Geoff Norcott on Technology & Innovation

How do we begin to understand how civilians felt in a time of war? We often look to diaries and poetry - but today we look to the surrealist artists that sought to make sense of the most extreme times imaginable. Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar is taken on a specially curated tour of the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Gallery by Iris Vasey - to discover  history's most private thoughts as their society descends into war.  Joining them both is  an expert in the psychological impact of warfare; from the First World War right up to today's drone wars, Dr Beryl Pong.   Objects discussed: Beatrice Viola Fergusson, 'Snapshots' sketchbook, 1938 Keith Vaughan, Echo of the Bombardment, 1942 Julien Trevelyan, Premonitions of the Blitz, 1940 Edward Burra, Blue Baby: Blitz Over Britain, 1941 Chisty, By the Moonlight, 2013 Narrator:  James Taylor. Producer: Matt Hill at Rethink Audio, with support from Eleanor Head, Daniel BenChorin, and the IWM Institute team at Imperial War Museums

How do modern conflicts change the way artists respond to warfare?  In this bonus episode, Edmund Clark discusses his experiences of depicting life for those who are living in controlled environments.  In this wide-ranging conversation with Rebecca Newell, Head of Art at Imperial War Museums, we touch on many of the themes explored over series three, as well as how Clark tries to capture the invisible; how relationships form an integral part of his process, and the stories and artwork that can be created from the seemingly mundane. Narrator:  James Taylor Producer: Matt Hill at Rethink Audio, with support from Eleanor Head, Daniel BenChorin, and the IWM Institute team at Imperial War Museums.   Podcast artwork photo © Oliver Abraham.

Is there anything new in modern propaganda? Comedian Rachel Parris discovers how governments and protesters have always pulled on the public's emotional heartstrings across the 20th and 21st centuries. From shock tactics to satire, art curator Sarah Holdaway guides Rachel on a personalised tour of the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Gallery - accompanied by Dr Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph London and Professor of Photography at University of the Arts London. Content Warning: description of a dead child, with the image visible on certain podcast apps. Objects discussed: H.R.Hopps, Destroy This Mad Brute – Enlist 1917 Don't Falter - Go and Meet the Hun Menace (Australia), 1917 Madrid. The 'Military' Practice of the Rebels. If you tolerate this your children will be next. (c. 1937)  F H K Henrion, Stop Nuclear Suicide, 1963  Charles A Ridley, Germany Calling/Lambeth Walk, 1941  Kennardphillipps (Peter Kennard and Cat Picton-Phillipps), Photo Op (2007) Narrator:  James Taylor. Producer: Matt Hill at Rethink Audio, with support from Eleanor Head, Daniel BenChorin, and the IWM Institute team at Imperial War Museums

What did artists and photographers choose to show us of the horrors of the front line? And how did Governments seek to curb what its citizens could see? Carl Miller (The Kill List) travels from the trenches of France to modern day Iraq, via the paintings and photography on display at the Blavtnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at Imperial War Museum, London. Guiding Carl's journey is Claire Brennard, Art Curator at IWM London, and Professor Ana Carden-Coyne, Director of the Centre for the Cultural History of War in Manchester -  encountering artistic works that have rarely been seen by the public. Objects Discussed: John Singer Sargent, Gassed, 1919  Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, The Doctor, 1916  Stanley Spencer, Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a dressing-station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, 1919  Francis Dodd, An Operation at the Military Hospital, Endell Street, Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, Dr Flora Murray, Dr Winifred Buckley, 1920  Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, Paths of Glory, 1917  William Orpen, Dead Germans in a Trench, 1918  Steve McQueen, Queen and Country, 2008 Narrator:  James Taylor. Producer: Matt Hill at Rethink Audio, with support from Eleanor Head, Daniel BenChorin, and the IWM Institute team at Imperial War Museums  

How did British society react to the sudden increase of women in the workforce during the First World War? Or the thousands of colonial volunteers brought over to fight Nazism?   Susan Wokoma (Chewing Gum, Cheaters) is given a personal guided tour by IWM curator Geoff Spender, as the actor discovers the artists and photographers behind those stories -  encountering censored images of wartime Britain in the process.   They are joined by Dr Diya Gupta,  lecturer in public history at City University of London, as our tour takes us via India and the West Indies, in search of the beginnings of multiculturalism as we know it today.   Objects Discussed: Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Olive Edis, Women's Services in France, 1919 photographs MOI Censored Photographs MOI Colour Photographs John Page, Paul Rotha Productions, West Indies Calling, 1943 Cecil Beaton, Official war photographs of Asia and Africa, 1942–1944   Narrator:  James Taylor. Producer: Matt Hill at Rethink Audio, with support from Eleanor Head, Daniel BenChorin, and the IWM Institute team at Imperial War Museums