Rob Watson's Media Stuff

Ryan and I got together at the recently extended Phoenix Cinema and Digital Arts Centre in Leicester, for a chat about what makes for a meaningful life. Ryan shared his experience of getting a car and being stuck in endless traffic trying to get to work. This was the first time we’ve met in the [...]

In our final podcast of 2022, Ryan and I met for a coffee and chatted about how we are coping during the festive season, what films and books we’ve been watching and reading, and how to show sincerity when attempting to get the Christmas Feeling when buying tat in an out-of-town shopping centre!

It was really nice to have a coffee this morning with Jonathan Taylor and Paul Whitehead, who are based at the University of Leicester’s Centre for New Writing. We chatted about the way that literature has faced the challenge of the consumer society, and what role literature plays in a progressive and democratic society. As [...]

Today I chatted with Dafydd Roberts, about Listen to the Voice of Fire, Dafydd’s music project that encompasses sound art and experimental music performances. Since relocating to West Wales, to pursue a PhD in the alchemical writings of Thomas Vaughan (fl.1650), Dafydd has been active in DIY underground music networks since the early 90s. His [...]

For the first time in ages, Ryan and I met up to chat and discuss what we’ve been up to for the Distraction Therapy podcast. This was the first time we’d met on a Sunday morning, though the coffee was on hand as ever. We spent some time discussing Ryan’s visit to the Thought Bubble [...]

Ryan and I met up on Saturday morning for our regular coffee and chat. Ryan came hot-footed from a bikram yoga session, and was super energised. We chatted about the after-effects of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, and how narrow many of our cultural options have become. It turns out I was a few hours away from [...]

Ryan and I caught up for a coffee again this morning, to find out what films and books we’ve been reading. We chatted about how forms of media can be thought of as emergent, and considered what a metamodern radio station might feel like. Ryan mentioned Arrow Cult Films, the films of Anton Tarkovsky and [...]

What was the heatwave like for you? That was our starting topic in this latest episode of Distraction Therapy. Ryan and I chatted about what insight we gained about climate crisis, and what manifestations of anxiety we might see emerging in films, songs and creative media, that compensate for the need for urgent action? We’ll [...]

The degree to which we need suitable distractions in our lives, is in direct proportion to the level of anxiety that we experience as a result of modern culture, working practices and social expectations. The more media and stuff that we try to cram into our heads, the less we are open to the experience [...]

Ryan Clayton and I met for a coffee, neither of us knowing what we wanted to discuss. It was an experiment in seeing what might emerge! In the end we tried to discuss Kant’s transcendental philosophy, and what it’s implications might be for engaging with metamodern culture? What does a symbolic experience help us to [...]