Exchange Talks and Events

Catherine Lee: Interspecies Collaborations with the Bombyx Mori (domestic silkworm moth)

Chaired by Emily Doolittle

April 20, 6.15pm, Online

Musician, photographer and video and textile artist Catherine Lee, based in Portland Oregon, shares her journey of working with and being inspired by Bombyx Mori moths. Since 2018, Catherine Lee has created music, photography, video and textile art inspired by and in collaboration with Bombyx mori, the domestic silkworm moth. This is work rooted in place, specifically the neighbourhood where she lives. A neighbour first introduced Catherine to the Bombyx mori and gave her some worms to raise. Little could she imagine the journey they would take her on. They have and continue to be a profound source of inspiration in this ongoing, flexible exploration and interaction. Hands-on experience has given Catherine an intimate understanding— as she has seen the incredible transformation that happens during their metamorphosis, the almost alien appearance of the mature moths, and the paradoxical delicacy and toughness of the silk cocoons they produce. Catherine’s presentation will focus on her experiences with the domestic silkworm moths. For instance, what she has learnt through the process of caring for them, and how they have shaped her creative life as an artist. She will also include short video examples of works that she has created in collaboration with these amazing creatures.

About the speaker: Considered a “new breed of instrumental specialist,” (New Music Buff) Catherine Lee offers “immaculate, masterful oboe playing” (The Double Reed) in combination with inspired and discerning musicality across an impressive range of genres and styles. With a Juno Award nomination, Lee’s second solo album, Remote Together (2021 – Redshift), received unanimously positive reviews from an international array of media. Lee is on faculty at Willamette University (Salem, OR) and holds a Doctor of Music in Oboe Performance from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec), and certification from the Deep Listening Institute (New York).

Alex South: Multispecies Sonic Socialities and the Sound of Stranding

April 27, 6.15pm, Online

With cetacean strandings on the rise, Dr Alex South examines these events through acoustemology. Examining whale vocalizations and noise pollution, sounds made by human rescuers, and the works of sound art and music inspired by strandings, suggesting that these might be manifestations of broader multispecies sonic socialities facilitating the communication of interspecies care.

Whale and dolphin strandings are rising globally. The causes are diverse and include underwater noise pollution resulting from human sources such as shipping, military sonar, and seismic surveys. Such anthropogenic sounds can disrupt cetacean acoustic communication, diving behaviours, and navigation. The past decade in Scotland has seen several mass strandings and mass mortality events, leading to headlines around the world and multiple artistic and musical responses.

The mass strandings of pilot whales are often felt to be particularly tragic, as a contributory factor is the strength of the kinship bonds linking their family groups. Sound plays a major part in mediating these social connections, with pilot whales recognized as displaying one of the most complex systems of acoustic communication of all cetaceans.

In his talk, Dr Alex South examines the role of sound in cetacean strandings through the lens of acoustemology, telling “stories of sounding as cohabiting” (Feld 2015). Starting underwater with whale vocalizations and noise pollution, he moves through sounds made by human rescuers at stranding events, and finally to the works of sound art and music inspired by strandings. These are, I suggest, manifestations of broader multispecies sonic socialities that facilitate the communication of interspecies care.

About the Speaker: Alex South is a Glasgow-based musician and researcher inspired by the sounds of the more-than-human world. He creates and performs live music for clarinets and electronics, often in multi-artform collaborations, and teaches at the RCS and the University of St Andrews. Alex’s recent Postdoctoral Fellowship at IASH (University of Edinburgh) examined the role of musicians in interspecies grieving practices, focusing on a participatory artistic memorialization of the 2023 mass stranding of pilot whales in the Outer Hebrides. For his PhD dissertation, Cetacean Citations (RCS/University of St Andrews), Alex integrated practice-led research from the perspectives of ecomusicology and zoömusicology with bioacoustical analysis of the rhythms of humpback whale song.

