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Local History Conference: Meet our speakers

We are very excited to announce that the following speakers will help us to explore The Screens and Stages in the Silver City

 

Dr Alistair Fair - Reader in Architectural History at Edinburgh University

Title: Theatre architecture in Aberdeen since 1900 in its Scottish context.

Dr Alistair Fair is Reader in Architectural History at Edinburgh University. He is the author of the books Modern Playhouses: an architectural history of Britain's new theatres, 1945-1985 (2018, paperback 2020) and Play On: contemporary theatre architecture in Britain (2019). 

Alistair's presentation will look at Aberdeen's post-1900 theatre architecture. It will begin with His Majesty's (opened 1906), and will also consider the revival of the Tivoli Theatre, before setting these examples in a wider Scottish context. It will discuss the changing social and architectural ideas which have informed theatre design, the ways that these buildings have been adapted, and will show how they can be used to tell a range of stories. 

 

Ronald Grant - Cinema Museum London

Title: Memories of Aberdeen Cinemas.

Ronald Grant worked in various cinemas in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, all controlled by brothers Herbert or Richard Donald, two of the four Donald Brothers involved in cinema and theatre entertainment in the city. Ronald oversaw the creation of the Cinema Museum, in London, after a large storage area which contained fittings and furnishings stripped out from ten of their now closed cinemas needed to be cleared.

Ronald is going to share his memories of Aberdeen's cinemas and illustrate his presentation with many original photographs from his personal collection.

This presentation is sponsored by Bolinda, creators of BorrowBox, the number one solution for eBooks and eAudiobooks. BorrowBox is freely available to all Aberdeen City Libraries users.

 

Dr Paul Maloney - Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast

Title: Theatre in context: using the archive to bring theatre stories alive.

Dr Paul Maloney has written widely on Scottish popular theatre, including music hall, variety and pantomime. He is a Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast and the author of Scotland and the Music Hall (2003), and The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall and Cosmopolitan Entertainment Culture (2016).

Using examples and case studies from the author’s own research, and from a range of Aberdeen venues, his illustrated talk will show how imaginative use of archival sources and material culture – everything from posters, programmes, press cuttings and adverts to census returns, playscripts, recordings, and oral history - can produce a colourful and accessible theatre history which relates entertainment to wider developments in contemporary society and helps bring audiences and performers of the past into focus.

This presentation is sponsored by Historic Environment Scotland.

 

Janet McBain - former curator of the Scottish Screen Archive

Title: The Silver City on the Silver Screen: Aberdeen's local history reflected in film.

Janet McBain joined the Scottish Film Council in 1976 at the inception of what was to become the Scottish Screen Archive. Since then she has overseen the development of the archive into Scotland’s national collection of some 35,000 reels of film and video reflecting Scottish life and cinematic art in the film century, and has been researching and promoting the history of film production and cinema exhibition in Scotland. She is the author of Pictures Past - Recollections of Scottish Cinema Going (Moorfoot, 1985) and contributor of essays, articles and conference papers on many aspects of film in Scotland. In 2006, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Film by BAFTA Scotland for her work in preserving and presenting Scotland’s film heritage and in 2016 was granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Glasgow University.


Aberdeen's history, its buildings and its people have featured on screen since the earliest days of moving pictures. Janet's illustrated presentation will consider the representation of the city and its citizens in films made by local exhibitors and shown on the city's cinema screens.

This presentation is sponsored by Station House Media Unit (shmu).

 

Dr Lyn Wilson - Digital Documentation Manager, Historic Environment Scotland

Title: Delivering digitally: Focused applications for the Historic Environment.

Lyn Wilson is a heritage scientist with over 20 years’ experience in digital documentation practice and conservation/archaeological science. As Digital Documentation Manager at Historic Environment Scotland (HES), Lyn is responsible for 3D recording the properties and collections in the care of HES for conservation, asset management, interpretation, education and to improve accessibility. Her research interests focus on the intersection of heritage science and digital documentation in the historic environment, and the application of emerging technologies for conservation. She is a passionate advocate for the integration of science and technology within cultural heritage practice.


The presentation will outline the use of digital innovations at HES and give examples of focussed applications. Within HES, Lyn's team have long championed the use of innovative digital technologies and increasingly apply these for conservation, learning, engagement, accessibility and disaster response.

This presentation is sponsored by Code The City. Code The City will be joined by Wikimedia UK to deliver "An introduction to Wiki Media tolls (Wiki Commons, Wikidata, Wikipedia) for local history" on the day of the conference. The virtual session will be live streamed from their virtual booth from 1.10pm to 1.40pm.

 


Contact

Any questions about the conference can be directed to

Local History Conference Team
Central Library
Rosemount Viaduct
Aberdeen
AB25 1GW

Email: lhc2021@aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

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