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 abject and disgust. Our researcher Lyndsey Walsh sits down with a researcher scientist Andreas Mershin, whose work focuses on cytoskeletal memory encoding, machine olfaction to bioenergy harvesting, to talk about smells as taboo but also as opening new possibilities for science research of cancer and other illnesses. Our host Necro discovers more about the Leaky Body in an exclusive interview. Expect some fleshy, leaking, smelly and very human sounds to be surrounding us the whole time.

Featuring:

Lyndsey Walsh, American artist, designer, writer, and researcher based in Berlin. Their work explores the instability surrounding the cultural and social aspects of disease, identity, the body, disability, death, human and non-human relationships, and speculative narratives on the future.

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.

Andreas Mershin, research scientist at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. He leads the Label Free Research Group working interdisciplinary between the fields of physics, biology, materials and information sciences.

Lyndsey Walsh as the Leaky Body, a monster who thrives in fumes, sweat, odor, and decay of a human body.

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, Lyndsey WalshProduction, editing, music selection: Ludovica BattistaHosting: James Nola, Lyndsey Walsh

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