Alasdair Campbell and Ryan Gleave: Plug Festival Panel Discussion – Composition Now

Chaired by Oliver Searle

May 1, 6.15pm, Fyfe Lecture Theatre

Celebrating 20 years of PLUG Festival, this panel discussion will focus on the importance of festivals for the creation, performance, and sharing of new music. Looking to the future we’ll discuss how to keep supporting the development of new work.

The PLUG festival at RCS has now been running for some 20 years, resulting in the performances of around 1,000 new works by composition students at various stages of their learning, offering a unique learning experience, whilst allowing for ambition and experimentation.

This panel discussion will focus on the importance of festivals for the creation, performance, and sharing of new music, what we have learned from events such as PLUG, and how we might continue to offer a supportive environment to creators, to encourage the sharing and development of new work in the future.

Lucy Allan: A composer walks into a dance studio – creating a new work of electronic music for the RCS Modern Ballet showcase

May 11, 6.15pm, Fyfe Lecture Theatre

Lucy Allan explores her process of composing a new work of original electronic music concurrently with the work of choreographer Daniel Davidson as he choreographs for the Modern Ballet students.

Every year, choreographers collaborate with RCS Modern Ballet students to create new works of dance for the Modern Ballet annual showcase. Typically, the choreographer selects an existing piece of music which is then used during the creation process and final performances. This year, pianist and composer Lucy Allan has collaborated with choreographer Daniel Davidson to subvert this format. Lucy is a Lecturer in Piano for Dance and an accompanist for Modern Ballet at RCS. Using her position as a familiar face in the studio and drawing upon her knowledge of and experience in dance, Lucy has composed a new work of original electronic music concurrently with Daniel’s choreographic creation with Year 3 Modern Ballet students. In this talk, Lucy will share some thoughts on the creative process of composing in the dance studio and of collaborating with artists across other disciplines “in real time”. She will also foreground her experience of taking on a new role in a setting and with colleagues with whom she is already familiar – an experience which has enriched her PhD research.

You can see Daniel Davidson’s Horse, performed by Year 3 Modern Ballet students and featuring original music by Lucy Allan, as part of the RCS Modern Ballet showcase.

About the speaker: Lucy Allan is a Lecturer in Piano for Dance at RCS and a pianist for ballet and contemporary dance in the Conservatoire’s Modern Ballet programme. She is also a composer-producer of electronic music and has collaborated on several Scottish Ballet projects, including their award-winning short film ‘DIVE’. She also releases music under the moniker imo-Lu. Lucy’s PhD research, jointly supervised at RCS and the University of Glasgow, explores how pianists working in ballet navigate what we might call “ballet culture”.

Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé: Mutupo – Circles of Interflow

May 4, 6.15pm, Fyfe Lecture Theatre

Tawona ganyamatopé Sitholé shares his praxis which brings his inherited learning traditions from daré – ritual learning and healing space, into the academic setting to create space for communication and getting along.

The intercultural encounter is fraught. Deeply held sacred languages, gestures, rituals, can create discomfort and even conflict when social/intellectual generosity is not afforded. How can we pay attention to listening as practice in order to enjoy a convivial choreography, which I call intercultural abun-dance? The intercultural work of introducing my ancestors’ wisdom into learning spaces has been several years in development. From the arts collective Seeds of Thought, to the academic work at University of Glasgow, the format of the ‘mutupo circles’ has shaped my praxis as I find ways of inviting others into my own learning traditions from daré – ritual learning and healing space. In daré, participants use spirit names, mutupo, which come in the form of poetic expressions of the self through connections to family, community and the land. After much exploration through workshops in various settings, the form settled into a writing exercise, creating poems to then be spoken and shared. In this facilitated conversation I offer mutupo for trying to break out of the way difficult histories have meant that we may struggle to do the simple work of getting along.

