Bureau of Lost Culture

The Underworld


Listen Later

“Ima­gin­a­tion thrives in dark­ness” 

We talk about The Undergound often at the Bureau - not London’s subterranean rail sytem, but the countercultural alternative society of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.


But that is just one of the undergrounds - the underworlds - that are the subject of this episode

Dizzying ossuaries, freakish creatures of the deep sea, astounding colors of agates, lava and crystals,  mind bending organic structures of mycorrhizal fungi, caverns, crevices, burrows,  bunkers, burial chambers, ghistly shipwrecks, religous hellscapes and surrealist dreamscapes, natural and constructed subterranean realms and the imagined and unconscious worlds of dreams and the human psyche.


Image Alchemist Stephen Ellcock came to take us on a deep dive journey down under with his truly astonishing, visually stunning guide book Underworlds, a volume in five sections covering both the real and the imaginary, moving between continents and time periods and disciplines such as philosophy, biology, art history and literature.
 
We talk of how the actual physical world beneath us has fed our fears, visions and imagination – and conversely, provoked us to imagine a mythic, esoteric, mysterious underground - the afterworld of the dead, of the fairies and of the psychogical unconscious.
 
For more on Stephen and his amazing work
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Bureau of Lost CultureBy Stephen Coates

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

19 ratings


More shows like Bureau of Lost Culture

View all
The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

294 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

127 Listeners

Novara Media by Novara Media

Novara Media

167 Listeners

THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST by ADAM BUXTON

THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST

1,126 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

576 Listeners

The Blindboy Podcast by Blindboyboatclub

The Blindboy Podcast

1,764 Listeners

Weird Studies by SpectreVision Radio

Weird Studies

598 Listeners

Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt by Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt

Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt

318 Listeners

Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order by Joy Division / New Order

Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order

352 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,464 Listeners

The Alexei Sayle Podcast by Alexei Sayle and Talal Karkouti

The Alexei Sayle Podcast

40 Listeners

Word In Your Ear by Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Word In Your Ear

64 Listeners

Origin Story by Podmasters

Origin Story

105 Listeners

Scarred for Life by Lock It In Studio

Scarred for Life

11 Listeners

Strong Message Here by BBC Radio 4

Strong Message Here

37 Listeners