Can an archaic bird training manual – published two centuries ago – shed light on a mystery of avian intelligence which puzzles biologists today?

I think it might do – and I’ll be explaining all in a 15-minute talk at Dr Bramwell’s Catalyst Club, Thursday 8 July. Expect some evolutionary biology and live 18th-century music, wrapped up with some Easy Listening and contemporary neuroscience in this evening for the curious.

Hear 8-bit sound artist extraordinaire Paul B Davis, Dave Green and I talking about electronic music, robots and other geekery on Shift Run Stop, a new weekly podcast from Leila Johnston and Roo Reynolds…

Here’s an Edison phonograph recording, freshly made at the London Dorkbot Christmas party, December 2009.

Dorkbot is a meeting for ‘people doing strange things with electricity’ so the phonograph is an odd guest as it records and playback sounds using no electricity at all. As you can see when I lift the lid (see video), this machine is entirely mechanical. You turn up a handle to wind up a spring. This unfurls over several minutes, supplying the Edison with energy. Sound recordings are made using nothing more than a heavy stylus and a horn…

I’ll be getting out the camel hair brush and putting my 1904 Edison Standard Phonograph through its paces at the Catalyst Club, Brighton, 10 December 2009. Hear some commercial wax cylinders from the early 1900s and witness a live recording of a voice from the audience, straight onto a blank cylinder of carnauba wax…

Yep, I did say clog dancing.

This dance piece uses a combination of live, solo clog dancing, video loops and audio which plays at overwhelming levels, revealing a danceform that was directly inspired by the machines of the industrial revolution. With performer Caroline Radcliffe.

Lancashire clog is a deeply unfashionable dance form, often misrepresented as a pastoral dance – a sub-genre of Morris dancing. If you’re put off by the faux nostalgia of the Sunday afternoon clog dancing brigade, see us take Lancashire clog back to its genuine roots, as we evoke the sights and sounds of the industrial cotton machinery that inspired it. I’ll stick my neck out and say Lancashire clog is a pre-electronic forerunner of the industrially-inspired music of Kraftwerk and the noise music of bands such as Coil.

MzTek promotes opportunities for women working in media and computer arts. I’ll be talking about my work and sharing some ideas at their Unplugged session in Leon restaurant, Bankside, 7-9pm, Wednesday 27 May.

This highly unusual, public experiment explored the strange psychological effects of infrasound – sensations that may explain why people feel a sense of awe during cathedral organ recitals or a sense of unease in seemingly haunted sites. Venue: Purcell Room, London, May 2002.