About the speaker: Better known as ganyamatope dzapasi, Tawona ganyamatopé Sitholé’s spirit name inspires him to connect with other people through creativity and the anticipation to learn. His work is inherited from ancestors and modified through his professional education practice. He is a lecturer in Creative Practice Education at University of Glasgow, within the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Education, Languages and the Arts (UNESCO RIELA). He is the co-founder of Seeds of Thought, a non-funded arts group, and continues working in the creative sector as poet, playwright, mbira musician, and facilitator. As he continues to write, teach and perform, mostly he appreciates this work for the many inspiring people it allows him to meet.

Mercy Ojelade: Seeing Yourself in the Play: Whose Role is it Anyway?

May 25, 6.15pm, Fyfe Lecture Theatre

Actor and educator Mercy Ojelade opens up a conversation about the process of staging plays which directly address or ignore identity, exploring the questions that these texts raise and the onus out on directors and actors.

When a play directly addresses or ignores identity, what onus does this put on the actors and director? How does casting and the personal identities of the actors impact the meaning of the play? In this talk Mercy Ojelade draws on her experience as an actor and educator to open up a conversation about the challenges inherent in the subject of identity for the playwright, director and actor.

Using selected examples of plays from the past 20 years Mercy Ojelade explores topical conversations prevalent in the acting community today about the subject of identity and representation.

About the speaker: Mercy is a professional actor and arts education practitioner. A graduate of the University of Bath, the University of Birmingham, and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the interim Associate Head of Acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she is also the EDI Lead for the BA Acting degree programme. Mercy has worked in the performing arts and education for over 20 years nationally and internationally, working on stage and screen. Mercy teaches on the New Work module for BA Acting.

Dr Farah Aboubakr: Palestinian Performing Arts: Hi/stories of Generational Power

June 1, 6.15pm, Fyfe Lecture Theatre

As part of a project Dr Aboubakr has been working on recently, namely Palestinian Transgressive Voices: Cultural Memory and Performative Arts in the Diaspora and Palestine, this talk will discuss the development, or metamorphosis, of collective and national memory within the Palestinian artistic scene in Palestine and the diaspora. Dr Aboubakr attempts to examine the complex relations between orality and musical performance, collective national memory and intergenerational and transgenerational memory, notions of statehood, resistance as opposed to coexistence. With ongoing occupation and most recently genocide, she also looks at transgenerational trauma in Palestinian music and proposes new approaches to the understanding of spaces and ‘sites of memory’ (Nora, 1989) in the making of the Palestinian artistic platform, creating, she argues, a transgressive, multi-fold and multi-situated discourse of time and territory. By reinventing particular modes of pre-Nakba or pre-1948, Palestinian artists under study have created new contested practices of memorial platforms, which question personal and national parameters for understanding Palestinian trauma, struggle, nationhood and survival. This newly activated form of memory is analysed in terms of artistic, recreative, and agentive choices, highlighting a fluid intergenerational space of resilience and historicization in which personal stories have become an active tool for historical documentation.

About the speaker: Farah Aboubakr is a Lecturer in Arabic at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She joined the university in 2013 and, since then, has been involved in teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Arabic language, culture and literature, Middle Eastern Studies, and Translation Studies. Farah Aboubakr has been actively engaged in research across the fields of Palestine Studies, Arabic Literature and Popular Culture, Post-colonial Studies, Memory Studies, and Cultural Studies. Her research has been funded by The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), Palestinian American Research Centre (PARC) and the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL). Her publications include The Folktales of Palestine: Cultural Identity, Memory and the Politics of Storytelling (2019) and, more recently, “Archivalism and Memory Activism: The Nakba (1948) and the Gaza War (2023)” (2025). She has recently completed her CBRL-funded project, Palestinian Transgressive Voices: Cultural Memory and Performative Arts in the Diaspora and Palestine (2023-25). She is currently the co-editor with Luisa Gandolfo of the edited volume Postmemory and Ongoing Trauma in the Levant (forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press).