiteri has performed at festivals across the world, working between England and Malta. He is now based in Shetland, whose landscape inspired his latest project, Stillness, described as “an immersive live performance that takes audiences on a journey through the different textures of darkness and light”. We talk to Renzo about how island life has inspired his work, and whether it has a new resonance since the lockdown. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. Renzo will premiere a brand new sound piece, Under Dark Blue Skies, as part of this year's Hebridean Dark Skies Festival. To find out more about the festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

How come one of the coldest, darkest places in the world has relatively low rates of wintertime depression? Health psychologist Kari Leibowitz spent a year investigating this as a Fulbright Scholar in Tromsø, Norway, which is so far north that it experiences a “Polar Night,” the time from November to January when the sun never rises. Kari has gone on to develop ‘wintertime mindset’ strategies to help people get through the long dark months of winter, and has seen a new surge of interest in her work following the COVID-19 lockdown. As well as looking for a few wintertime mindset tips, we ask Kari what darkness means to her. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. To find out more about the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart has long been fascinated by astronomy. At the 2020 Hebridean Dark Skies Festival she performed The Only Light Was Stars, a ‘work in progress’ version of a new show inspired by supernovas, in front of an audience for the first time. One year on, we catch up with Karine and talk astronomy, art, UFOs, drunken elks, nuclear power, jam cupboards, and staying creative in lockdown – among other things. The episode is hosted by Hebridean Dark Skies Festival programmer Andrew Eaton-Lewis.  The sound was mixed by Hamish Brown. Campfire Conversations is presented in association with The Scotsman. To find out more about the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.