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Arts & Humanities Festival
15-24 October 2014 #ahfest
www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
Contents: events at a glance
Events throughout the Festival
3 | Installation: Uppe Folly
4 | Exhibition of photography: The Unforgettable & the
Unspoken
5 | Theatre: Colony: Part I
6 | Guided tours: Aldwych Underground Station
7 | Practical art workshop: Life Drawing
8 | Guided tours: Under King’s
9 | Exhibition: Autopoiesis 2.0
10 | Guided tours: Somerset House
Wednesday 15 October 2014
12 | In conversation: Sheltering in London in the
Second World War
13 | In conversation: ‘And nothing is, but what is not’
Thursday 16 October 2014
15 | Inaugural Lecture: A Secret History of the Dance
Floor
16 | Exhibition talk: the Unforgettable & the Unspoken
17 | Film screening: La Mia Classe
18 | Discussion: Gods underground in Roman London
(and beyond)
Friday 17 October 2014
20 | Reading: Dante’s Inferno: a marathon reading
21 | Debate: Young Arab Voices
22 | Panel dicussion: In the Mix: DJs, dance floors,
diasporas
23 | Discussion: Dead spaces? Crypts & cemeteries
in modern London
24 | Panel discussion & performance: What lies
beneath? Exploring the hidden currents of the
classical music world
25 | Performance: Electric underground: Trio Aporia
26 | Immersive performance: Khthonios: Orpheus &
Eurydice
Saturday 18 October 2014
28 | Conference: Conformity, Process & Deviation:
Digital Arts as ‘Outsider’
29 | Workshop: Kaizen Dance
30 | Poetry & music: Forgiveness, Relationship &
Reunion: Haydn & the Seven Last Words of Christ on
the Cross
31 | Film screening: Rikos ja Rangaistus
32 | Talk & performance: Rebetika & the Eastern
Mediterranean underground
Sunday 19 October 2014
34 | Discussion & performance: Beyond Burlesque:
the changing face of caberet
35 | Theatre: Early Days (of a better nation)
36 | Film screening: The Double
Monday 20 October 2014
38 | Panel discussion: Double Vision: Dostoevsky on film
39 | Talk & demonstration: Splice: an underwater
event
40 | Panel discussion: Modernism Underground
41 | Illustrated debate: Radical Opera
Tuesday 21 October 2014
43 | Performance: Underground Medieval London 1
44 | Walking tours: Underground Medieval London 2
45 | Panel discussion: Underground Medieval London 3
46 | Book launch: The Subterranean Topography of
Oliver Twist
47 | Bernays Lecture: Notes from Underground: on
Marx & belatedness in Alexander Kluge
48 | Performance & discussion: Brazilian Music from
underground to pop
49 | Panel discussion: Mining Literature
50 | Debate: Death: clinical, historical & philosophical
perspectives in dying
51 | Book launch: Poetry in the Blood
Wednesday 22 October 2014
53 | Panel discussion & book launch: Invisible Languages
54 | Panel discussion & workshop: New Ground Down
Under
55 | Concert: Choir of King’s College London
56 | Panel discussion: Marriage, Civil Partnerships &
Gay Rights
57 | Talk: 53 Million Artists
58 | Performance: Rob Newman: A NewTheory of
Evolution
Thursday 23 October 2014
60 | Inaugural Lecture: Nirvana & the New
Technologies: the suppression & renewal of
meditation in Buddhist Southeast Asia
61 | Debate & poetry reading: “Making is our defence
against the dark”
62 | Performance: JARMAN (all this maddening
beauty)
63 | Piano recital & talk: Music from the underground
Friday 24 October 2014
65 | Talk & film screening: Charlie Chaplin’s America:
the Essanay & Mutual years, 1915-1917
66 | Panel discussion: Hellish Persons:
personifications of the underworld from antiquity to
the present
67 | Art installation & panel discussion: The Cenotaph
Project & the public sphere
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival
15–24 October 2014
The ‘underground’ has been irresistibly fascinating to the human mind.
As geological fact it has offered shelter in caves; precious minerals; the terrors of quicksand
and volcanoes; the residues of prehistoric time, evolution, earlier civilisations.
Our cultures have used it to bury the dead; to organize our urban flows of water, waste,
power, and transport; to dispose of the toxic; or to dig in during wartime, in foxholes,
trenches, dugouts, air-raid shelters.
The underground is also a potent cultural and political metaphor. The underworld has been
imagined as the realm of the dead. It also suggests the hidden underside of ordered society:
criminality, gangs, vice; but also the exploited: the trafficked; slaves; sweat-shop workers;
the underclass. It captures ideas of the black market, illegal immigration, addiction.
It has served as a metaphor of mind; for the unconscious, the repressed. But the
underground is also a site of resistance to social repression: where freedom is forced to hide.
Underground literature, film, music, creates a space for the counter-cultural and for protest.
With ‘fracking’ in the news, we are reminded of the eco-politics of the underground,
as well as of the atmosphere and the oceans. The underground is the site of growth and
decomposition; of worms as well as roots; of destruction and creativity.
This year’s varied and vibrant programme gives a cross-section of the research being carried
out in Arts & Humanities at King’s. It will be exciting, thought-provoking and entertaining.
Max Saunders
Festival Director
Most events are free but will be ticketed
To book go to www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
All details correct at time of print – for latest programme information please visit our website.
The Arts & Humanities
Festival would like to thank
the Principal’s Office for
its continuing support.
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
1
Events throughout the Festival
Installation: Uppe Folly – Throughout October 2014
Exhibition of photography: The Unforgettable & the
Unspoken – Wednesday 15 - Friday 17 October 2014
Theatre: Colony: Part I – Thursday 16, Saturday 18,
Tuesday 21, Thursday 23, Friday 24 October 2014
Guided tours: Aldwych Underground Station –
Friday 17, Monday 20, Friday 24 October 2014
Practical art workshop: Life Drawing – Saturday 18,
Sunday 19, Wednesday 22, Friday 24 October 2014
Guided tours: Under King’s – Saturday 18, Wednesday
22 October 2014
Exhibition: Autopoiesis 2.0 – Saturday 18, Thursday
23, Friday 24 October 2014
Guided tours: Somerset House – Sunday 19,
Thursday 23 October 2014
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
2
Uppe Folly
Mobile Studio is delighted
to collaborate with King’s
College London to create a
temporary pop-up folly for the
Arts & Humanities Festival
2014.
The Strand Quadrangle is a
long and relatively narrow
space confined by the tall
facades of King’s College
London’s Strand Campus and
Somerset House. In response
to the theme ‘underground’
Uppe Folly seeks to
encourage visitors to simply
stop and look up – something
we often forget to do in a
dense and busy city such as
London.
The folly provides a seating
area and acts as the backdrop
to a whole host of events for
the festival. When not in use it
is a place to meet and mingle.
The design of the folly uses
Mobile Studio’s signature
modular design system.
Interactive graphic signage
and way-finding solutions for
visitors are dotted across the
quad as part of Uppe Folly.
The folly will also attract
members of the public from
the main road into the quad,
which is in itself an underused
thoroughfare connecting the
Strand and River Thames.
Uppe Folly Team:
Design: Structural Engineer: Fabrication: Artist: Mobile Studio Architects
Price & Myers
Westby & Jones
George Heaven
Installation
Campus opening hours: 09.00-20.00
Throughout October 2014
Quad, Strand Campus
MOBILE STUDIO is a Londonbased architectural practice
working in the public and
private sectors. The practice
was nominated for Young
Architect of the Year Award
in 2008, and specialises in
exhibitions, gallery design
and modular systems for
museums, galleries and public
institutions.
In search of a sustainable
approach and to mitigate
waste material often
generated by ‘temporary
architecture’ Mobile Studio
has developed a series of
designs that are modular
and reusable. Each individual
design allows for infinite
re-configuration and sizing.
In-built, inherent flexibility
caters for a wide and diverse
range of event and show
possibilities.
www.theMobileStudio.co.uk
Director: Chee-Kit Lai
BSc(Hons) DipArch(UCL) MArch
ARB RIBA
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
3
The Unforgettable & the Unspoken:
Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong
Since 2009, Travis Kong has
been conducting oral history
of gay men aged 60 or above
in Hong Kong and has regular
private yum cha (‘drinking
tea’) with them monthly since
2012. He has just completed
a Chinese book Oral History
of Older Gay Men in Hong
Kong, which documents the
stories of twelve such men,
capturing the complexity of
their lives interwoven with
Hong Kong history, as well as
the difficulties and hardships
they have encountered,
especially due to their sexual
orientation, through colonial
to contemporary times.
The publication of this book
not only fills an unspoken
gap in tongzhi (‘comrade’,
synonym for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender)
history in Hong Kong but
also connects these neglected
elderly people together.
During the monthly private
yum cha gatherings, the men
shared their long-buried
experiences with Kong.
The monthly gathering also
inspired Kong to invite four
artists, Chan Ka-kei, Gyorgy
Ali Palos, Bobby KH Sham
and Wong Kan-tai, to
document their current lives
through photography. Since
most of these gay men are
still living in the closet, one of
the greatest challenges for the
artists was how to photograph
these men without showing
their faces. The other
challenge for them was to
seek ways to show these men’s
intimate relationship with
their specific living locales.
This exhibition features the
resulting works.
Exhibition of photography
18.30-21.30, Wednesday 15 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Anatomy Museum, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Lau China Institute, the Department
of Film Studies & the Cultural Institute at King’s
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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BOBBY K H SHAM (Bobpin) is
a Hong Kong photo artist. He
is also involved in photo art
administration, curation and
education.
WONG KAN-TAI is a
photographer born on Lantau
Island, Hong Kong. He joined the
Hong Kong press, then became
a photojournalist. Wong now
lives in Japan and works as a
freelance photographer.
GYORGY ALI PALOS was born in
Cairo, Egypt. He is a Hungarian
producer, film director, director
of photography, scriptwriter,
and photographer.
CHAN KA-KEI was born in
Shanghai, raised in Hong Kong
and studied in the UK. He is a
freelance graphic designer who
has been working with 2D images
and design for over a decade.
The exhibition is also open
16.00-20.00, Thursday 16 &
Friday 17 October.
A talk about the exhibition will
take place on 16 October – see
p16 for details.
Colony: Part I
“Do you see him? Do you
see the story? Do you see
anything? It seems I am trying
to tell you a dream, making
a vain attempt, because no
relation of a dream can convey
the dream sensation, that
commingling of absurdity,
surprise, and bewilderment in
a tremor of struggling revolt,
that notion of being captured
by the incredible which is the
very essence of dreams...”
(Joseph Conrad)
Colony (noun): a country or
area under the full or partial
political control of another
country and occupied by
settlers from that country.
City. Colony. Imperial.
London. Glass. Superior.
Steel. People. Organization.
Oppression. Life. Tribes. TV.
Repression. Death. Organism.
Colony: Part I (of an ongoing series) is a theatrical
exploration set in a dystopian
world. The production will
ask all-pervasive questions on
British society, culture and
identity.
How do colonies form?
How do we define “colony”
today?
What happens when colonies
are no longer controlled by
their founders (oppressors)?
And how, if at all, do we
remember them?
Tickets: £8 including free drink. Book at www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
A collaboration between
playwrights JINGAN YOUNG,
THOMAS MCMULLAN, LYDIA
THOMSON, VINAY PATEL,
ALLAN JOHNSON, poet JACK
UNDERWOOD and artist
AOWEN JIN
Founded in January of 2013
by Hong Kong born playwright
Jingan Young, POKFULAM RD
PRODUCTIONS is a non-profit
London & Hong Kong theatre
company dedicated to new
writing particularly unheard
East Asian/Chinese voices.
POKFULAM began with a
humble rehearsed reading
in the basement of the
celebrated Albion Bookshop
in north Oxford, followed by
another showcase of new
writing at Maybe a Vole Art
Gallery. POKFULAM’s first
full-scale production, Young’s
play The t-group, premiered
to a sold out run during the
King’s College London Arts &
Humanities Festival 2013.
This event also takes place on
18, 21, 23, 24 October 2014
Theatre
20.00-22.00, Thursday 16 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Secret Venue – gather at reception, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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Guided tours of
Aldwych Underground Station
Aldwych Underground
station was opened as Strand
station on 30 November 1907
and was closed to passengers
in 1994. Now it is mainly a
museum piece, hired out as
a film set and the ticket hall
is frequently used for art
exhibitions, book launches
and other private parties.
