Summary
Josie Long presents a series of short documentaries and audio adventures inspired by the work of the Oulipo, a loose collective of writers and mathematicians who use playful constraints in their work to spark new ideas.
The Oulipo's name - Ouvroir de littérature potentielle - roughly translates as 'the workshop of potential literature'. They have produced works such as Georges Perec's La Disparition; A Void in the English translation, in which the letter e never appears; If on a Winter's Night a Traveller..., Italo Calvino's novel which features ten different first chapters of novels; and Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, in which the same story is retold 99 times in a different style.
Our workshop for potential radio features literary reviews, audio games and new stories from Joe Dunthorne, Jon Tjhia, John-Luke Roberts and Ross Sutherland.
As Far As The I Produced by Jon Tjhia
Peanut Butter Featuring Joe Dunthorne
A Void Featuring John-Luke Roberts
The Other Ross Sutherland Featuring Roddy Forsyth and Ross Sutherland An alternate version of this story first appeared on the podcast Imaginary Advice Produced by Ross Sutherland
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in March 2019.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | Hello, I'm Greg Foote, and before your podcast starts, I'd like to tell you about my new |
| 0:13.0 | podcast. It's called The Best Things Since Slice Bread. Have you ever wondered what's fact and |
| 0:18.0 | what's fad when it comes to wonder products, face creams, activated charcoal, |
| 0:23.0 | kombucha, tumouric shots. |
| 0:24.8 | Well, that's what I'm trying to find out with the help of leading scientists and special guests. |
| 0:29.4 | If you want to separate benefits from Buncom, subscribe to the best thing since sliced bread on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.9 | Hello, welcome to the podcast of Shortcuts. |
| 0:40.8 | I'm Jacey Long. |
| 0:41.6 | I trust you well. |
| 0:42.8 | Today's episode is all about the Ulipo, |
| 0:44.8 | who is such an interesting group of creative people, |
| 0:47.6 | who deliberately made their lives more difficult |
| 0:49.6 | just to see if what they would then come up with |
| 0:51.8 | would be more interesting and more unusual. |
| 0:59.1 | This is shortcuts. |
| 1:03.1 | Quick run-ins, factual fictions, radio antics and found sound. |
| 1:10.1 | Today, |
| 1:11.7 | Oolipo. |
| 1:13.5 | I would say that. |
| 1:15.5 | And I felt that, |
| 1:17.6 | I didn't even notice I'm doing it. |
... |
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