The tracks on this album offer an invaluable insight into a wide range of techniques and practices surrounding Creative Writing. Writers as diverse as Alan Ayckbourn, Ian McMillan and Tanika Gupta talk openly about their approaches and attitudes to all aspects of writing from original concept to final drafts and productions. Writing for stage, print, television and radio is discussed in engaging and articulate detail. This material forms part of The Open University course A363 Advanced creat ...
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The cleaning up of the North American Great Lakes is one of the great success stories in pollution control. Modelling gives scientists the tools to forecast outcomes in a complex environment: how will the pollution accumulate? what will happen if pollution is stopped all together? The two video tracks on this album demonstrate how modelling techniques provide a scientific basis for the political decisions that have revived the area. The material forms part of course MSXR209 Mathematical Mode ...
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The legacy of apartheid in South Africa left people in urban townships and rural areas without access to basic communication technology that defines the digital age. Today, the latest mobile phone technology has changed everything. To reach the poorest communities, the government has had to adapt the technology and build new commercial partnerships. The six video tracks in this album introduce the size of the challenge, government policy and initiatives and the businesses that benefit. This ...
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In Ghana, types of cloth and the design of textiles are about more than just fashion. Woven Kente cloth is a great status symbol, marking wealth and, in the past, office - something to be worn on important occasions and by important people. Adinkra is a printed fabric, hand-made and worn mainly for funerals, which are very important celebrations in Ghana. The tracks on this album introduce the Kente weavers and Adinkra workers, show the creative processes behind the textiles they make, and r ...
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Do we use our buildings to declare who we are? How far does our heritage influence our collective identity? This insightful album reveals Ireland's shifting attitudes towards its cultural heritage. In 1922 when it broke free of British rule to become an independent nation state, the Irish nationalists abandoned high-profile buildings like Dublin Castle as it was symbolic of their British oppressors, and it fell into ruin. Yet they proudly restored older sites like Cashel and New Grange, whic ...
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A short introduction to this album.By The Open University
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A short introduction to this album.By The Open University
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A short introduction to this album.By The Open University
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A short introduction to this album.By The Open University
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From equations to models – experts explain water quality modelling and describe types of pollution.By The Open University
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Finding solutions to subtle and complex problems. Exploring how chemicals impact the environment.By The Open University
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A technological revolution inside every home - the dream of a communications literate population is becoming a reality.By The Open University
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Privatising the National Telephone Company leads to commercial partnerships and huge growth in access for townships and rural areas.By The Open University
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Vodacom sells affordable 'airtime', not handsets. Government loans for black businesses is creating new communications entrepreneurs.By The Open University
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Feeding the proceeds back into the community – exploring how Phone Shops add value to people's lives.By The Open University
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Payphones versus phone shops - the rival operator to Vodacom, MTN installs phones in existing places of business.By The Open University
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Making profit and meeting demand - Phone Shop owners do good business, but operators neglect hard to reach rural areas.By The Open University
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Prolific author Tanika Gupta talks about stagecraft, highlighting the importance of voice and comic idiom in her writing.By The Open University
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Playwright Helen Blakeman sees setting as integral to a play’s success and highlights the supporting importance of factors such as structure and voice.By The Open University
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Playwriting master Alan Ayckbourn reveals how he develops and connects ideas for his plays, and the meticulous process of structuring and ‘building’ a script.By The Open University
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Ayckbourn's approach to redrafting and rewriting scripts, and how dramatic ideas and twists emerge.By The Open University
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Alan Ayckbourn's work as a director, and how this informs his writing. The economy of playwriting, and the writer’s awareness of the limitations of the stage.By The Open University
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Drawing on his intimate knowledge of the theatre, Alan Ayckbourn offers an insight into the varius methods of staging, drawing a link between his own work and theatre in the round.By The Open University
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Renowned writer David Edgar discusses his ideas on Aristotle’s unities, linking this to ways of adapting existing works.By The Open University
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Novelist and playwright Jane Rogers talks about the transition of one of her novels, Mr. Wroe’s Virgins, into a four part television series.By The Open University
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Jane Rogers talks about her work as a novelist, and the methods of storytelling and voice she employs. She brings together various forms and approaches, such as the use of cinematic editing techniques, in her novelsBy The Open University
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Jane Rogers talks about her work in terms of viewing herself as a contemporary novelist. She draws links to literary greats, and techniques like 'the unreliable narrator'.By The Open University
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Dorothy Sheridan, director of the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, talks about the archive in terms of a research tool and a repository of unique material.By The Open University
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Author Liz Jensen talks about her novels and how they develop in terms of storyline, plot, character and voice, How she often rejects planning in favour of a more organic approach to her work.By The Open University
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Novelist Liz Jensen talks about narrative viewpoints, and their benefits and shortcomings in terms of storytelling.By The Open University
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Poet and presenter Ian McMillan takes a light-hearted look at the use of repetition in his poems.By The Open University
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Ian McMillan talks about the importance and use of surrealism in his poetry.By The Open University
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Hilary Mantel talks about the importance and influence television and film have had on her development as a writer. The paragraph as the basic building block of fiction, and how this can generate a successful narrative.By The Open University
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Hilary Mantel uses examples and a reading from her own novel Vacant Possession, to examine the use of rhetoric and rhythm, and how they can seed ideas in a reader and build up the relationship between reader and text.By The Open University
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A short history of the tradition of the Kente weavers in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Nana Asante Fremprong, a local businessman and master weaver, describes the method and skills involved in the process and how it's been updated without the loss of traditional valuesBy The Open University
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A look at how weaving in the Ashanti region has changed with the introduction of women to the workforce and how weaving offers a high status and great opportunities to those who are skilled in itBy The Open University
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The origin, meanings and tradition of the patterns of Kente cloth is explained in more detail. The need to create new and saleable designs is also discussedBy The Open University
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The tradition of Adinkra. The making of a printed cloth, mainly used for funerals, following the process of dying and painting the fabricBy The Open University
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The importance of symbols in the tradition of Adinkra and how new symbols are being added to the repertoireBy The Open University
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An overview of the importance of the traditional printing and weaving methods to the local people and how they incorporate new designs into their workBy The Open University
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John Picton goes to the market in Kumasi to look at factory printed cloth to see how it is still influenced by traditional designs. He also looks at the history of the modern printed cloths and how manufacturers try to keep pace with changing societiesBy The Open University
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How Ireland's built heritage is being rapidly reshaped.By The Open University
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How the new government abandoned certain buildings but chose to preserve others after the rebellion and the civil war.By The Open University
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How the Irish free state restored ancient sites to consciously reconnect with a more glorious past.By The Open University
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How nationalists were quick to see the power of cultural symbols for political ends.By The Open University
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The ancient monuments at Cashel provide a sense of a romantic past without oppressors.By The Open University
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Why the big estates symbolised the old regime, and so were burned, stripped and redistributed.By The Open University
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Appreciating the stately home as a monument to Irish craftsmanship and acheivement.By The Open University
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St Mary's church becomes a trendy bar: how Ireland has moved on.By The Open University
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Anne Laurence, a History Professor at Open University, explains the significance of Ireland's built heritage to the reconstruction of its national identity.By The Open University
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