The station has a mystique
surrounding it as it was used
as a public air raid shelter
during the Second World
War, including throughout the
Blitz. It was originally named
Strand as it was built on the
site of the Strand Theatre,
but was later renamed to
Aldwych, meaning ‘old
village’, in 1915.
Tickets: £5.
Book at www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
The famous underground
station is well known for
featuring in blockbuster
films such as Atonement, and
V for Vendetta. Aldwych
is still used for filming and
training purposes and is
rarely accessed by the general
public.
This visit to Aldwych is a
rare opportunity to see with
your own eyes some of the
mystery that surrounds ‘the
secret station’ and have a
glimpse into the forgotten
underground.
Please note that visits to the
station are not suitable for
children under 16 years of
age or anyone with breathing
or walking difficulties, as
there are 160 stairs to the
platform and no working lift.
Tours last 60-90 minutes and
we recommend you wear
comfortable, covered shoes.
Guided tours
17.00-18.15, Friday 17 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Aldwych Underground Station, entrance on Surrey Street
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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The tour will start at the
station entrance on Surrey
Street, at the following times:
17.00 – Friday 17 October
18.00 – Monday 20 October
18.00 – Friday 24 October
The Festival will also be hosting
a music performance in
Aldwych Station on the evening
of 17 October. See p25 for
details.
Life Drawing
Drawing has been a
fundamental part of human
experience, from the earliest
recorded traces of art in
underground caves. Why
do we draw, and what
happens to us when we do?
Children are prolific with
pencils and crayons, and
many adults doodle. But
often they give up drawing.
Why do we sometimes
think we can’t draw?
Acclaimed Indian artist Dilip
Sur returns to the Arts &
Humanities Festival for a third
year, offering a series of life
drawing workshops. They
will approach the existential
energies of drawing, offering
a space for participants to
explore the practices of
drawing – including people
who haven’t drawn since
childhood.
For Dilip Sur, life drawing
isn’t an attempt to turn
representing the human into
an academic set of rules. It’s
about drawing life and it is as
much to do with expressing
the life of the person holding
the pencil or charcoal, as
about the person being drawn.
The classes will feature a live
model, though participants
will be free to draw other
subjects. The sessions will
take place in the Anatomy
Museum. Participants will be
able to draw upon this history.
They will also be able to draw
upon the walls.
DILIP SUR teaches at the Royal
College of Art, exhibits at the
Grosvenor Gallery in London,
and collaborated with the
King’s research project on
John Berger, exhibited in the
Inigo Rooms during our 2012
Festival.
This event is also being held at
the following times and dates:
13.00-15.00 and 16.00-18.00 –
Sunday 19 October
18.00-20.00 – Wednesday 22
October
13.00-15.00 – Friday 24 October
Everyone is welcome to join,
even if you haven’t picked up
a pencil in years!
Practical art workshop
11.00-13.00 and 14.00-16.00,
Saturday 18 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Anatomy Museum, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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Under King’s:
tracing the outlines of the old Somerset House
Beneath the King’s College
London Strand Campus lie
the remains of the east wing
of the old Somerset House,
which was demolished along
with the rest of the former
royal palace in 1776. This was
the wing that was built for
Anne of Denmark in 1609-13,
and through the greater part
of the 17th century housed
the private apartments of the
Queen of England – from
Anne to Henrietta Maria
and Catherine of Braganza.
Archaeological investigation
in 2002 detected the presence
of demolition spoil from the
so-called ‘Yellow Room’ or
‘Queen’s Cabinet’ still buried
under modern tarmac, and
other work since then has
added further discoveries.
This walking tour follows
the surviving traces and
ghostly outlines of the old
royal quarters, from the
Archaeology Room in the
East Wing of the present
Somerset House, via the
King’s Building to the College
cycle-park (the former King’s
College School playground)
and Strand Lane; it is
illustrated from contemporary
prints and written accounts.
Stages along the way include
the sites of the courtyard
where Henrietta Maria
starred in a masque designed
by Inigo Jones in 1633, and
of a magnificent allegorical
fountain erected in honour
of Anne of Denmark in 1612.
The tour ends with the true
story of the origins of the
Strand Lane ‘Roman Bath’.
Guided tours
11.00-12.00 & 12.30-13.30,
Saturday 18 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Gather at Reception, East Wing, Somerset House,
King’s College London, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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MICHAEL TRAPP is Professor
of Greek Literature and
Thought at King’s, and has
been researching aspects of
the history and archaeology
of the Strand Campus for the
past decade. He has published
book-chapters and articles
on the College’s statues of
Sappho and Sophocles, Anne
of Denmark’s fountain, and
the true history of the Strand
Lane Bath.
This tour will also take place
at 15.00-16.00 and 17.00-18.00
on Wednesday 22 October 2014.
Autopoiesis 2.0
The exhibition Autopoiesis
2.0 showcases a selection
of artwork received from
members of the public who
are from, living in or transiting
through the United Arab
Emirates. It stems from a
digital art project, led by
Btihaj Ajana, which seeks to
capture, in honest and varied
ways, the diverse identities
and multifarious cultures
of the UAE, beyond the
discourses and representations
of official institutions. The
series of multimedia work
presented in this exhibition
provides the viewer with a
window into the personal
and communal aspects of the
region as experienced by its
own residents and visitors.
The exhibition is free and
open to all.
Photograph by Hamad Al Falasi
To accompany the exhibition,
Btihaj Ajana will be giving
a talk about her project
Autopoiesis from which the
exhibition was conceived.
The talk, which is part of
the CHArt 2014 conference,
discusses the background
and inception of the project
and how it emerged from
a marked need to provide
ordinary people in the UAE
with a platform for intimate
and artistic self-expression.
See p28 for details of the CHArt
conference.
Exhibition
19.00-21.00, Saturday 18 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Anatomy Museum, King’s Building, Strand Campus
BTIHAJ AJANA is an academic
in the Departments of Media,
Culture & Creative Industries,
and Digital Humanities at
King’s College London. Her
teaching, writing and research
interests are concerned
with the areas of culture
and identity, ethics and
politics, and the philosophy
of digital media. She is the
author of Governing through
Biometrics: The Biopolitics of
Identity (Palgrave, 2013), which
provides a critical analysis
of the various socio-political
and ethical implications of
identity systems and the
policies of immigration and
citizenship. Btihaj is currently
developing projects on cultural
and creative processes with
a particular focus on the
emerging cultural and museum
initiatives in Arab states, and
how these are reconfiguring
narratives about culture and
identity, heritage and memory
in the region.
