Velvet Theory

January 17, 2025 • 11:39 PM - January 19, 2025 • 3:23 AM The Dream

In this episode, Ian Douglass gives an artist talk about his Havana Syndrome Theorem painting and Cowllerina series while experiencing emergent symptoms. Later, a pointed toe is dipped, unwelcome guests enter the saloon, a box emits a strange sound and a sermon is delivered for purification (in blood and milk). {Performed live at Ugly Duck, London for 'Violent Bodies' show w/ Femanifesto, February 24, 2024.}

I speak with artist Sophia Loeb about her relationship to nature, painting, meditation, and how they all coalesce in her art practice. Later, she takes us on a guided meditation through the landscape of dream, as it unfolds and ripples.

Salomé Jacques is a writer and curator based in London. We speak about radical feminism, female rage, Charlotte Corday, violence, gender binaries, politeness, artistic agency and curating as a political and poetic practice.

In this episode, I talk to philosopher Asher Arataki about effective altruism, animal ethics, speciesism, pain, evolutionary optimization, empathy, sensory perception, qualia, theories and boundaries of consciousness, and whether or not we are, in fact, dead. 

Nondescript sonic entity (explicit)

Welcome back to Velvet Theory. What follows is a conversation and sounds w/ Kimberley Burrows. Here is an excerpt from her Royal College of Art graduation page: 'Kimberley Burrows is a blind, abstract expressionist artist from Salford, Greater Manchester whose artistic voice has evolved with her sight loss. Her practice marries painting, printmaking and poetry, utilised as a therapy tool to process and explore themes of complex trauma, mental health, disabled identity and grief. Burrows paints sensitively, intuitively and from a position of vulnerability through a blind lens. The creative process is a method of direct communication between her fractured heart and mind. Painting is a powerful cognitive experience capitalising on all of her other senses beyond sight. Burrows uses all parts of her body as a vessel in an immersive and visceral performance, to create evocative visual language and to interrogate muscle memory, spatial awareness and surface quality.' I sat down with Kim towards the end of last year - after many delays and technical issues, please enjoy our conversation and the sounds it summoned. Headphones highly recommended. Instagram: @velvettheory Kimberley Burrows: @kimberleyburrowsart Host: @studiodouglass Sound Mixer: Isabel Derr

With so much drama in this world all the time, with ever-more looming and ominous headlines in the eternal news cycle, the question doth beckon: Apocalypse when? Climate crisis, war, economic disintegration and systemic impossibilities. Apocalypse as an idea that helps us feel a sense of control. Later, a message from our sponsor and primordial bass emerges from a volcanic visit.

In this episode, host Ian Douglass and Dr. Yvette Dzumaga discuss the relationship between technology and medicine, debate digital art, predictions of AI futures, becoming tech-pets, and meditation as technology. Later, fireworks conjure a guided meditationscape. {Headphones recommended}. Instagram: @velvettheory Host: Ian Douglass @studiodouglass Guest: Dr. Yvette Dzumaga @yhouse.in Sound Mixer: Isabel Derr

On a stormy night in London, two friends ask each other ten questions about mirrors, the moon, and the most beautiful thing they've ever seen. Later, dancing becomes bouncing and memories become scripture. Instagram: @velvettheory Host: Ian Douglass @studiodouglass Guest: Jinseon Chon @jinseon_chon Sound Mixer: Isabel Derr @i_d_art

Host Ian Douglass speaks with interdisciplinary artist and jewelry designer Morvarid Alavifard about gold, freedom, the poetry and perils of materiality, jewelry processes and scales of value. Later, we discuss the symbolism of putting pearls into fire, destruction as creation, and the power of her installations of gold leaf rooms and staircases.  Instagram: @ velvettheory Guest: Morvarid Alavifard @mor.alavifard Host: Ian Douglass @studiodouglass Sound Designer and Mixer: Isabel Derr @i_d_art

In this episode, Ian speaks with artist Rosalind Howdle about the eternal back-and-forth of form and content in painting, they talk (a little) s*** about photography, social media, the problematics of depiction and disregard for subject matter, reality and metaphysics, and painting ducks (among other things).  Instagram: @velvettheory Guest: Rosalind Howdle @rosalindhowdle Host: Ian Douglass @studiodouglass Sound Mixer: Isabel Derr @i_d_art

• Welcome to Velvet Theory • In this first episode, host and artist Ian Douglass tries to explain what a velvet theory is and delivers his artist talk 'Towards a Velvet Theory'. Later, a swarm of voices emerge from the SOYBOY painting, the sounds of the jungle at night take over and a lonesome Western wanderer shares some profound cosmic truths. Will he be able to explain his artistic journey before time runs out? {Headphones recommended} Instagram: @velvettheory Host: Ian Douglass @studiodouglass Sound Mixer: Isabel Derr @i_d_art