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Events 2010
- 25 May 2010, 5pm Taylor Building A31
Film and Capitalism Series [Film and Visual Culture / Centre for Modern Thought]
Geoffrey Kantaris (Centre for Latin American Studies, University fo Cambridge) will deliver a lecture on: "The primal (mise en) scène of capital": Argentine, Colombian and Brazilian urban film.
Geoffrey Kantaris is the Director of the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge. His research currently focuses on contemporary urban cinema from Latin America, particularly Argentine, Colombian and Mexican cinema. Related interests include questions of modernity, postmodernity and transnational processes in Latin American culture.
Visit sponsored by the Hispanic Studies Visiting Lecture fund. All welcome.
- 19 May 2010, 6pm - 10pm, MacRobert Lecture Theatre
Film and Visual Culture Degree Show 2010
Students on the MA in Film and Visual Culture, and the MLitt in Visual Culture have the opportunity to take courses in film production as part of their degree programme, engaging with international filmmakers and artists, such as Raul Ruiz and Zeigam Azizov, as well as staff in the department. On Wednesday 19 May 6pm - 10pm, their work will be presented at the 2010 Film Degree Show, which takes place in the MacRobert Lecture Theatre. The room will be configured to provide a gallery experience, rather than a cinematic one - the films will be shown simultaneously on a series of smaller screens, as well as on the large screen. Free entry. All welcome.
- 27 April 2010, Taylor Building A31, University of Aberdeen
Guest Lecture: Professor Matthew Rampley, History of Art, University of Birmingham
Peasants in Vienna: Ethnography, Politics and Visual Display in the Habsburg Empire
In 1873 the World Fair in Vienna exhibited a peasant village, which was meant to display traditional modes of rural life. Although meant intended to highlight the specific conditions of the agricultural communities, the village served as an occasion for comparison between the different ethnic groups of the Empire. Poles were compared with Germans, Croats compared with Hungarians. It also provided material for the articulation of prejudices about the relative merits of the different cultures of the Habsburg Empire, and the village soon came to be seen in the light of its supposedly ethnographic function. This talk considers the emergence of ethnography in the last quarter of the nineteenth century in central Europe, and examines how ethnographic discourses served, on the hand, to exacerbate growing inter-ethnic tensions, but also, on the other, as an instrument legitimising both imperial and national ideas of social and cultural identity. The talk pays particular attention to discussions about the character of folk culture, examining the ideas of writers and ideologues who saw it as a visual emblem of ethnic distinctiveness, and also exploring the views of others who disputed its status as such.
- 23 April 2010, Peacock Visual Arts, Castlegate, Aberdeen
The Oil Scenario – Zeigam Azizov
A presentation of his latest work in progress by Zeigam Azizov (http://www.calvert22.org/e/exhibition-programme/re-imagining-october/zeigam-azizov/).
Chaired by Dr Janet Stewart of Aberdeen University, there will be an open discussion of the artist’s latest moving-image piece, which looks at the Baku Oilfields as a location for migrants.
“The oil scenario” is a work in progress, which narrates the current refugee crisis and the state of abandoned Soviet oil fields in Baku. Based on images from the derelict Soviet oil fields in Baku, this film questions both the state of the collapse of the industry and the refugee crisis in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. The film works in response to an observation by Walter Benjamin: “Every image of the past not recognised by the present as one of its concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably”.
Zeigam Azizov is currently a guest lecturer on the MLitt in Visual Culture at the University of Aberdeen.
http://www.peacockvisualarts.com/events/261/the-oil-scenario/
Events 2009
Events 2008
- 15 October 2007 - 28 January 2008
Exhibition at Marischal Museum: Naff? An exploration of value, curated by Kathryn Harriman (PhD student, Anthropology, University of Aberdeen)
This exhibition poses four main questions to suggest ways of considering craft in the objects on display.These are: "It's well made - is that how we know it's not art?"; "Is it trash or treasure?"; "Who taught you that craft is kitsch?" and "Is it a mistake?" A combination of anthropological research and installation art, the exhibition displays a mixture of objects from Marischal Museum's collection and the North-east today. Eye-catching items include a Maori treasure box filled with scoobies (craft lace), a fluffy boa died pink with cherry KoolAid, chocolate chip biscuits next to a teapot and evil eye jewellery originating from Oyne to 19th century Turkey.
Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm; Sunday 2pm - 5pm
Contact: museum@abdn.ac.uk
Events in 2007
- 27 September - 13 December
Modern Thought Seminar Series: Science Studies: Current Questions and Approaches
Professor Mario Biagioli, Centre for Modern Thought
This seminar analyzes some of the key research questions in science studies today. Primarily methodological and theoretical in nature, the first part of the course analyzes current attempts to rethink human agency and avoid dichotomies like nature/society, human/animal, and living/machinic that have structured most of the traditional thinking about the sciences and the environment. Readings for this section will include Latour, Rheinberger, Haraway, Pickering, Stengers, Schaffer & Shapin, and Rotman. The second half of the seminar looks at recent sophisticated empirical studies of scientific practices (writing, instruments and experiments, laboratory techniques, publications, ownership, collaboration, etc) and their conceptual implications.
Room TBA, 3pm - 5pm
Contact: Professor Mario Biagioli
- 11 December 2007
Research Seminar: 'The Gift of Presence'
Ingeborg P. Bodzioch (Research Student, Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen)
Taylor C16, 3.30pm - 5pm
(Cultural History Seminar Series: Contact: David Smith)
- 4 December 2007
Research Seminar: 'Knowing Works of Art'
Professor Derek Attridge, University of York
Room TBA, 5.15pm - 7pm
(Contact: Professor Michael Syrotinski)
- 27 October -28 November
Festival: Sound
sound is the North East of Scotland's contemporary music festival. Following a pilot event, "Upbeat" in 2004, the first festival was launched in November 2005. sound is now an annual event.
sound aims to make contemporary music more accessible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds by presenting an eclectic but very broad range of contemporary music - classical, traditional, popular, jazz, experimental - through a wide range of events including concerts, talks, electroacoustic installations, and workshops. sound, an initiative of Woodend Arts Association in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, operates largely as a network of local organisations.
For further details, see the festival website
- 13 November 2007
Public Talk at Gray's School of Art, RGU: "Creativity - time for a reality check"
John Thakara, Director of the design futures network, Doors of Perception
The lecture is the final of four events delivered as part of the Gray's School of Art Public Lecture Series 2007, supported by Aberdeen City Council. Previous speakers - Sir George Cox, Alice Rawsthorn and Stephen Bailey - are all equally renowned in the world of art and design. The events have emphasized the breaking down of traditional boundaries as well as highlighting matters of concern.
Room 225, Aberdeen Business School, Garthdee Road, 6pm - 7.30pm
(Contact: Barbara Jones, RGU's Events Co-ordinator)
- 29 October 2007
Research Seminar: 'Transculturation and Monotheism'
Professor Alberto Moreiras, Centre for Modern Thought
King's College, Old Senate Room, 5.15pm - 7pm
(School of Language and Literature Research Forum)
- 5 - 28 October
Exhibition at Marischal Museum: SALTIRE 1937-2007: Seventy Years of The Saltire Housing Design Awards
The best in Scottish housing design over the last 70 years is celebrated at a new exhibition at Aberdeen's Marischal Museum. From John A.W. Grant's model mining village of the 1930s to Sir Basil Spence's ill fated 'Hutchesontown C' tower block, the exhibition will review the changing character of housing in Scotland over the past decades. It has been organised by The Saltire Society, one of Scotland's leading cultural organisations, who started the UK's first annual housing design awards in 1937. Exhibits include original archive images, on-camera interviews with residents of award-winning schemes and contextual material explaining the changing faces of both housing policy and development, and domestic life over the years.
Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm; Sunday 2pm - 5pm
Contact: museum@abdn.ac.uk
- 23 October 2007
Research Seminar: ''The Opera of S. Maria of Grosseto: How Religious and Civic Patronage Shaped the History of a Cathedral'
Sandra Cardarelli (PhD student, History of Art, University of Aberdeen)
MacRobert Building MR 310, 3.30pm - 5pm
(Cultural History Seminar Series. Contact: David Smith)
- 5 October 2006 – 10 May 2007
Seminar Series: Towards a Concept of the (Modern) Political: Kant, Schelling, Hegel
Professor Chris Fynsk and Professor Alberto Moreiras , Centre for Modern Thought
This seminar will attempt to explore the linkages between the political, the aesthetic, and the philosophical that, while proposed or established by German Transcendental Idealism, may still be alive today; as well as those that are not.
Room TBA, 4pm-6pm
Contact: Professor Alberto Moreiras
- 14 May 2007
Lecture: ‘Title to be confirmed'
Dr Geoff King, Brunel University
Room TBA, 3.30-5
- 7 May 2007
Research Seminar: “Photographic Topographies of Contemporary Berlin ”
Professor Jonathan Long, Durham University
St Mary's 105, 3-5
[ School of Language and Literature Research Forum]
- 2 May 2007
Lecture: The invention of a film: Miss Cristina
Professor Raul Ruiz, Professor of Film and Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen
Room TBA, 3.30-5
- 1 May 2007
Lecture: The invention of a film: Recta Provincia
Professor Raul Ruiz, Professor of Film and Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen
Room TBA, 3.30-5
- 26 April 2007
Lecture: ‘ Hume's Aesthetic Morality '
Dr Jonathan Friday, University of Kent
Taylor Building , A19, 4.30-6
[Department of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen ]
- 25 April 2007
Lecture: ‘ The Aesthetics of the Distant and Minute: Telescopes, Microscopes and the Sublimity of the Scientific Image '
Dr Jonathan Friday, University of Kent
Taylor Building , A19, 4.30-6
- April – September 2007
Exhibitions: Word Exhibition Programme
Part of the University of Aberdeen 's Word Festival.
- 21 March 2007
Lecture: “Architectonic Figures in Philosophy”
Professor Arturo Leyte
St Mary's 105, 3-5
[ School of Language and Literature Research Forum]
- 5 March 2007
Lecture: “Subjectivity and Terror: The Transformation of the Gaze around 1800”
Professor Arturo Leyte
St Mary's 105, 3-5
[ School of Language and Literature Research Forum]
- 28 Febuary 2007
Film Screening: Klimt
The film's director, Professor Raul Ruiz, will be present at the screening.
Taylor Building , C11, 2-5
- 27 February 2007
Film Screening: Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting
The film's director, Professor Raul Ruiz, will be present at the screening.
Taylor Building , C11, 2-5
- 29 January 2007
Seminar: Terrorism: Terror and Explosion, “… importance of fire and the construction of bombs…”
Dr Petar Bojanic , Research Fellow in Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen
St Mary's 105, 3-5
[ School of Language and Literature Research Forum]
Events in 2006
- 6 December 2006
Lecture: The Source of Creativity in the Brain
Professor Semir Zeki , author of A Vision of the Brain, Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain , and co-author with the late French painter Balthus of La Quête de l'essentie.
King's College Conference Centre, 5.30pm
RSVP to Morna Annandale , College of Life Sciences & Medicine, College Office, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill , AB25 2ZD (Tel. 01224 552888)
- 30 November 2006
Lecture: An Artist's Engagement with the Piper Alpha Disaster
Sue Jane Taylor, the artist and sculptor of the Piper Alpha memorial
New King's 10, 5.15pm
Ms Taylor spent a week on Piper Alpha exactly a year before it exploded and whose involvement with the platform and its people deeply affected her interpretation on the events of July 6, 1988.
(Part of the Lecture Series: ' Tis Thirty Years Since: Personal Reflections on the History of the North Sea Oil and Gas Industry)
- 24-26 November 2006
Conference: Sound as Art
For further details, see the conference website
- 16 November 2006
Lecture: 'Going International: Photographing Oil Lives in Scotland and Latin America '
Owen Logan, AHRC Research Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts
New King's 10, 5.15pm
(Part of the Lecture Series: ' Tis Thirty Years Since: Personal Reflections on the History of the North Sea Oil and Gas Industry)
- 14 November 2006
Dr Patrick Dove, Indiana University
Open Seminar
Room TBA, 3-5
(Contact: Professor Alberto Moreiras )
- 13 November 2006
Lecture: 'Post-politics, technics , aesthetics: literature and mass media in contemporary Argentina '
Dr Patrick Dove, Indiana University
King's College, KCF7, 3-5pm
( School of Language and Literature Research Forum)
- 7-8 October
Wasps Artists' Open Studios Weekend
On 7 and 8 October, twenty visual artists in Aberdeen will throw open their doors and welcome visitors into their working studios. The weekend is a great opportunity to meet local artists, chat about their work and find out what inspires them. Visitors will also get the chance to see around the recently redeveloped studio complex and gallery / project space, which is the first of its kind in Aberdeen .
Wasps Studios, 36-48 Langstane Place, Aberdeen, AB11 6FB
11am - 5pm, 7 October
12noon - 5pm, 8 October
For more details about participating artists, works that will be on show and directions to the studios, see www.waspsstudios.org.uk
