This SAHGB - IHR seminar will be a hybrid event, taking place online and in person at the Institute of Historical Research, Pollard N301 (3rd Floor, North Block of Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU).
Abstract:
In the 1970s, the launch of community cable television channels in Britain changed the relationship between architecture, television and the public. Focusing on two community channels, Swindon Viewpoint (1973) and Channel 40 in Milton Keynes (1976), this paper will trace the architectural implications of this new form of television.
Looking first at the infrastructure of community television - from the tv studios to mobile equipment and the network of cables through which the channels were piped into homes - this paper will explore how they gave a spatial dimension to the preoccupations and tensions surrounding community in new and expanding towns in Britain in the 1970s.
This paper will then focus on how community television acted as a platform for public participation in architectural criticism. Using archival material and tv programmes, this paper will analyse how these channels created a space for the people to talk about the design and planning of the towns they lived in. Community television was based on principles of democratising access to the production of media. Simultaneously, this was the period of the growth of community architecture, with a greater focus on public participation in planning and architecture. Local authorities and architects were having to negotiate new ways of engaging with the ‘public’. This paper will explore how television programmes were used to reflect on architecture and town planning in Swindon and Milton Keynes. It will look at how community television contributed to public participation in planning and criticism.
Speaker Bio:
Jessica Kelly is Reader in Architectural and Design History at London Metropolitan University. Her book, No More Giants: J.M. Richards, modernism and The Architectural Review (Manchester University Press, 2022), explored the history of The Architectural Review, changing modes of criticism and shifting relationship between architecture and media in the mid-twentieth century.
Registration:
Register using the form below. You will be emailed prior to the seminar with a reminder of the joining information shown on the following screen.