In the first installment of our 'Nature' theme, Isabel catches up with friend of the podcast, PhD researcher and filmmaker Viveca Mellegård. She fills us in on how her PhD journey has been progressing, and shares an immersive soundscape of her practice with us.

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Image: Viveca Mellegård

Technecast music: Jennifer Doveton

Soundscape: Viveca Mellegård

Link to Episode 1 'Secrets of the Prize Papers' from the podcast On The Record at the National Archives: https://tnaontherecord.libsyn.com/secrets-of-the-prize-papers-trade-loot-and-letters

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This episode was hosted and produced by Isabel Sykes

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Viveca is a researcher and filmmaker and started her career making science and arts programmes at the BBC. She integrates film and photography as research methods with a particular interest in making the embodied aspects of craftsmanship visible. Viveca is doing a collaborative PhD with Royal Holloway, University of London and the Economic Botany Department at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Her research links Kew’s colonial era collections of Indigofera tinctoria from India to contemporary indigo production and dyeing in West Bengal. Her work aims to communicate the value of the knowledge and skills embedded in the craft of dyeing with natural indigo and to show how embodied practices can cultivate human-plant relationships.

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Technecast is a podcast series showcasing research from across the arts and humanities. It is produced by Adrianna Chmielewska, Felix Clutson, Isabel Sykes, Morag Thomas, Olivia Aarons, Eva Dieteren and Pragya Sharma. Fancy turning your research into a podcast episode? We’d be happy to hear from you at [email protected], on Instagram @technepodcast, or on X @technecast.