Exhibition also open 17.00-21.00
on 23 and 24 October 2014.
Presented by the Department of Digital Humanities
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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Guided tours of Somerset House
Discover Tudor intrigue and
Georgian Enlightenment,
scientific curiosity and
naval power, extravagant
entertainments and ‘the
King’s Shilling’, as an
expert guide leads you
through Somerset House;
from the airy lightwells of
graceful staircases to the
atmospheric Deadhouse.
These tours also include
exclusive access to the
Archaeology Room in the
East Wing, where you can see
the foundations of the original
Somerset House, and a visit to
the nearby Strand Lane Bath.
Tours will last approximately
60 minutes and we
recommend you have
comfortable footwear.
A new highlight of the tour
is The Miles Stair, named
in honour of the outgoing
Director. Located in the West
Wing and designed by the
internationally renowned
architect Eva Jiricna, the stair
represents her most ambitious
stair structure yet. The treads
and landings are made from
a material called ductal – this
product is a thousand times
stronger than concrete.
SOMERSET HOUSE is a
spectacular neo-classical
building in the heart of London,
sitting between the Strand
and the River Thames. During
summer months 55 fountains
dance in the courtyard, and
in winter you can skate on
London’s favourite ice rink.
Somerset House also hosts
open-air concerts and films,
contemporary art and design
exhibitions, family workshops
and free guided tours of
spaces usually hidden to
visitors.
The Trust’s mission is to
conserve and maintain
Somerset House to the highest
standards and to develop the
site as a public space which
is universally recognised as a
world class visitor attraction
and centre of excellence for
culture and the arts.
The tour will also take place at
17.15 on Thursday 23 October.
Guided tours
12.15; 13.15; 14.15; 15.15;
Sunday 19 October 2014 – more dates in side panel
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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Wednesday 15 October 2014
18.30-20.00
In conversation: Sheltering in
London in the Second World War
18.30-20.00
In conversation: ‘And nothing is,
but what is not’
18.30-21.30
Exhibition of photography:
The Unforgettable & the Unspoken
see p4 for details
Sheltering in London
in the Second World War
When the first sustained
bombing attacks on London
began in September 1940,
vast numbers of Londoners
dashed underground. Over
the next eight months of the
Blitz, thousands of people
spent hours at a time in
basements, public shelters
and tube stations. Quickly,
communities developed,
with certain shelters known
for their camaraderie and
others for their seediness. And
artists began to document the
peculiar new life being created
underground, most notably
Henry Moore who found
that the reclining figures of
his sculptures had been given
a strange actuality in the
sleeping shelterers.
In this discussion, historian
Antony Beevor and art
historian Andrew GrahamDixon will join literary
historian Lara Feigel in
teasing out the history of
sheltering in the Second
World War in London,
ranging from political
questions of civil defence
policy to the underground
experiences of civilians and
ARP wardens (including
Graham Greene among
others) and consider their
representation in art.
In conversation
18.30-20.00, Wednesday 15 October 2014
Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre,
King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
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Image: with thanks to Tate Modern
ANTONY BEEVOR is the author
of Stalingrad (Samuel Johnson
and Wolfson Prizes), Berlin,
The Battle for Spain, D-Day,
and The Second World War. His
books have appeared in thirty
languages selling just over six
million copies. He is a visiting
professor at the University
of Kent.
ANDREW GRAHAM-DIXON is one
of the leading art critics in
the English-speaking world.
He has presented numerous
landmark series on art for the
BBC, including the celebrated
A History of British Art and has
written a number of acclaimed
books. He has judged both
the Turner Prize and the BP
National Portrait Prize.
LARA FEIGEL is a Senior
Lecturer in the English
department at King’s, the
co-director of the Centre for
Modern Literature and Culture
and the author of The Lovecharm of Bombs: Restless Lives
in the Second World War.
‘And nothing is, but what is not’:
Chiara Guidi in conversation
Chiara Guidi, one of the
founding members of Italian
theatre company Societas
Raffaello Sanzio, is working on
a new production of Macbeth,
which marks the completion
of a long process of research,
including a year-long course
dedicated to adolescents
and one month of intensive
training for the actors of the
Théâtre National de Bretagne
(international Prospero
project).
Chiara presents some of her
work on this new production
and discusses the creative
process with Sonia Massai.
Chiara Guidi writes:
“
Reading Macbeth over
the years, I have tended to
approach the text like an
archaeologist. I sense a hidden
layer of meaning that leads
to other possible meanings
so that every re-reading
produces a slightly different
text, even though its words are
unchanged.
Its words are haunted by a
pervasive absence and it is
that absence which I attempt
to access and observe.
What figures inhabit this
absence?
… Underneath its words,
in the underground of its
own tale, Macbeth hides
a magnificent acoustic
resonance that, captured by
the human voice, shapes the
gaze and what is invisible.
Macbeth gives shape to the
empty space of its own
absence.
… Staging Macbeth means
staging “what is”, though
invisible.
By staging the underground,
Macbeth voices that gap that
makes change, any change,
possible.
”
Image: © Eva Castellucci
CHIARA GUIDI, along with
Romeo and Claudia Castellucci,
was one of the founders
of Socìetas Raffello Sanzio
in 1981. She was the soul
of dramatic rhythm and
vocal composition for the
company’s productions,
directing numerous plays
and researching each actor’s
spoken part.
With the Socìetas Chiara
Guidi produced plays which
were performed all over the
world at major international
festivals and theatres.
In 2013 she received the
prestigious UBU Award in Italy
for the Màntica and Puerilia
Festivals.
Introduction by ALAN READ,
Professor of Theatre, King’s
College London
In conversation with SONIA
MASSAI, Professor of
Shakespeare Studies, King’s
College London
In conversation
18.30-20.00, Wednesday 15 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the London Shakespeare Centre
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
13
Thursday 16 October 2014
16.00-20.00
Exhibition of photography: The Unforgettable & the Unspoken
see p4 for details
18.30-20.00
20.00-22.00
Inaugural Lecture: Ananya Kabir:
A Secret History of the Dance Floor
After party with international DJs
18.30-20.00
Exhibition talk: The Unforgettable &
the Unspoken
18.30-20.30 Film Screening: La Mia Classe
19.00-20.30 Discussion: Gods underground in Roman
London (and beyond)
20.00-21.30
Theatre: Colony: Part I
see p5 for details
Inaugural Lecture: Ananya Kabir:
A Secret History of the Dance Floor
The ‘dance floor’ – a space,
typically situated in a club
in a city, which people visit
expressly to dance and
dress up – is now a global
phenomenon. It has generated
vast transnational industries of
fashion, branding, and music,
as well as innumerable local
scenes through which people
enjoy themselves on weekend
evenings. From Motown to
Bollywood, popular songs
celebrate its pleasures and
urge us to embrace them,
by losing ourselves to the
beat. But how did the dance
floor emerge? What is its
relationship to labour and
leisure? Why is there still
something highly desirable yet
faintly illicit about spending
our time in this fashion?
In this lecture, Ananya Kabir
will unveil the secret history
of the dance floor. We will
move from drum circles on
sugar plantations, through
Paris Noir and New York’s
Jazz Age, to the proliferation
of clubs worldwide. Desire,
sexuality, and race will all be
in the mix, as this lecture will
finally reveal what it means
to be ‘lost in music’ and why,
‘last night, a DJ saved my life’.
After the lecture, join the
party! The international DJs
Wilfrid Vertueux (DJ Willy
the Viper, Paris), Benjamin
LeBrave (Akwaaba Records,
Accra), and John Armstrong
(London), will offer guests the
best of Latin, Afro-Electronic,
and tropical sounds.
The following day, they
will participate in a special
panel discussion about the
relationship between the DJ
and the dance floor – see p22
for details.
Image: Brenna Daldorph
ANANYA JAHANARA KABIR is
Professor of English Literature
at the Department of English,
King’s College London, where
she works at the intersections
of culture, embodiment,
memory, and post-trauma
in the global South; she is
also a Research Affiliate of
the King’s India Institute.
She directs Modern Moves
(www.modernmoves.org.
uk), a five-year research
project funded by a European
Research Council Advanced
Grant that examines the
transoceanic travels and
global proliferations of
Afro-diasporic rhythms. She
is also the author of (most
recently), Territory of Desire:
Representing the Valley of
Kashmir (2009) and Partition’s
Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and
Modern South Asia (2013).
Inaugural Lecture
18.30-20.00, Thursday 16 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
After party – 20.00-22.00 – join us for dancing in Chapters
From the Department of English
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
15
The Unforgettable & the Unspoken:
Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong
In association with the
exhibition held in the
Anatomy Museum (see p4),
sociologist Travis Kong, in
conversation with Jeffrey
Weeks OBE, discusses his
experience of regular private
yam cha (‘drinking tea’) with
gay men aged 60 or above
in Hong Kong, which has
culminated in the publication
of his book, Oral History of
Older Gay Men in Hong Kong.
The associated art project,
and resulting exhibition,
provides a glimpse into the
current lives of these men,
many of whom are still living
in the closet.
Using the method of oral
history, this book documents
twelve life stories of gay men
over 60 who live in Hong
Kong. It captures how the
complexity of their lives
is interwoven with Hong
Kong history as well as the
difficulties and hardships
they have encountered,
especially due to their sexual
orientation, through colonial
to contemporary times.
Following the discussion,
audience members will have
the opportunity to view
the exhibition at a drinks
reception in the Anatomy
Museum.
Travis Kong will show a
short film about the project,
followed by a talk and
discussions with Professor
Weeks, before opening the
dialogue up to take questions
from the audience.
Exhibition talk
18.30-20.00, Thursday 16 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Lau China Institute, the Department
of Film Studies & the Cultural Institute at King’s
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
16
TRAVIS SK KONG received
his MA and PhD in Sociology
from the University of
Essex (UK). He is Associate
Professor in Sociology and
Programme Director of the
Master of Social Sciences
in Media, Culture & Creative
Cities at The University of
Hong Kong. For many years,
he has been researching
gender/sexuality, media and
culture, and critically applying
contemporary Western
sociological theories to the
studies of homosexuality, sex
industry and sexual cultures in
Hong Kong and mainland China.
JEFFREY WEEKS OBE is Emeritus
Professor in the Weeks Centre
for Social and Policy Studies at
London South Bank University.
His research interests include
the history and sociology of
sexuality and intimate life,
with particular emphasis on
LGBT identities and ways of
life, changing family patterns,
sexual values and ethics, and
sexual theory.
Film screening: La Mia Classe
The ostensibly simple story
of a sympathetic veteran
teacher giving Italian lessons
to a weekly class of diverse
immigrants is given infinitely
more depth and complexity
by the manner in which
director Daniele Gaglianone
renders his story. Blurring
the lines between fact and
fiction, truth and artifice,
and between documentary
and drama, Gaglianone has
created a film within a film.
You see the apparent artifice
of Gaglianone’s crew using
professionals, including
the noted film actor Valerio
Mastandrea as the teacher,
interlinked with ‘real’
immigrant protagonists,
studying the language to
improve their chances of
employment and of gaining a
permanent residence permit.
Thus in the course of the lessons
there is simultaneously the
painful and upsetting relation
of the students’ personal
stories but also humour, as
they interact and share their
humanity, bridging cultural
differences, united in their
striving to make a better life for
themselves.*
La Mia Classe, by the Italian
director Daniele Gaglianone,
has been presented at
international film festivals
such as Venice, BFI London
Film Festival and Seattle.
It is a docufilm portraying
an Italian class made up
of a group of immigrants
from different backgrounds
studying Italian in Italy, in
order to integrate and find
work in the country.
The screening will be followed
by a Q&A with the director.
* review from www.IMDb.com
Film screening with Q&A
18.30-20.30, Thursday 16 October 2014
Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, Strand Campus
Image: Pablo Distribuzione
DANIELE GAGLIANONE is an
Italian-born writer and
director, known for his
documentaries as well as
his narrative features. He
is involved with the National
Film Archive of the Resistance
in Turin, Italy, and teaches
workshops at the OffiCine
Mattòli in Macerata.
DONATA PUNTIL is the Team
Leader for Italian, Spanish
& Linguistics at the Modern
Language Centre. Her main
research interests include
applied linguistics, cinema,
literature, visual arts,
psychology of education and
psychoanalysis.
SILVIA COLAIACOMO is deputy
team leader for Italian at
the Modern Language Centre.
She is currently leading a
working group on Conversation
Analysis applied to foreign
language teaching.
PAOLO NELLI is a Lecturer of
Italian at the Modern Language
Centre. He is also a published
author of novels and short
stories.
Presented by the Modern Language Centre
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
17
Gods underground in
Roman London (& beyond)
2014 marks the 60th
anniversary of the discovery of
the temple of the god Mithras
near the Walbrook, just
south-west of the Bank of
England and at the centre
of Roman London. Still
one of the most important
excavations to have taken
place in the city, this was
an archaeological sensation,
revealing a rich collection of
cult statuary buried in the
floor of the building, which
was built in the mid-third
century AD. The temple was
not only ‘underground’ in that
it had been buried and lost to
memory in the intervening
1500 years; its unobtrusive
low-lying position by the
stream also contributed to the
secretive initiate character of
the cult, to which the shrine’s
location and form were central.
This talk examines the
significance of this key site
which attracted visitors in
extra-ordinary numbers at
the time of its excavation in
1954. John Shepherd reviews
what we now understand of
the temple, its setting and
discovery, following the recent
excavations in 2013, and
explains why this iconic site
merits redisplay in the context
of contemporary London.
Our understanding of the
Mithraic mysteries and
of the people and gods of
Roman London is much
changed in recent decades.
Other contributors from the
Museum of London and from
the Classics department at
King’s, where the history of
the religions of Antiquity is a
major focus, will explore the
meaning of the temple in its
London setting for the early
21st century.
Discussion
19.00-20.30, Thursday 16 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Classics
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
18
Image: Museum of London
JOHN SHEPHERD, archaeologist,
published the landmark
volume on the 1954 Mithraeum
excavation and is currently
consultant on the excavations
by Museum of London
Archaeology in advance of the
building of Bloomberg’s new
European headquarters.
DR HUGH BOWDEN, Senior
Lecturer in Ancient History at
King’s, specialises in the study
of Greek and Roman religion,
especially mystery cults.
DR JOHN PEARCE, Lecturer in
Archaeology at King’s, has
interests in ritual and religion
in the Roman provinces.
DR REBECCA REDFERN is
Curator of Human Osteology
at the Museum of London and
studies the inhabitants of
Roman London through their
skeletal remains.
Friday 17 October 2014
13.00-19.00
Reading: Dante’s Inferno: a marathon
reading
16.00-20.00
Exhibition of photography: The Unforgettable & the Unspoken
see p4 for details
17.00-18.15
Guided tours: Aldwych Underground
Station
see p6 for details
18.30-20.00
Debate: Young Arab Voices:
going underground – alternative methods
for social change
18.30-20.00 Panel discussion: In the Mix: DJs, dance
floors, diasporas
18.30-20.00 Discussion: Dead spaces? Crypts &
cemeteries in modern London
18.30-20.30
Panel discussion & performance:
What lies beneath? Exploring the hidden
currents of the classical music world
19.00-20.00
Performance: Electric underground:
Trio Aporia + live electronics
19.00-00.00
Immersive performance: Khthonios:
Orpheus & Eurydice
Dante’s Inferno:
a marathon reading
Dante’s Inferno, widely hailed
as one of the great classics of
Western literature, is the first
part of his 14th-century epic
poem Divine Comedy. It tells
of the poet’s journey through
Hell, in which Hell is depicted
as nine circles of suffering
located within the Earth.
The voyage begins during
Easter week in the year 1300,
the descent through Hell
starting on Good Friday.
After meeting his guide, the
Roman poet Virgil, in a dark
wood, the two poets begin
their descent through a baleful
world of doleful shades,
horrifying tortures, and
unending lamentation.
A response to the social
problems of 13th-century
Italy, the Inferno reveals the
forms of eternal punishment
for various sins and describes
the fates of a wide variety of
characters, culminating in
terrifying vision of Satan.
This event, which will
take place in the College
Chapel, will involve the
whole of Dante’s Inferno,
in Robin Kirkpatrick’s
translation, being read
over the course of six hours
by over 30 volunteers,
interspersed with appropriate
musical interruptions.
The readers will be made
up of staff and students from
King’s, with some guest
appearances, and audience
members are encouraged
to stay for as long (or as
little!) as they would like.
Reading
13.00-19.00, Friday 17 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Centre for Late Antique &
Medieval Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
20
The CENTRE FOR LATE ANTIQUE
& MEDIEVAL STUDIES was
founded in 1988. It is unique
in Britain in its range of
subjects and chronological
span. Close relations with the
CENTRE FOR HELLENIC STUDIES
also provide a combination of
Eastern and Western Medieval
Studies without parallel
nationally and internationally.
The intellectual vitality of
contemporary Medieval
Studies is fully reflected
in the diversity of the
theoretical and methodological
approaches practised by
King’s medievalists, for
whom the Centre provides a
space and catalyst for the
critical exchange of ideas.
Young Arab Voices:
going underground –
alternative methods for social change
Young Arab Voices (YAV)
presents a debate, chaired and
moderated by Professor
Leila Simona Talani
(European & International
Studies, King’s College
London). The YAV Debaters
will discuss the alternative
solutions which youth in the
Arab Region are developing
in order to revive their
societies culturally, socially
and economically, through an
underground scene created
and promoted by different
youth groups from across
the region, away from the
eyes of the authorities and
traditions. It is believed
that this underground scene
was one of the instigators of
the waves of changes that
caused the Arab Spring.
The underground scene has
developed rapidly since the
start of the Arab Spring and
is now clearly visible in its
impact on social, political
and cultural life. Examples
would include youth-led
charity work and Mahraganat
street music in Egypt, graffiti
culture in Tunisia, youth
political movements in
Morocco, and new business
startups and social enterprise
in Jordan. This scene is now
being acknowledged as
young people’s alternative
solutions to their societies’
problems. However, recent
developments in the region
have raised fears that
pressure will be applied
on these groups to go back
underground.
Debate
18.30-20.00, Friday 17 October 2014
River Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
YOUNG ARAB VOICES is a
regional project, jointly
launched by the British Council
and the Anna Lindh Foundation,
aimed at developing skills and
opportunities for youth-led
debate across the Arab region.
Young Arab Voices, since
its launch in 2011, aims at
providing opportunities, tools,
and capacity building for
the involvement of youth in
running and managing effective
debates for the purpose
of enriching the pluralistic
democratic dialogue existing
in the Arab world. It depends
on establishing partnerships
with the education sector, as
well as the civil society sector;
from NGOs, youth groups,
culture centres, schools
and universities, as well as
the concerned ministries
in the targeted countries:
Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco.
www.youngarabvoices.org
Presented by the Department of European &
International Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
21
In the Mix:
DJs, dance floors, diasporas
From house parties and music
festivals to the rueda and the
techno rave, the DJ plays
a crucial role in stitching
together the sonic narrative
of the dance floor. But what
does a DJ do, exactly? How
does she or he create mood
through music? And why do
DJs still matter in a moment
where iTunes charts and the
Beatport Top 100 dictate
what people think they want
to hear?
Join us for a lively discussion
between three DJs with
specialties in distinctly afrodiasporic musical traditions
– Wilfrid Vertueux (DJ
Willy the Viper) (Latin
music), Benjamin Lebrave
(African music) and John
Armstrong (“world beat”
music) – who will each share
their experiences with moving
bodies on dance floors all over
the world.
JOHN ARMSTRONG is a
London media litigation
lawyer by profession (no
longer practising) and a DJ,
broadcaster, album compiler,
writer, music journalist and
record collector by passion
since early childhood.
WILFRID VERTUEUX (DJ WILLY
THE VIPER), visual designer and
DJ from Paris, was brought
up in metropolitan France,
but received an education
from his parents that kept
alive his connection to French
Caribbean roots.
BENJAMIN LEBRAVE is founder
of Akwaaba, an organisation
dedicated to spreading African
music and pop culture. Born
and raised in Paris, Benjamin
graduated from ENSAE (Paris
Tech) with a double master’s
degree in economics and
statistics. Benjamin now runs
Akwaaba from Accra, Ghana.
Panel discussion
18.30-20.00, Friday 17 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by Modern Moves
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
22
Dead spaces?
Crypts & cemeteries in modern London
We tend to think about burial
places as cities of the dead,
not least in the context of the
gothic imaginings of ghost
and horror stories. Yet it is of
course the living who invest
meaning in crypts, cemeteries
and churchyards, and their
histories offer fascinating
– sometimes macabre and
piquant – insights into
social, cultural, religious and
national history, not least in
the metropolis of London.
This event brings together
three historians who have
played important parts in the
recent investigation of the
history of such places in the
capital city. Arthur Burns
will explore the remarkable
story of how the crypt of St
Paul’s Cathedral developed
into one of the capital’s major
tourist attractions as a site of
national memory. Malcolm
Johnson will draw on his
unrivalled knowledge of
the crypts of London to
document the often unseen
but remarkable details of the
burials accommodated, and
how in the last century new
pastoral and commercial
initiatives gave such spaces
new and vital roles in the life
of the church. Julian Litten
will focus on the public
catacombs at Kensal Green
Cemetery to explore how the
new London private jointstock cemetery companies
of the early nineteenth
century catered for highstatus customers seeking
subterranean deposit.
The stories that they tell
offer new insights, sometimes
entertaining and sometimes
horrifying, into a very
particular aspect of the
history of the metropolis, and
offer food for thought on the
inevitable moment when we
ourselves have to confront our
own futures ‘underground’.
Image: with thanks to David Hoffman
PROFESSOR ARTHUR BURNS is
professor of Modern British
History at King’s College
London and vice-president of
the Royal Historical Society.
He was one of the editors of St
Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of
London 603-2003 (2004), which
won the William Berger Prize
for British Art History in 2004.
REV DR MALCOLM JOHNSON FSA
is an Anglican clergyman and
historian, who while rector
of St Botolph without Aldgate
made its crypt synonymous
with work for the homeless of
the East End.
DR JULIAN LITTEN Hon D Art
FSA FSA (Scot) is a leading
authority on English funeral
customs, which formed the
subject of his PhD and his wellknown book The English Way of
Death (1994); he also devised
the burial of the Unknown
Mariner from the Mary Rose
at Portsmouth Cathedral in
1984.
Panel discussion
18.30-20.00, Friday 17 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of History
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
23
Exploring the hidden currents of
the classical music world
Western classical music, like
other cultural sectors, is often
seen as a field where talent,
merit and self-application
are rewarded. Of course, it is
widely known that musicians,
like many other artists, do not
earn much and have to cope
with increasingly casualised
working conditions, involving
low pay, the risk of playing
related injuries and job
insecurity. However, less
is said about the on-going
inequalities of the profession.
Women, people from
working-class backgrounds
and ethnic minorities continue
to be underrepresented in
classical music. In 2013, the
conductor Vasily Petrenko
questioned women’s ability to
conduct orchestras by stating
that orchestras ‘react better
when they have a man in front
of them’. While education and
outreach programmes work
to engage new audiences,
classical music remains a
cultural form that is mainly
enjoyed and performed by the
white middle-class.
This event, which features
musicians, academics and
cultural sector partners, will
ask how it is that classical
music remains so unequal.
If talent and self-application
matter, why is it that those
in positions of power tend
to fit into quite a narrow
– mainly male, white and
middle-class – demographic?
By excavating personal
stories, research data, and
musical tales, this panel
aims to dig deeper into the
underground of the profession
to explore why demographic
background, rather than talent
and hard work, matters.
Panel discussion & performance
18.30-20.30, Friday 17 October 2014
Tutu’s, Macadam Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Culture, Media &
Creative Industries
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
24
Image: © Ayanna Music
What lies beneath?
ANNA BULL is currently engaged
in ESRC funded PhD research
on the pathways of young
classical musicians to
illuminate questions of class,
authority, and bodily practice
in classical music.
ALICE FARNHAM is Course
Director of Women Conductors
at Morley – encouraging
women into the profession.
BEVERLEY MASON, director at
medar pysden international, is
a consultant researcher and
advisor in the cultural and
creative industries.
CHRISTINA SCHARFF recently won
the prestigious ESRC Future
Research Leaders grant to
conduct extensive research on
the working lives of classically
trained, female musicians.
AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON is
a young, ‘up-and-coming’
composer and performer.
JESSICA DUCHEN is a classical
music journalist, novelist
and playwright who writes
regularly for the Independent.
