meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Seriously...

The Prototype

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1885 Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We assume the instruments we know and love today will be around forever. What if they're not? What new forms and ideas could take their place? Hannah Catherine Jones takes you into the world of the prototype, meeting instrument inventors challenging traditions and shifting boundaries.

Sarah Kenchington is an artist and inventor living on a derelict farm in the Campsies, Scotland. Her curiosity for how instruments would sound if they were freed from humans led to a life-long endeavour. Twenty years later and she's still tinkering with her semi-mechanical orchestra, complete with hurdy-gurdy, 100-year old gramophone and ping pong machine.

Savinder Bual is an artist, animator and now instrument-inventor. She's fascinated with the pineapple - a fruit that symbolises Britain's dark colonial history whilst being a fun, popular motif. By spinning the pineapple head, she realised its leaves could pluck strings and make music. That discovery led to her making a complete orchestra of pineapple instruments.

The Mi.Mu gloves were invented by a team of scientists, technologists and e-textile designers. Using your movements to trigger sounds from a computer, they allow the performers the flexibility to move on stage without being connected to a computer. But if the sound isn't coming from the gloves themselves, does this still make them an instrument?

Hannah enlists the expertise of Adam Harper (musicologist, music critic, former church organ player), important grime figurehead Elijah (who runs the record label Butterz), multi-instrumentalist and producer Swindle, and the luthier Bill Bunce.

Hannah Catherine Jones is an artist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, conductor and founder of the Peckham Chamber Orchestra.

Produced by Eliza Lomas.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.

0:05.0

The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.

0:09.0

And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.0

The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.5

The IRA inmates who found a way.

0:14.5

I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path

0:19.5

through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.

0:25.0

The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.

0:28.5

Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:35.0

BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:39.0

Every week on Desert Island Disks,

0:41.0

I have the delicious task of dispatching my guest to a mythical

0:44.6

Desert Island with their choice of eight tracks, a book and a luxury. This week it's documentary

0:50.3

filmmaker Louis Tharu. His music is fabulous, but if you listen you'll also find documentary filmmaker Loey Thureu.

0:53.0

His music is fabulous, but if you listen, you'll also find out how he tried to impress Michael Moore,

0:57.0

why a series of Enit Bliten's books changed his life,

1:00.0

and how he de-stresses in the kitchen.

1:02.0

There's even a bit of wrapping thrown in for good measure. and how he de-stresses in the kitchen.

1:03.0

There's even a bit of wrapping thrown in for good measure.

1:05.0

Don't miss it.

1:06.0

Just subscribe to Desert Island discs on BBC Sounds.

1:10.0

Hi, I'm Riana Dylan.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.