Culture File: What is it with organs and dictators?

Opera director, Michael Sturminger mediates on pipes and power in Call Me God, his collab with John Malkovich

Culture File: Confetti Falling in the Rain

Colette Cassidy and Nigel Clark on their first set of original soon-to-be-standards written by the pair

Culture File: Live at King John's Castle

Medievalist, Catherine Swift, talks to Culture File about viking limerick, the surnames of old limerick and what we know about the origins and uses of King's John's Castle

Culture File: Manga, it's not just for kids y'know...

Katsushika Hokusai and the 19th century roots of Japanese graphic storytelling

Culture File: The Darkness Is Gaining On Bela Tarr

The world's greatest living filmmaker, Bela Tarr, on film, philosophy and the fading of the light

Culture File: View from the Corner Office

Gazing into the future of the Elbphilharmonie, with the director of Hamburg's new hall, Christoph Lieben-Seutter

Culture File: The Elbphilharmonie Opens

Six years late and ten times over-budget, Hamburg's new concert hall, The Elbphilharmonie, is ready for action

Culture File: St Pauli Street Arts

Hamburg's St Pauli district (crest: the skull and crossbones) sees itself as the heart of alternative Hamburg

Culture File: Choice Prize winners, Rusangano Family

Shannon-based rap trio and Choice Music Prize-winners, Rusangano Family, on soul, the real and the fake

Culture File: Birds of Olympus Fly South

Spud, from Wicklow psychedelic pop band, Birds of Olympus, prepares for a trip to SxSW Festival in Austin, Texas

Culture File: The Palette of Prehistory

At UCC, Maria McNamara has been investigating the evolution of colour in animals through deep time

Culture File: The Biology of Making

A petri dish of international artists and academics interested the natural world meetup at Make 2017

Culture File: In a Leafscape

Painter, Jess Shepherd, leads us into her "botanical dystopia" with the help of sound artist, Hoodlum Priest

Culture File: Culture as a Weapon (Part 2/2)

Nato Thompson on the hijacking of social justice issues by massive brands & his favourite resistance strategies

Culture File: Culture as a Weapon

Nato Thompson on how culture was weaponized to manipulate our feelings about everything from shopping to voting

Culture File: A mezzo-soprano prepares

Tralee-born, Paula Murrihy takes a call in her Manhattan apartment as she prepares for her Met debut on Friday

Culture File: Natural Super Materials

Harnessing the slow power of molluscs to create "bio-concrete" to save Venice and other super material surprises

Culture File: The Rise of the Super Material

Violins made of silk? Living concrete? Touching the future at a show of new materials technologies

Culture File: Vegetarianism: The Story So Far

The deep, deep history of abstaining from meat in Ian McDonald's epic audio history of ethical eating

Culture File: The British Are Coming: The Podcast

Writer-director, Siofra Campbell, has created bingeable podcast about English refugees fleeing Brexit

Culture File: The Deadpan of Resistance

Liam William on where the political vision of capitalist realism meets standup comedy

Culture File: The Return of The Larger

Master brewer and beer judge, Gearóid Cahill, on the promiscuity of the craft beer fan

Culture File: Humans Need Not Apply

Artist, Pedro Lopes on work looking at how human bodies might be of use to our robot overlords

Culture File: On Your Knees In The Burren (Part 2 of 2)

Environmentalist and painter, Gordon D'Arcy on what his Burren images speak about that his science can't

Culture File: On Your Knees In The Burren

Environmentalist-artist, Gordon D'Arcy, on the close-up magic of a unique landscape

Culture File: Feeling and Knowing with Enda Walsh

What is this room? Who is that person? What are we doing here? Enda Walsh on his Abbey debut, Arlington

Culture File: Prof Ted Dinan's Love Bugs

How research in Cork into gut bacteria reveals how your microbes might steer your relationships

Culture File: The Full Body Workout of Preston Reed's Guitar Music

The American-born Scottish-based guitar innovator on explosively expanding the possibilities of his instrument

Culture File: Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Yue Xiaoyong (2/2

Yue Xiaoyong, on a cultural explanation of China's recent appetite for new ways of being in the world

Culture File: Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Ywe Xiaoyong

Ywe Xiaoyong, diplomat, former schoolteacher and farmer, on Irish history and culture seen through a Chinese lens

Culture File: The Year of The Chicken and The Planet

Our chicken-shaped lens on China zooms in on the environment, with help from Prof. Heidi Ningkang Wang-Kaeding

Culture File: Zhou Tian's Multicultural Musical Mosaic

Composer, Zhou Tian's work brings the sound of Chinese instruments, the erhu and zhongruan to the orchestra

Culture File: The Chinese 20th Century of Years of the Chicken (or Rooster)

Historian, Isabella Jackson, on China's 20th century seen through its Years of the Chicken. Or rooster.

Culture File: The Chinese Food Philosophy of Sláint-Chi

How two Chinese foodies join forces to defeat fake food - and promote the best Chinese cooking in Ireland

Culture File: The Other, Other Grand Canal

Conductor Jia-Ming Song prepares for the premier of a suite inspired by the Beijing and Hangzhou Grand Canal

Culture File: Magic as speculative fiction

Portuguese master magician, Luís de Matos on how illusions and even tricks have long helped us to create our futures

Culture File: Magic as speculative fiction

Portuguese master magician, Luís de Matos on how illusions and even tricks have long helped us to create our futures

Culture File: Gaolbreak at Cork City Hall

For her new installation, artist, Angela Fulcher turns the inventory of Guineys and Penneys into sculpture

Culture File: Yang Wang Preston's Mother River

Yang Wang Preston's "deep mapping" photo project shot the Yangtze from the Tibetan plateau down into Shanghai

Culture File: Say 你好 (Nǐ hǎo) to the Chicken

Welcoming the Year of the Chicken (or Rooster, or ?) in Kevin Hui's family business, China Sichuan Restaurant

Culture File Xtra: Hóngbāo?

Got your Hóngbāo ready? Preparing for tonight's @dcnyf with @ChinaSichuanD18 Kevin Hui 6.05pm @RTElyricfm @LyricLorcan

Culture File: The End of Airports

Chris Schaberg finds the hidden texts of air travel in everything from snacks, to wheelie bags to, er, the toilets

Culture File: Waiting at the Gate P1

What does your wheelie bag mean? How about those overhead bins? Dr. Chris Schaberg decodes air travel for a living

Culture File: Troy Town Art Pottery

Aaron Angell welcome us to his ‘radical and psychedelic' ceramics workshop for artists’ in London's East End.

Culture File: Black Pigs of the Dehesa

Meet the lucky pigs of the Sierra de Aracena Biosphere Reserve, in Southern Spain.

Culture File: Pianist, Izumi Kimura and percussionist, Gerry Hemingway's Thought Bubbles

In Galway's remote Inagh Valley, musicians Izumi Kimura and Gerry Hemingway have found a space for improvisation

Culture File: Jaques Brel Is Alive And Well and Living at the Gate

Cathal Synnott, musical director of the legendary Brel musical, explores the power of Brel

Culture File: Cian Nugent's guitar fictions

Dublin guitar explorer, Cian Nugent, on quietly ploughing his own furrow - and composing music for his dog

Culture File: And would madam like earplugs with that?

LA-based Irish photographer Deirdre O Callaghan's new book is a who's who of alive and kick-drumming percussionists

Culture File: Second Moon of Winter

Irish soprano, Kim Sheehan, explores the extreme possibilities of her voice in an experimental electronic jam band