What's On Scotland 29 Jan-12 Feb: Manipulate Festival & more

Not to pick favourites, but Manipulate Festival is probably one of my most beloved events on the Scottish arts calendar. Scotland's only festival dedicated to puppetry, physical theatre, and animation, Manipulate has always pushed the bounds of what is possible on stage. This year will be no different, with an entire festival programme that makes the material digital, bringing some of the most unmissable innovations in visual theatre straight to your home.

Performances this year include the Scottish premiere of THE END OF TV by Emmy Award winning company Manual Cinema, whose Frankenstein made huge waves at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, and The Lonely Sailor Weather Report, a timely, experimental examination of navigating the non-human by South African collective Lonely Sailors.

The festival begins today, 29 January and runs until 7 February. Tickets and day passes are available throughout, with shows available to watch live for those much missed festival vibes, or on catch up throughout the run.

Document Film Festival
Online. Until 31 Jan
There are a few days left of Document Film Festival, dedicated to international human rights documentaries. Highlights include the Palestinian letter to a friend in partnership with Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network, and talk with film critic So Meyer on Barbara Hammer's queer classic Nitrate Kisses. Image: Frameline

Them! There! Eyes?
Online. 11 Feb, 1pm
Glasgow arthouse Cryptic are unveiling another in their Sonic Bites series of unique audiovisual pieces. Them! There! Eyes? by artist Sonia Killmann explores the emotional resonance of eye contact and intimacy through interlayering heavily processed samples by Ella Fitzgerald alongside distorted extracts from Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Image: Sonia Killmann.

ADVERTISEMENT | Earwig: Sonic Theatre Podcasts
Tron Theatre, Online. Various dates and times.
The premier season of Earwig presents six new podcasts by Scottish based playwrights. Designed to be listened to on headphones, incorporating text, sound design and music, Earwig seeks to challenge, inspire, envelope and embrace its audience, inviting you deep into the inner world of its characters, placing you, the listener, at the centre of the drama.

The first episode, The Deadlift by Stef Smith, dropped on Wednesday 27 January, with new episodes weekly. The podcasts are free and available to listen to via Buzzsprout.

Design in the Diaspora
V&A Dundee, Online. 7 Feb, 12pm
Part of an Instagram Live series exploring creative output from diasporic communities, this discussion sees V&A Dundee’s Maryam Deeni in conversation with Barrington Reeves, the creative director of Glasgow Too Gallus and organiser behind the Black Scottish Business Fund. Image: Barrington Reeves

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Present Futures
Online. 5-7 Feb
This three-day festival brings together artists whose practice was rooted in virtual and technological mediums long before the pandemic, for a cutting-edge celebration of performance, film, and visual art that speaks with incisive clarity to our present moment. Image: Tristan Jalleh.

There Is Still Something Yet To Discover
Online. 3 Feb
Part of Earwig, a series of theatre podcasts developed by Tron Theatre, There Is Still Something Yet To Discover is scripted by the acclaimed Hannah Lavery and revolves around a walk in the woods, haunted by domesticity, darkness, and the presence of a mythical creature. Image: Hannah Mirsepasi.

Latitudes
RSA: Royal Scottish Academy, Online. Until 17 Mar
A testament to the spirit of Scottish art, Latitudes brings together work by recent Royal Scottish Academy award winners. Highlights include Sara Alonso, whose Padrenuestro explores manifestations of grief, and Blair McLaughlin's interpretation of hopelessness in our modern crisis. Image: Blair McLaughlin.