Culture File: Minimalist Movie Sounds

If live performances of music by blockbuster composers such as Williams and Elfman never quite lit your torch, would a night out work where Glass and Nyman are the heroes and minimalism -- and everything after -- the house style? MINIMAL FILM takes place on Friday, 29th Jan, at Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, Dublin, starting at 7.30pm.

Culture File: Hast Seen The Brown Bear?

Chances are, if you haven’t seen multi-nominated movie, The Revenant, and indeed even if you have, you could find yourself perplexed when it comes to sharing your real feelings. Because, once you’ve cooed over Leonardo DiCaprio’s lead performance, and the substantial assistance he gets from co-stars, Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson, and indeed a substantial blanket of bearskin; once you genuflected approvingly at Emmanuel Lubezki photography “all shot in sequence and using natural light” - you might even add, cinéastically; after all that prayer-like murmuring of approval, you might be thrown back on the unspoken thought that no matter how good the Revenant is, it’s not actually that good. Now listen on...

Culture File: Minimalist Soundtracks

If live performances of music by blockbuster composers such as Williams and Elfman never quite lit your torch, Irish composer Natasa Paulberg may have the thing for you, an event at which Glass and Nyman are the heroes and minimalism -- and everything after -- the house style. Sharon Phelan spoke to about her own compositional journey, and her plan to highlight minimalism at the multiplex.

Culture File @FOTE: Gunnar Karl Gíslason's special poo

You have some pretty great advantages if your mission in life as Reykjavik chef is to protect the culinary traditions of Iceland, the foremost of being that you're​ ​in Iceland. But ​the value of your isolation can go down as well as up. When the crisis of 2008 hit iceland, imports were suddenly out of the price range of the new restaurant he was opening - so, Gunnar Karl needed a new plan, as he explained to us backstage at Food on The Edge's Eyre Square base. Chef, Gunnar Karl Gíslason there, at the inaugural food on the edge symposium in Galway. And you can hear more from food on the edge, head to soundcloud.com and search for Culture File Gunnar Karl Gíslason

Culture File: Chloe Dewe Mathews' Shot at Dawn

Private James Crozier. 07:05 / 27.2.1916. Le Domaine des Cordeliers, Mailly-Maillet, Picardie. The title​s​ for Chloe Dewe Mathews photographs of 1st world war execution sites contain only the stark details recorded in the official records. Behind them lie a plethora of stories of young men, shot by their own sides for cowardice or desertion, often after murky courts martial. Mostly what we ​know for certain is what also know about Dewe Mathews's photos, that they were shot at a ​specific location​s​, at dawn. On Wednesday, 27th January, 2016, Prof Alex Danchev of the School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, will give a Lecture at IMMA, Kilmainham titled: Shot at Dawn: Moral Witness.

Culture File: Death Row Memoirs of an Extraterrestrial

Hiberno-American quartet, Decoda, are working with actor, Diarmuid deFaoite, on Death Row Memoirs of an Extraterrestrial, a genre defying composition by American contemporary composer, Mark Neikrug, which gets its Irish premiere at the Music For Galway Winter Festival on 24th January, at the Town Hall Theatre, Dublin.

Culture File: Will St Leger's Bank of Secrets

Street artist, Will St Leger opened a one-day-only "bank" with a plan to allow customers to "lodge" their "secrets" in sealed envelopes, which the artist will burn and then mix with paint. And with the paint, he will create a giant, ephemeral wall text.

Culture File: Dylan Rynhart's Speech Melodies

Dylan Rynhart​'s​ ​​music is rooted in jazz, but ​the composer is also on a mission​ ​to explore the musical ​substance ​in ​everyday speech.

Culture File: Kathy Tynan's Boring Walks

The poetry of wheelie bins and apple cores on a walk through an overlooked Dublin, in the company of painter, Kathy Tynan and Kipper.

Culture File: Julie Merriman

Dublin city​ council's​ vast archive of dr​aw​ings describing every feature of ​the city's built environment,​has provided the inspiration for an exhibition of abstract images, often made with carbon paper or typewriter ribbon, by artist Julie Merryman. ​

Culture File: Stun Hun Shun

Professor Raymond Hickey on fashions in the ever-changing accents of Dublin.

Culture File: Christmas with April

we're getting all healthy as we prepare to break our nativity lent (or advent to you and me) and go mummering and chomping cherry cake with Cork-based, Newfoundlander April Danann

Culture File: Portumas

Dublin-based Portugueser, Rogerio Silva, helps us discover a new world of Christmas cakes and desserts, and taste of drop of the good stuff, Port

Culture File: Rob Newman

In the 1990s, Rob Newman's comedy was called "the new rock 'n' roll" - now, it's more like "the new politics."

Culture File Weekly No 49

This weekly, we have a Christmas selection box of Culture Files which brings us from Heathrow airport in the company of an Irish-African rap crew, on to the chapel in TCD for a reboot of the Christmas concert, to some more remote churches in search of Art and Crafts movement stained glass and finally, deep into the dusty heart of the GPO

Culture File: GPO 1916 CENTENARY

At the GPO, a new museum will be home to, among other things, some fine-press work from Dublin's Stoney Road Press

Culture File: Bluett

Léonie Bluett, of the young Irish new music ensemble, Kirkos, on life as a clarinet playing composer.

Culture File: Nikki

The sinewy saints and gnarly angels of Arts and Crafts stained glass artist, Wilhelmina Geddes

Culture File: Rusangano

Limerick rappers Rusangano Family find an emblem of the journey of immigrants all over the world at "Heathrow"

Culture File Weekly No 48

This weekly historian, Jonathan Bardon, takes us on a jaunt back to the days when a gentleman from the lowlands of Germany (by way of Brook St, London) briefly entered Dublin society, and it's fair to say, made a bit of a splash. Georg Friedrich Handel was the man; his Messiah made the splash.

Culture File: Live with Sasha Sykes

Luke Clancy is live from the Classic Drive Christmas Concert in Studio 1, as he chats to designer, Sasha Sykes, who according to the New York Times makes art "for people who live in the city but dream of the country".

Culture File: Part 4

For Handel, opening The Messiah was unthinkable without the talents of scandalous 18th century It Girl, Mrs Cibber

Culture File: Hallelujah Part 3

Did you know Jonathan Swift did everything in his considerable power to stop the first performance of The Messiah?

Culture File: Hallelujah Part 2

Historian, Jonathan Bardon, says Hallelujah and lets his imagination take him back to Fishamble St, Dublin, 1742.

Culture File: Hallelujah

Jonathan Bardon, on the constellations of events that lead to the world premiere of Handel's Messiah in Dublin

Culture File Weekly No 47

This weekly we visit the white cube of North London graphic design studio Barnbrook, where some graphical disobedience is being planned; we roll up to the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght for a bout of the every-growing sport of Roller Derby and we end up swept along by the wind as featured on a new CD from the DIT Dublin Conservatory of Music

Culture File: Celebrating Music in DIT

Laoise O'Brien's new CD taps the talents of the DIT conservatory of music along with the sound of some cold winds.

Culture File: Brandalism 2 - Ethical Design

"Who wants clients who are scared of people who have opinions?" @Barnbrook on running an ethical design practice.

Culture File: Graphic Design and Brandalism

From #brandalism to the art of Bowie's new album, ?, designer Jonathan Barnbrook blends commerce with activism.

Culture File: Irish Roller Derby

Meet Dashing Trudy Snow, Brewdoll E Lowcock, Maria Von Slapp & the pseudonymous stars of Irish Roller Derby.

Culture File: Trish Deseine on Trifle

Promoting the simple joys of trifle and "home" classics made Antrim-born, Trish Deseine, a culinary hero in France.

Culture File: Wonder.land

Moira Buffini, writer and lyricist on Damon Albarn musical, Wonder.land, on the anxieties of an online world

Culture File: Gilles Peterson on Sun Ra

Gilles Peterson on the life, music and astral voyages of composer and jazz pioneer, Sun Ra.

Culture File: Data Obfuscation 1

Artists, academics and technologist are working to regain a click or two of privacy via data obfuscation.

Culture File: Data Obfuscation 2

Gender fluidity, plus the pioneering work of Helen Nissenbaum, in the second part of our data obfuscation special

Culture File: Hearsay 2015

Audio nerds, radio heads and podcast addicts takeover Kilfinane, Co Limerick, for the Hearsay 2015 audio festival.

Culture File: Tequila

Mexican ambassador, Carlos García de Alba on why you should never slam, skull, or generally rush tequila

Culture File Weekly No 45

This Weekly, we practice, tequila connoisseurship with Mexican ambassador, Carlos García de Alba, attend our first eSports event and discover why computer-based sports are ready to conquer the world; and we meet Prof Christopher Frayling, the pop culture polymath, who's rethinking what we should teach at art schools.

Culture File: Siobhan Davies Dance

Usain Bolt's greatest 10 seconds were the inspiration for the latest work from UK choreographer, Siobhan Davies

Culture File: Frayling Part 2

What should be in an artist's survival pack on leaving art college? Prof Christopher Frayling has some ideas

Culture File: Frayling Part 1

Why craft needs a new vocabulary, according to Prof Christopher Frayling, author of On Craftsmanship

Culture File: League Of Legends

Meet the players, the cosplayers and casters of Ireland's nascent eSports scene. Bring your transcendent sword.

Culture File: Autumn in Italy, Day 5

Marilyn Monroe accidentally invented the most famous myth about white fungus...

Culture File Weekly No 44

This Weekly, we are reporting from Northern Italy, where this year's Milano Expo has stoked a conversation about the future of food, and questions about where our appetites and the food industry's development are taking the world.

Culture File: Autumn in Italy Day 4

Giorgio Cassari on a remarkable rebel who caused a revolution in Italian wine in the 70s

Culture File: Autumn in Italy, Day 3

Ellen Cranitch heads into the heart of multi-national mega-attraction, Expo Milano 2015

Culture File: Autumn in Italy, Day 2

The Piedmontese village that's transforming into a Rudolph Steiner-influenced vegan resort

Culture File: Autumn in Italy - Intro

"Autumn in Italy" begins with the hunt for sustainable food at Milan Expo and "white gold" at Alba Truffle Fair

Culture File: Richard Gorman

Milan-based Irish artist, Richard Gorman, on designing scarves for Hermes and the life of an artist in exile.

Culture File Weekly No 43

This weekly, we visit cemeteries in Oaxaca and Co Cork; then it's out into the lanes of Kinsale in search of shades with colour theorist, Katherine Boucher-Beug; avant ventriloquist, Nina Conti introduces us to her inner voices, and we wonder why playwright and labour activist Eva Gore Booth is so little celebrated