29 October 2008

Come to your senses! - from Smell-O-Vision to seeing colour in Gaelic

Culture day - 1pm to 6pm, Wednesday November 5th, University of Dundee.

The University of Dundee's fourth annual culture day takes place on Wednesday 5th November, and promises to be a unique sensory experience, taking the audience on a journey that covers everything from the sights and sounds of Old Dundee to cinematic gimmicks such as the infamous Smell-O-Vision.

The event, organised by the University’s Culture & Arts Forum, features a variety of talks and demonstrations on the theme of the senses. The presentations will cover literature, film, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, botany, philosophy and more.

Highlights of the programme include art historian Prof Murdo Macdonald on the role of the Gaelic language in seeing colour; film lecturer Brian Hoyle on cinema’s short-lived experiment with Smell-o-vision; internationally renowned sculptor Prof Gareth Fisher on the sensory experiences of creating his sculptures; and architectural historian Prof Charles McKean on 17th-century Glamis as an example of architecture as theatre, designed to stimulate the senses.

Kenneth Baxter will use materials from the University Archives to demonstrate some of the sights and sounds which were once part of everyday life in Dundee but which have now disappeared or been consigned to the pages of history.

The event takes place in the Baxter conference suite on the first floor of the Tower Building from 1-5pm, followed by a guided tour at Duncan of Jordanstone College of the entrance portfolios submitted to the General Foundation Course with artist and tutor Iain Sturrock. Admission to the event is free and members of the public are welcome. The full programme is reproduced below, and is available at www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/caf.htm.

The Culture & Arts Forum is an informal network which aims to support and promote the various departments within the University that are involved in cultural activity.

For further information, call 01382 384310 or email museum@dundee.ac.uk.

Programme
Baxter Conference Room 1.36, Tower Building, University of Dundee

• 13.00 - Welcome
• 13.10 - Flowers: a feast for the senses - but whose senses?
  Neil Paterson (Botanic Gardens)
  Sherlock Holmes in The Naval Treaty sees the beauty of a flower as a guarantee of a benign order in nature. Holmes for once is mistaken because the flower is not an object of beauty for our senses but a product of Darwin's struggle for existence, honed by natural selection to appeal to the senses of birds and insects to enlist their aid in pollination.
• 13.25 - Thinking Cinema
  John Mullarkey (Philosophy)
  Why is film becoming increasingly important to philosophers? Is it because it can be a helpful tool in teaching philosophy, in illustrating it? Or is it because film can also think for itself, because it can create its own philosophy? This presentation will look at the arguments for both positions.
• 13:40 - Seeing Colour in the Gaidhealtachd
  Murdo Macdonald (Fine Art)
  How does speaking Gaelic relate to the making of art? As a native Gaelic speaker, was William McTaggart more inclined to paint in this or that way? In this talk, Prof Macdonald explores this issue the other way around - if, as an artist, you have truly understood the Highlands, Gaelic may provide the best description of what you have done.
• 13:55 - Break for refreshments
• 14:20 - Architecture as Theatre
  Charles McKean (History)
  In this presentation, Prof McKean will use 17th-century Glamis as an example to show that architecture as theatre has always set out to manipulate the senses.
• 14:35 - Blind and Silent
  Matthew Jarron (Museum Services)
  This presentation will compare two of the great American silent comedies, Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights and Harry Langdon’s The Strong Man, both featuring a blind woman as the main romantic interest, but dealing with the subject in very different ways.
• 14:50 - Sound Pictures
  Graeme Stevenson (Music)
  How do composers turn images into sound? This presentation will look at the genre of Programme Music and the ways in which images and themes from art and literature have been transformed into music.
• 15:05 - Seeing at a Distance: Camera-Eyes and Tele-Visions in the Scientific Romances of H.G. Wells
  Keith Williams (English)
  H G Wells’s late-Victorian fictions are remarkable for their speculations about the future use of the camera as a 'prosthetic' extension of organic vision. This talk will look at some unusual ways of seeing based on Wells’s prediction of technology such as TV, video and virtual reality.
• 15:20 - Design as a Sensorial Technology
  Hamid van Koten (Design)
  Hamid will discuss some of his work and demonstrate how designers use colour, texture and mass to communicate ideas.
• 15:35 - Break for refreshments
• 16:00 - From Clay To Bronze
  Gareth Fisher (Fine Art):
  A look at the importance of material sensitivity in the Sculptural process. From plaster and clay models through the complex casting process to the ultimate bronze cast, Prof Fisher explores the sense of materials.
• 16:15 - The Smoking Gun - an explosive history of cellulose nitrate
  Vanessa Charles (Book & Paper Conservation Studio)
  What do you do when you are responsible for a film archive that could suddenly self-combust? Around the globe, archivists and curators face the alarming problem of looking after reels of film that have the potential to burst into flames and destroy an entire collection. This presentation will take a look at the materials used to manufacture these vintage films and why they are so unstable.
• 16:30 - Sights and Sounds (and Smells) of Old Dundee c.1800-1960
  Kenneth Baxter (Archive Services)
  Using materials from the University Archives this presentation will demonstrate some of the 'sights and sounds' that were once part of everyday life in Dundee, but which have now disappeared or been consigned to the pages of history.
• 16:45 - This Movie Stinks: Smell-O-Vision and other forgotten film innovations
  Brian Hoyle (English)
  In the late 1950s Hollywood introduced a number of gimmicks designed to enhance the film-going experience. While some are still used today, others can only be classed as failures (both heroic and frankly absurd). This talk will look at innovations from the latter category that sought to engage senses other than sight and sound, including the infamous Smell-O-Vision!
• The programme is expected to finish around 17:00, and will continue in the Lower Foyer Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (Crawford Building):
• 17:30 - Sense of Sight (Exhibitions Department)
  Artist and lecturer Iain Sturrock will give a tour around some of the best of the entrance portfolios submitted for the General Foundation Course at Duncan of Jordanstone College. The talk will relate to our sense of sight - describing how the eye sees and how this is reflected in the individualism of the art works on show.
  (For those unable to attend the event, the Portfolio Showcase is open to the public until 13 November)

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk