Scandalous TV

Dr Richard Howells was a guest on Sky News yesterday, being interviewed about the ITV telephone scandal. Howells commented this was far more about trust than money, and that serious errors had been made, albeit in a misguided attempt to make more entertaining programmes. It was a problem that spread across network boundaries. It was partly the result of short-term thinking, working and employment practices in the industry. Howells also commented on the fact that the ITV announcement had been on the same day as the BBC job losses.

Battle of Ideas

Lost in CCI recently received information about this year’s Battle of Ideas, a two-day festival of social, political and cultural discussion taking place in London, 27-28th October 2007.

The line-up of arts-related debates includes:

Change the world – make a documentary?
Whatever happened to serious TV?
What does music mean?
Should art change the world?
Animating real life
Each to his iPod, or great music for all?
Political theatre: political animal?
Cultural diversity – a straitjacket for the arts?
Is ballet too elitist?
Turn that racket off!
Should poetry please?
Debating Matters: ‘Books should remain the essence of public libraries’
Film Stars – From Icons to Role Models

Speakers include: Nicholas Kenyon CBE (controller, BBC Proms), Professor Colin Lawson (director, Royal College of Music), Barb Jungr (chansonniere; CDs include Walking in the Sun and Love Me Tender), Phelim McAleer (film-maker, ‘Mine Your Own Business’), Peter Horrocks (head of television news, BBC), Bob Lockyer (former executive producer for dance, BBCTV), Naseem Khan (former head of diversity, Arts Council), Diran Adebayo (author, ‘Some Kind of Black’), Miranda McKearney (director, Reading Agency), Sarah Crown (books editor, Guardian Unlimited), Luke Kennard (Eric Gregory Award 2005, Forward prize nominee 2007), Jay Bernard (Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2005) and many more.

There are 70 debates, featuring 200 speakers debating key issues, with over 1,000 expected attendees.

Other highlights include:

The resurrection of religion, Recycling is a waste of time, Friendship or networking? Are we a nation of sporting losers? ‘Ethical foreign policy’ after Blair, The new heresies, What is education for? Age of the metropolis and Debating Darwin.

This year’s strands examine cutting-edge debates around Africa, Science, Music, and New Technologies.

The festival has sold out for two years running, so the organisers urge you to get tickets as soon as possible. The event is held at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU and is organised by the Institute of Ideas in conjunction with BT, The Times, ESRC and Pfizer, alongside many other partners and sponsors.

Institute of Ideas
Signet House
49-51 Farringdon Road
London EC1M 3JP
020 7269 9220

Rough Trade: Geoff Travis speaks

Lost in CCI is pleased to announce that the next in a continuing series of CCI Live Interviews will be taking place at King’s College London on Monday 5 November 2007.

The legendary Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Records will be answering questions about the label, the Rough Trade shops (including the newly opened Rough Trade East in Spitalfields), and the state of the music industry and the independent sector in particular. Travis will be interviewed by our very own Dr Harvey G. Cohen, Lecturer in Cultural & Creative Industries.

The event will take place in the Edmond J. Safra Lecture Theatre, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. It is free and open to the public.

Further details:

“Over the last three decades Rough Trade Records has earned a reputation as one of the premier independent record labels in the UK, an artist-friendly company known for signing trailblazing acts such as Arcade Fire, Cornershop, the Fall, Kleenex/LiLiPUT, the Smiths, and Lucinda Williams. This summer saw the launch of a new Rough Trade Shop in London’s East End, thirty-one years after the opening of the first shop in Notting Hill. In this public event at King’s College London, Rough Trade’s founder Geoff Travis will discuss the current state of the music business from an artistic as well as a business perspective, and will explain why he decided to expand his company’s retail presence at a time when dozens of record stores across the country have been forced to close. If you care about the future of the music business in the UK, you won’t want to miss this exclusive conversation with one of the pioneers of the independent music industry.”

If you have any questions about this event, please contact 020 7848 1358.

Between Culture and Capital

Between Culture and Capital: Art, Institutions and Corporate Patronage is a two-day conference taking place on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 October 2007 at the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN.

The conference “examine[s] conditions under which cultural capital is produced and traded in relationships between art, art institutions and their corporate sponsors. [It] focuses on art practice and production from the 1990s onwards, emerging from 1970s and 80s state policies and culture supporting intersections of art and business patronage.”

For further details, please see the poster.

Special offer – East Asian theatre in London

Next week an independent theatre company, Yellow Earth, which specialises in bringing East Asian theatre to the UK, will be putting on a new production at the Oval House Theatre in London (near Oval tube station in zone two).

One of our MA CCI students, Sasha Taylor (part-time year two), has been heavily involved in this production as part of her internship, and would very much like to encourage you to go along. There’s a special offer of two tickets for the price of one, advertised below.

The production is entitled Typhoon Live, and consists of two plays, Getting Married and Dogs, by playwrights from South Korea and Singapore respectively. It runs from Tuesday 9th to Saturday 13th, with a 7.45pm performance each day, and matinees on Thursday and Saturday afternoons. More details below.

Sasha comments: “I would be delighted if you could come along and support Yellow Earth and our fantastic new double-bill production. Do something different next week and feast your eyes on some great East Asian Theatre!! Two East Asian comedies about savagely falling in and out of love. The offer’s pretty good too…”

If anyone from MA CCI is going, please post a comment below to let others know which performance you’ll be attending – it would be nice to have a group outing!

Facebook page for Yellow Earth here, and for Typhoon Live here.

London, Oval House Theatre
9 – 13 October, 7.45pm
Gala Performance 9 October
Matinees: 11 Oct, 1.30pm & 13 Oct, 3pm
Box Office: 020 7582 7680
www.ovalhouse.com
For full tour details visit www.yellowearth.org

by Yi Kang-baek (South Korea)
directed by Philippe Cherbonnier
A young swindler is looking for love. He has borrowed a big house for the weekend, a suit for the day and he might ask you for a cigarette. A lighthearted, surreal fable from South Korea’s Daesan Award winner

by Elangovan (Singapore)
directed by Kwong Loke
A savagely funny play about the end of love, when a woman pampers her dog rather than her loser of a husband. From Singapore’s International Award and South East Asian Writer’s Award winnner.
Designed by Yoon Bae
Cast: Andy Cheung, Liz Sutherland, Jamie Zubairi
Yellow Earth is the UK’s pioneering East Asian theatre company, producing award-winning theatre and creating highly visual and physical work.
Tel: 020 7734 5988 | admin@yellowearth.org
2-FOR-1 TICKETS Quote offer at Box Office (limited availability): YETL

Late opening at the Design Museum

A friend at the Design Museum forwarded Lost in CCI this e-flyer about late opening this Friday…

Teenage clicks

A friend of Lost in CCI’s is involved in this MTV event at the Old Truman Brewery, open until tomorrow. Don’t miss it!