From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
The Eleventh Annual University of Dundee Culture Day takes place on Wednesday 18th November in Baxter Room 1.36, first floor, Tower Building. This year the theme is People & Place and as always we have a fascinating interdisciplinary programme of talks and drama.
Programme
1.30pm - Introduction
1.35pm - Caroline Brown (Archive Services)
A Sense of Place: Strathmartine Hospital
Capturing different memories of an institution, a workplace and a home. This talk will provide an overview of an oral history project with staff and former residents of Strathmartine Hospital.
1.50pm - Susan Mains (Geography)
Ties to the Tay: Place, People and Storytelling
The River Tay has featured in a range of artistic mediums and is a key component of Tayside geographies. The Tay is also interwoven with connections to special places and memories - stories about this material and social landscape help us make sense of our own journeys and can also offer a new sense of belonging.
2.05pm - Neil Paterson (Botanic Garden)
Painting the Back Yard: Andrew Wyeth and Claude Monet
Two painters with such a strong sense of place that they restricted much of their work to, respectively, two and a single location(s).
2.20pm - Mark Robson (English & Theatre Studies)
The Politics of Dramaturgy
Dramaturgy is concerned with the structures within which events take place. In theatrical terms, it can be taken to indicate the ways in which different elements of a performance relate to each other, and the processes by which the performance comes into being. But in creating the world of the play, dramaturgy also creates a vision of the world beyond the play. So what are the politics of these acts of world-creation?
2.35pm – break for refreshments
2.55pm - Annie Tindley (History)
Landscape and the Clearances: the shadow of history?
As Scottish politicians grapple with a new Land Reform bill, this talk will explore the historical background of this contentious issue, from the Highland clearances, and how perceptions of these events have, and continue to, shape legislation and public opinion. We will examine the nature of power and conflict in rural Scotland, and how its history and traditions have permeated Scottish culture and continue to set the political agenda today.
3.10pm - Andy Milligan (DJCAD)
Domestechtopias – Domestic Technologies Utopias
Rediscovering the domestic interior as a site for dwelling, interacting, distracting eg living together yet apart. Looking at some of the myths, fantasies and utopian visions around the home eg Homes for the future…..dystopian domesticity and heterotopian hell-holes
3.25pm - Derek Robertson (Education) & Deepak Gopinath (Town & Regional Planning)
Minecraft on the Waterfront: Where learners are contenders!
Minecraft has become a global phenomenon but can this digital construction kit be used to support learning? In this presentation Derek & Deepak will discuss their recent work with primary and secondary schools that explored the use of Minecraft in the context of the developing waterfront of their city. The learners involved were given a brief that challenged them to reimagine, redesign and rebuild what they thought Dundee waterfront should like were they the designers!
3.40pm - Daniel Cook (English)
Mary Shelley's Dundee: The Gothic City
Did you know that the inventor of modern science fiction, Mary Shelley, lived with the Baxters on Dundee’s South Baffin Street as a teenager? This talk outlines what we know about Shelley's experiences here, and re-examines the Gothic descriptions of the area in her ground-breaking novel Frankenstein (1818) and other works.
3.55pm - break for refreshments
4.15pm - Reinhard Behrens (DJCAD)
40 Years of Expeditions into Naboland
An artist's exploration of a parallel world
4.30pm - Hope Roberts (Museum Services)
Everything in its Place
A place for everything and everything in its place, this could be a museum mantra. But how does giving objects a place in a museum benefit people? In this talk, Hope will reveal some of the great things we can do with museum collections when you are involved!
4.45pm - Nick Hopkins (Psychology)
Living with the Gods at the Sangam: Place and pilgrimage in north India
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims gather at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers where they live on the rivers’ sandy floodplains for one month. During this time conditions are demanding, yet pilgrims report a great sense of calm and fulfilment. What is it about their experience of this environment that contributes to such a sense of spiritual fulfilment?
5pm – JOOT Theatre Company
'Ic pis giedd wrece': Old English Elegies as Dramatic Monologues
The Old English elegies as a whole are largely about exile. The Wife's Lament, for example, is about a woman who is abandoned by her lord n a Gothic landscape and there mourns the loss of her friends and home. In The Wanderer, we find a thane whose lord has died and, as a result, he must roam the earth looking for a new home.
5.25pm – End
We look forward to seeing you there!