Alan Moore | Batman: The Killing Joke and V For Vendetta creator on Imagination (Part 1)

Few figures make such a seismic impact on their artistic medium that they transform its reputation from childish pulp entertainment to a vital and exhilarating creative form, capable of exploring the great mysteries of metaphysics, science, and the human spirit – but Alan Moore is one. Coming together with sculptor, performance artist, novelist and poet Brian Catling, this conversation will restore your faith in the power of art to transform life.

Brian Catling was born in London in 1948. He is a former Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School, Oxford, and is an acclaimed performance artist and sculptor. His Vorrh trilogy is followed this year by Earwig, which is being filmed by Lucile Hadžihalilovic. On Youtube, Brian has been featured on The Centre for Fiction, SFF180, GOldmark Gallery, PPermaculture Magazine and John Rogers.


Alan Moore, born in Northampton in 1953, is a writer, performer, recording artist, activist and magician. His comic-book work includes Lost Girls (2009) with Melinda Gebbie, From Hell (1991) with Eddie Campbell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (for which he won a Bram Stoker Award in 2000) with Kevin O’Neill. He has worked with director Mitch Jenkins on the Show Pieces cycle of short films and on forthcoming feature film The Show, while his novels include Voice of the Fire (1996) and his epic Jerusalem (2016). He lives in Northampton with his wife and collaborator Melinda Gebbie. On Youtube, Alan has been featured on Wisecrack, AlanMooreVids, Alan Moore Archive, The Top Comics, John Higgs, faberandfaber, Lex Records, Fact Fiend - With Karl Smallwood, Channel 4 News, Crack Magazine, ComicTropes, Nottingham Contemporary, Go! El monitor geek, Matt Draper, AlloCine, Comic Book Girl 19, Cartonist Kayfabe and Rapid Trailer.


Robin Ince is the co-presenter of Radio 4’s multiple award winning The Infinite Monkey Cage. He spent 2019 appearing across the world in the Universal tour with Brian Cox – travelling from LA to Oslo, Wellington to Aberdeen and ending up in Reykjavik after shows at the 02 and Wembley Arena. Robin co-wrote How to Build a Universe (part 1) with Brian Cox and his most recent book is I’m a Joke and So Are You, a book about why we become who we become and how we deal with it. He has spoken at TED and TEDx, has featured on BBC Radio 4 and Richard Herring’s podcasts on topics as far reaching as Creationism and Wonder, to Ricky Gervais and Chaos, and is the founder of The Cosmic Shambles Network.

[joker-shhv]

I could listen to alan moore speak all day

[weeblelehmann]

Imo Alan Moore is the GREATEST living writer

[Burbituate]

At 10mins Alan's talking about, "Is Reality an Illusion? - Professor Donald Hoffman, PhD". its on You T.

[jerraldwest]

A wise man once wrote something to the effect of: we all cobble fantasies for ourselves to function. We live on a mostly inhospitable world, in a mostly uninhabitable universe, yet we think of a warm bed and home cooked meals as normal things.

[S.G.Wallner]

A vaporous line indeed. I like to think that all imaginations are prices and all perceptions are imaginations. If I try to be courageous, I would say that all "memory, " or remembering, is perceptive imagination as well.

[jerryhoran]

Enlightening conversation that has lit up my imagination. Thank you.

[mightyquin]

this was an experience. the interview and hearing these guys let there minds wander a bit had me thinking of some wild stuff. its hard to put into words what these guys are talking about.

[d.owenpowell]

I have a THEORY on IMAGINATION, and the more I ponder this imagined theory, the more that I am convinced it is true.

[d.owenpowell]

It'd be nice to have these guys, as friends that we could converse with freely. How many of their beliefs have been mine as well but afraid to voice my opinions freely.

[aybee]

Orwell didn't provide a warning, he created a blueprint!

Having an imagination is one thing. Being able to make the decision to not share a thought, idea or a scenario is being responsible to everyone outside your construct. Don't forgive those who decide to bring some thoughts into reality just to become wealthy at the detriment to the rest of society.

[bardoface]

Brian isn’t mentioned in the video title?

[weeblelehmann]

The ocean is the source of life, but also of sharks and jellyfish.... Ahahahahaha.

[reallyidrathernot.]

Massimi's Perspectival Realism if anyone wants cutting edge takes on what realist science means.

[timothyhenegar]

Honestly imagination is simply thought, memory, concept, ideas, and one already ripe with emotion, passion, and instinct.

It is the realm of concept and creation. But the stranger point to make of it is, just how real the impossible can become plausible and possible. Where fears run deep and primal, what goes bump in the night, or run in the abyss. That then do we then feel in constructing what may harm us. It goes back to our earliest ancestors, but also to the primal memories of our earliest childhood.

Yet while horrifying, think how plausible it is to both revere it but come to master it. Masters of our own existence and reality.

[jamessorrel]

10:15 physical reality as symbols -- interesting

[Bizarro]

I wonder if the mysticism construct around imagination and creation/writing helps to open up avenues most writers who have a more "realist" approach do not accesss?

[wbabdij]

how to access part two? It is still set on private

[JavierRomero-jntv]

reality is an hallucination controlled by those in power - artaud said something like this, i think

[frankiepips]

Hot water is what I felt I was in when I was being honest, that's when I started editing but I'm only a lryicist not an author (yet).

[tacobrown]

What impact is technology having on imagination especially for young people who are spending so much time on video games and smart phones? Is the imagination realm being hijacked and controlled in order to control us in the physical realm? What impact will AI have on the future of imagination and humanity? Artificial Imagination???