In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview artist Diana Forster. Diana has created some extraordinary conflict art based around her mother's experiences of being forcibly displaced and imprisoned in labour camps in Soviet Russia during  World War 2. Through Diana's work, we explore the way that visual artists can take relatively unknown war stories and create dynamic new ways of giving voice to them, disrupting traditional habits of visualising war in the process. Diana's conflict art is exquisitely beautiful, drawing viewers in with delicate shapes and charming colours, rather than repelling or horrifying us with brutal images. This got us talking about art's ability to open up conversations and to highlight humanity and resilience in narratives of displacement and struggle. 

Among other questions, we asked Diana:

• What kinds of war art have inspired her in the past and what kinds of war art does she try to avoid?
• How does she choose her subject matter, and why does she focus on ordinary people's day-to-day experiences of conflict?
• Why does she make her war art look so beautiful?
• What wider messages about war is she trying to communicate with her art?
• What impact does she think art can have on a community's habits of thinking about war?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please visit https://youtu.be/Rh1iM4zpk9Y. If you would like to see the images discussed in this podcast, you can find bonus material on our project blog.  To follow Diana, and find out more about her upcoming exhibitions, please have a look on her website.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Lady Lucy French, OBE, about Never Such Innocence, a charity she founded in 2014 to give children and young people a voice on conflict. Participants come from all around the globe and they use art, public speaking, poetry and song to share how they feel about war and its impacts. Through workshops, community events and public award ceremonies, Never Such Innocences ensures that these young voices are heard by politicians, policy-makers and Armed Forces personnel, among others; world leaders have even begun to sit up and take notice. We are excited to share what we learnt about Never Such Innocence's mission and how they have been empowering children to change the ways we visualise war and peace. 

Among other questions, we asked:

• Why is it important to give children a voice on conflict?
• How do children in different parts of the world define and understand conflict?
• What aspects of conflict do children and young people tend to highlight? 
• Do they communicate different things in art compared with song, or poetry compared with speech writing?
• What kinds of audience can they reach?
• What can adults learn from children about conflict?

If you would like to see the images or read the full poems discussed in this podcast episode, you can find bonus material on our project blog.  For a version of our podcast with close captions, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85kTUV6BqUU. To get in touch with the Never Such Innocence project or find out more about their past work and upcoming aims, please have a look on their website.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas introduce their colleagues Dr. Laura Mills and Dr. Ken Mavor, who are part of the Visualising War research team at the University of St Andrews. Laura explains what her background in International Relations brings to the project; and Ken discusses what his study of psychology can contribute to our understanding of how war stories work and what they do to us. They swap notes about war stories that have influenced them and talk about their plans to involve artists, film makers, journalists, veterans and peace activists (among many others) in the podcast series.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

Welcome to the Visualising War podcast! In our introductory episode, Dr. Alice König and Dr. Nicolas Wiater explain what their exciting multidisciplinary project is all about. They discuss what we can learn by exploring past and present habits of representing war - and why it is important to examine how war stories work and what they do to us. They talk about their aims for the podcast, the exciting guests they have lined up, and what they hope listeners will get out of it. As they explain, this podcast is for anyone who has ever been moved or horrified or fascinated or excited by a war story and wants to understand why. We hope you enjoy the episode!

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 
 
Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin