Main content

Moments of Being

Unlike Virginia Woolf, who saw the minutiae of daily life as 'moments of non-being', Joanna Robertson celebrates the moments that shape, frame and colour our lives.

The minutiae of life have always fascinated Joanna Robertson. Moments like opening the curtains or shutters in the morning, putting the key in the lock when returning home, making dinner, or smelling the cooking of the neighbours. The author Virginia Woolf dismissed everyday repetitive rituals as 'moments of non-being', by contrast to epiphanies of experience or understanding that she saw as 'moments of being'.

Joanna Robertson argues that on the contrary, the deceptively insignificant everyday is actually what our lives are made of. They shape, frame and colour our waking moments. Other writers, like Proust, or painters like Vermeer or van Hooch, appear to agree, and have captured the essence of the everyday in their art.

Written and presented by Joanna Robertson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Penny Murphy
Sound engineer: Nigel Appleton
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Mon 26 Feb 2024 22:45

Broadcasts

  • Mon 20 Jun 2022 22:45
  • Mon 26 Feb 2024 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast