John Wyver writes: To the ICA on Saturday last for another fascinating programme in Michael Witt’s Jean-Luc Godard: Unmade and Abandoned series. This has been a revelatory season, shown more or less monthly, of films by Godard and others that, as Witt claims, ‘sheds light on the huge and varied phantom body of unmade and abandoned ventures that lies behind or in the intervals in his completed oeuvre.’
John Wyver writes: Just over a fortnight since The Cultures of Early Television wrapped, with much – although far from all – of the admin done, and with the distractions of a weekend in Paris and the World Cup now past, I have finally settled down to reflect briefly on the conference.
For those of you just joining us, this was a two-day University of Westminster conference about television before the Second World War in Britain, the United States, continental Europe and the Soviet Union. Two events earlier in the year presaged the event: the centenary of the first public demonstration of what John Logie Baird called ‘true television’ on 26 January 1926, and the publication by Bloomsbury/BFI of my book Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of British Television. The conference programme with abstracts and speaker biographies, as well as a further reading list, can be downloaded here.
In broad terms it feels as if it was a success. More 150 people registered and our venue Portland Hall felt consistently busy but never over-crowded. Thanks to the support of a conference grant from The British Academy, we were able not only to invite speakers from abroad, but also to offer free registration, complimentary teas, coffee and waters throughout both days, and a very welcome drinks reception. It looks like we came in pretty much exactly on budget. For much of the time, the tech worked well, although I still deeply regret that I could not coax Lance Sieveking’s audio message from 1930 to play during my opening remarks.
John Wyver writes: Something of a catch-up today, and even so my posting is both late and melancholy. The past few weeks have been somewhat consumed by The Cultures of Early Television conference, and only now am I getting back to the blog and a selection of Sunday links. I’ll aim to do better going forward, but here are pointers to stuff that has engaged and interested, and it has to be said saddened me recently. No Andy B and no AI, or only glancingly, but those are topics to which we’ll most certainly return in future posts.
• Features and reviews by Tony Rayns: it has been a bad few weeks for losing friends and collaborators, since the critic, programmer and cinephile Tony Rayns is also with us no more; here are links to a strong selection of articles that he wrote for the BFI, each of which demonstrates his knowledge, his critical acuity and elegant writing style.
• The Japanese American Toy Theatre of London presents James Bonk in Matt Blackfinger: there was news this past week too of the sad death of the artist and special person Akiko Hada, who back in 1988 I worked with on a commission for my Channel 4 series Ghosts in the Machine, and which still makes me smile…
John Wyver writes: After months of preparation The Cultures of Early Television conference takes place at Portland Hall in London on Thursday and Friday this week. A University of Westminster conference, supported by The British Academy, this two-day event will explore television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union.
I am delighted to say that the full, 24-page conference programme, with a schedule, detailed abstracts and biographies of the speakers, as well as suggestions for further reading can be downloaded here.
The conference brings together scholars and archivists from Britain, Europe and North America to explore imaginings and understandings of early television, and its productions and people, rather than its technologies, which has been the dominant construction of this history to date.
With presentations, panels and screenings of rare archival material, the event marks the centenary of the first British public presentation of what John Logie Baird called “true television”, which took place in London in early 1926.
John Wyver writes: For the second Sunday running I have simply been too busy to compile the Sunday dozen. Apologies. But the preparations for The Cultures of Early Television conference next Thursday and Friday at the University of Westminster have rather taken over my life.
I think those attending are in for a treat, with a host of exceptional scholars and archivists talking about television before the Second World War in Britain, the United States, Italy, Hungary and the Soviet Union. I will post responses and thoughts arising over the coming days, and tomorrow I will introduce the full conference programme [click to download a .pdf]. There are still a very few tickets left, which are free – you can sign up here.
Otherwise, here’s another selection of stuff that has engaged and interested me over the past week. No Knicks, although I’m thrilled for them, for their fans and for New York, and no World Cup (maybe next week), but rich pickings nonetheless.
• An extended apprenticeship: a lovely piece of writing by Farran Smith Nehme about the director John Sturges at Columbia between 1946 and 1949, originally published in the Locarno Film Festival’s 2024 book The Lady With the Torch: Columbia Pictures 1929 – 1959, and just reprinted online.
• A dose of Duchamp: Hal Foster is among my favourites of the regulars for LRB, and this [£; limited free access] is his rich review of the Marcel Duchamp retrospective currently at MoMA.
John Wyver writes: I’m delighted to unveil the schedule for the The Cultures of Early Television, a University of Westminster conference that I am convening on 2 and 3 July at Portland Hall in London.
Organised with the support of The British Academy, this two-day gathering focuses on television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union. With presentations, panels and screenings of rare archival material, the event marks the centenary of the first British public presentation of what John Logie Baird called “true television”, which took place in London in early 1926.
John Wyver writes: Technical troubles meant that I missed posting last weekend – apologies. But I’m back today with another group of articles that have engaged and interested me, along with — as a hommage to the changeable weather of the past few days — John Constable’s wondrous ‘Study of Clouds, 30 September 1822’, photographed at the recent Turner & Constable show at Tate Britain, but now presumably safely back with its guardians, The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
• Television returns: marking the reopening 80 years ago today of the BBC’s Television service from Alexandra Palace on 7 June 1946, Paul Hayes for the History of the BBC website reflects engagingly on the relaunch. This is a story that will also feature in my book about post-war television in Britain, but that is — well, at least four years away.
Back in London from Monday night, but meanwhile below is this week’s list of articles that caught my attention.
• Why the BBC matters: 5 minutes that are well worth your time, from the evidence given on 19 May by Sir Peter Bazalgette (former chair of ITV PLC), Dr Alex Mahon (former CEO of Channel 4 Television) and Pat Younge (former Chief Creative Officer, BBC Television) to the Culture, Media and Sport parliamentary Select Committee:
John Wyver writes: I am in Provence, deep in the Luberon, which makes me appreciate all the more the wondrous Cezanne above, Hillside in Provence, about 1890-2, hanging in the National Gallery in London. Everywhere I look there are views suggestive of the great artist’s work. It has rained here rather more than we had hoped, which at least has given me time to read a wide variety of bits and pieces, including the following that have attracted my interest and repaid my time.
• Why? Because… with Jean-Pierre Gorin: most of us will not get to the film season that one-time Godard collaborator Gorin has programmed for L’Alliance in New York, but we can all enjoy his idiosyncratic programme notes; as Richard Brody says, ‘he’s one of the greatest critics, or, more, cinema-thinkers’.
