May and June at the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
All events free and open to all: Birkbeck, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD
Wednesday 1 May 2013
6:00-7:30 room 112
Reading Group
We discuss Geoffrey Batchen, 'Identity' and 'Method', the first and last chapters in his Burning with Desire (MIT first published 1997), pages 2-21 and 174-203 in the 1999 edition.
Wednesday 8 May 2013
6:00-7:30 Keynes Library
Workshop
Contemplating Photographs in Rauschenberg’s Work
Professor Graham Smith (University of St Andrews)
In this work-in-progress workshop we are going to read and discuss Professor Smith's latest paper, a close reading of some of the photographs used by Rauschenberg in his work, exploring their aesthetic and semantic significance in relation to their source, the pages of illustrated magazines hoarded in the studio by the artists, as well as their fragmentation, overpainting and juxtaposition in his 'combines'. Professor Smith is unfortunately unable to attend due to health reasons. He has however kindly sent his paper and images, which we are going to consider in his absence.
Thursday 9 May 2013
6:00-7:30 Keynes Library
Seminar
The Making of a Cloud Observer: Swedish Meteorologist Hugo Hildebrandsson's Photography and the 19th Century Cloud Atlas
Magnus Bremmer, Stockholm University
In this paper, Bremmer explores how photography came to play a key role in the project of educating an international network of cloud observers in the nineteenth century. First considered an aid to the observation and classification of clouds, the photographic image turned into an object of observation, scrutinised under the meteorologists’ trained eye.
Tuesday 21 May 2013
6:00-8:00 Gordon Square Cinema
In Conversation
Mark Lewis with David Campany
Organised by Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image
Mark Lewis makes films and digital works. By using film as a gallery medium, he investigates the process of cinema production while also taking in consideration the wider tradition of photography and art. Recent films like Man (2012), Smoker at Spitalfields (2012) and City Road 24 March (2012) make direct reference to the pictorial exploration of the everyday, and in his piece Black Mirror at the National Gallery (2011) the interaction between the museum space, the mirror and the cinematic camera becomes a collaborative exercise for observation and composition making. David Campany is a writer and curator. His books include Art and Photography (Phaidon, 2003) and Photography and Cinema (Reaktion, 2008). He is currently organising exhibitions of the work of Mark Neville (at The Photographer's Gallery) and Victor Burgin (at Ambika P3).
Monday 17 June 2013
6:00-7:30, room 112
Reading Group
We discuss two chapters from Margaret Olin's new book Touching Photographs (University of Chicago Press, 2012), the 'Introduction: Tactile Looking', pp.1-20, and 'Putting Down Photographic Roots in Harlem: James VanDer Zee', pp.101-130.
Wednesday 19 June 2013
6:00-7:30 Keynes Library
Panel on Sport and Photography
The Cut Man: Boxing, Photography and the Male Body
Professor Lynda Nead (Birkbeck)
Penalty Box Theatricals: Simulation, Spectacle and Photography in Professional Soccer
Luke Healey (Manchester)
Papers will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by Professor Stephen Connor (Cambridge) author of A Philosophy of Sport (Reaktion 2011)
