‘Supplying a third dimension; Architects (Re) Constructing Archaeology, 1900s-1960s.’
Tuesday 25th April, 18:30: AA Lecture Hall.
Dr Amara Thornton
Architect-archaeologist and Architectural Association graduate Seton Lloyd wrote his memoirs in the 1980s. He reflected on his own route into archaeology – through architecture – stating that what architects brought to the table (literally) was the ability to “supply a third dimension”. Reconstructing the past has always been of utmost importance to archaeology, but how much of this vision was actually the work of architects?
Amara Thornton is an Honorary Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. She specialises in the history of archaeology, with a focus on British archaeologists working in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is coordinator of the History of Archaeology Network at the Institute, and Principal Investigator of Filming Antiquity, a project digitising and researching excavation films from the early-mid 20th century. She blogs on her research at http://www.readingroomnotes.com.
|
‘Sweet Geometry’: Edward Reynolds at the AA, 1956-58.
Tuesday 2nd May, 18:30: AA Lecture Hall.
Geraint Franklin
A student at the Architectural Association from 1956-8, Edward Reynolds (1926-59) produced work of startling originality, including faceted and curvilinear geometries, zoomorphic forms and complex circulation systems. This talk sets Reynolds within the context of architectural discourse in 1950s London, exploring his connections with other students and his tutors Bill Howell, John Killick, James Gowan and others.
Geraint Franklin is an architectural historian specialising in British architecture since 1945. His book Howell Killick Partridge & Amis will be published by Historic England in June 2017.
|
‘If we can have the first slide and the lights off…’
Tuesday 9th May, 18:30: AA Lecture Hall.
Catalina Mejia Moreno
In the shape of a 35mm colour slide show this talk will reproduce some of Reyner Banham’s and Robin Evan’s slide collection archived at the AA Photo-library, projecting their still unknown photographic transparencies. The talk analyses the distinct use of the slides by these two aforementioned architectural historians. In doing so it reflects on the particularities of this architectural medium and exposes the tension between the double nature of the slide as public – performed for a collective audience – and private – as used for personal means of documentation.
Catalina Mejía Moreno is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Humanities at the University of Brighton and Adjunct Faculty member at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. She is currently PhD candidate in Architectural Theory and Criticism at Newcastle University and Mellon Researcher at the CCA in Montreal. The DAAD and the Getty Research Centre have also supported her research on architecture and photography.
|
