Welcome to “HORROR!”, a podcast by the researchers of the charity University of the Underground’s Horror Programme. This tuition free programme was led by speculative designer Agi Haines from November 2021 to March 2022, as a critical exploration into illicit societal fears and a dive into horror as a complex tool and genre. In every episode of this series we will explore research topics from our projects, with the help of experts, practitioners, artists, and much more. Our host throughout this podcast series will be Necro, our cheeky demonic guide on a nightly journey full of ghosts, shadows, and inexplicable monsters…but no need to worry, as all our guests, human and non-human, have promised to stay in the studio. Be prepared, though: these encounters might easily transport into your homes some uncanny perspectives on our present.

In this episode, Agi Haines gives us some suggestions about natural horror and poisonous apples. Our researcher Bianca Schick brings us a conversation about commodification, extractivisms, the monster of museification, with Santiago Reyes Villaveces, whose work falls between art and environmental humanities and finally our host Necro is joined for an exclusive interview by Glottonius the 2022. Throughout this episode you can also hear some crunchy dreadful music in connection to apples and food.

Featuring:

Bianca Schick, multimedia artist and design researcher. Her work constructs jiggly-wiggly imagery, addressing metaphysical mundanity to trigger brainly embodiment. She works across time-based media, graphic design, performance, and text, to engage in questions of identity, affect, and language.

Agi Haines, speculative designer. Her work is focused on the design of the human body as a malleable object through which she explores how far we can push our living flesh while still being accepted by society.

Santiago Reyes Villaveces, artist whose practice explores the many entanglements of culture, architecture, and politics through interdisciplinary research. He lives and works in Bogotà and Ambalema.

Bianca Schick as Glottonius the 2022, a legendary extractive monster who swallows the world with great pleasure, described by a certain Karl Marx as a vampire who lives only by sucking living labor.

James Nola as Necromantique or Necro, our demonic host who pays homage to 80s cult horror, that will get your bones giggling.

Thank you for listening. We hope that this series will contribute to inspire, to communicate powerful messages, to expose enduring dynamics of the contemporary world and to challenge our understanding of its structures and taboos. If we didn't scare you enough, and you want to know more about our projects, join us for more episodes or visit https://universityoftheunderground.org!

Coordination, proof-listening: Veronika Hanáková, Ludovica BattistaScripting: Veronika Hanáková, Ludovica Battista, Bianca SchickProduction, editing, music selection: Ludovica BattistaHosting: James Nola, Bianca Schick

TRACKLIST:CNN Predicts a Monster Storm - Laurie Anderson & Kronos QuartetApple, apple of my desires - gut++ (Bianca Schick, Alex Foradori, Eric Campanini), sound extract from Techno Apple SuperstarWho Poisoned the Soup - Danshin, Arooj AftabArabidopsis Thaliana - Ilona Jurkonytė, Santiago Reyes Villaveces, excerpt of audiovisual installationIntro - GorillazThe Raw and the Cooked - Jan JelinekApple - Cibo Matto