Electric Underground
Trio Aporia + live electronics
Electric Underground –
an electro-acoustic trip within
and beneath. Trio Aporia,
on the threshold as found
object, occupies Aldwych
Underground Station,
weaving readymade resonant
bodies of sound, permeating
this unique acoustic space.
Fields of sustained tones –
repetition and difference, in an
exploration of the “infrathin”,
making the inaudible audible.
Electric Underground
provides the perfect
atmospheric, non-concert
hall environment for world
premieres of new commissions
by Paul Newland and Paul
Whitty and the opportunity
to enjoy evocative pieces
composed for Aporia by Alan
Williams (New Music North
West Festival, 2013) and Neal
Farwell (Rameau+new
sonic worlds project, 2014),
alongside acoustic works
by renaissance composers,
Sweelinck and Hume.
TRIO APORIA was formed by
STEPHEN PRESTON (baroque
flute) with JANE CHAPMAN
(harpsichord) and RICHARD
BOOTHBY (viola da gamba) in
2012 as a crucible for 21st
century music making. Aporia
focuses on the contemporary
potential of their instruments
through new commissions,
electroacoustics,
improvisation, and a
continuing exploration of
historical impossibilities.
Programme includes:
Paul Newland – fields of sound
Paul Whitty – trembling earth
Neal Farwell – Rain From Other
Seasons
Alan Williams – Advices and
Queries
Stephen Preston – There is
always only within
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck –
Paduana Lachrimae
Tobias Hume – Death (1605)
Note: standing only
Performance
19.00-20.00, Friday 17 October 2014
Aldwych Underground Station, Surrey Street entrance
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
25
Khthonios: Orpheus & Eurydice
17 October 1940 – You are
cordially invited to the wedding
of O. Oeagrou and E. Apollou
When tragedy strikes, it’s up
to a small group of friends of
the bride and groom to risk
their sanity and their souls to
try and right a terrible wrong
and reunite two separated
lovers. Taking on the role
of a wedding guest you will
embark on a mission which
will take you from 1940s
London to the depths of the
underworld to confront the
denizens of Hades’ realm. Few
mortals have dared to attempt
such a feat and even fewer
have returned to the land of
the living unscathed.
Will you succeed? And what
will be the price?
Based on the successful
‘Midnight Run’ event,
Khthonios (‘in, under,
beneath the earth’) is a shared,
immersive performance.
Taking place around the
King’s Waterloo and Strand
buildings, participants will
be lead on a mysterious
journey and, over the course
of the evening, given the
opportunity to create, think,
feel, do and, above all, be
part of a shared narrative
experience.
Khthonios may involve periods of sustained, moderate physical activity, mild
horror, nudity, sensory deprivation and tight spaces. Participants should wear
comfortable, easy-to-move-in clothes/footwear and are encouraged to bring
camera-enabled phones. Some food will be provided.
Not suitable for those under 18.
Tickets £10. Limited space. Book via www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
Immersive performance
19.00-23.59, Friday 17 October 2014
Gather at FWB Reception, Waterloo Campus
A Digital Humanities production presented by the
Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
26
DR K FAITH LAWRENCE is
a Research Associate in
Digital Humanities working
on various projects from
Classical Gnomologia and
Prosopographia, Medieval
witness testimonies and
probate rulings, to C20th
musical theorists. When
not involved in development
her research areas include
narrative annotation, linked
data and fan works.
DREW BAKER is a research
fellow within the Department
of Digital Humanities at
King’s College London. One
of the founding members
of the King’s Visualisation
Lab, he has worked in the
field of 3D visualisation and
interpretation of archaeology
and history since 1997.
Saturday 18 October 2014
09.00-19.00
Conference: Conformity, Process & Deviation:
Digital Arts as ‘Outsider’
11.00-12.00 & Guided tour: Under King’s: tracing the outlines
12.30-13.30
of the old Somerset House
11.00-14.00
Dance workshop: Kaizen Dance
11.00-13.00
14.00-16.00
Practical art workshop:
Life Drawing
17.00-19.00 Poetry & music: Forgiveness, Relationship &
Reunion: Haydn & the Seven Last Words of
Christ on the Cross
18.00-19.30
Film screening: Rikos ja Rangaistus (Crime &
Punishment)
19.00-21.00 Exhibition: Autopoesis 2.0
see p9 for details
19.30-21.00
Talk & performance: Rebetika & the Eastern
Mediterranean underground
20.00-21.30
Theatre: Colony: Part I
see p5 for details
Conformity, process & deviation:
digital arts as ‘outsider’
Image © The Exquisite Cabinet by Caroline Claisse,
Royal College of Art, London, Degree Show 2014.
29th Conference of Computers & the History of Art
Digital engagement with art is
thriving. Much of it is actively
subversive of the traditional
frameworks that enable art
to be created and responded
to – whether casually or
professionally. This subversion
takes various forms, including
notions of value, uniqueness,
fixity and location.
The CHArt 2014 Conference
wishes to explore the role of
digital technologies in the
underground creation, display,
consumption and study of art.
The online urbandictionary.com
defines underground as follows:
“A genre in music and other
forms of media intended
for an elite audience, that is
often characterized by its
high levels of originality and
experimentation, and does not
conform to typical standards,
trends, or hypes as set by the
popular mainstream media”.
If emerging conformity
and new processes must
be disrupted, then what is
mainstream, and what is not?
– and who can tell?
This international conference
consists of presentations
of theoretical papers and
demonstrations of academic
and artistic work addressing –
metaphorically or literally –
questions of subversive
content, design and
communication.
Participation is welcome from
all sections of the CHArt
community: art historians,
artists, archaeologists,
architects, philosophers,
archivists, curators, scientists,
cultural and media theorists,
users and critics.
Conference
09.00-19.00, Saturday 18 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Digital Humanities
in association with CHArt
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
28
CHArt | Computers & the
History of Art was established
in 1985. CHArt’s mission is to
examine and raise awareness
of innovative digital techniques
that support the creation,
study, administration, curation
and display of all forms of
art and design. The scope of
CHArt is necessarily broad to
encompass all aspects of the
history of art and design, but
is also constrained by a focus
on how technology supports
engagement with this field.
(www.chart.ac.uk)
CHArt is hosted by
the Department of Digital
Humanities, King’s College
London.
The event is curated by
a CHArt team lead by
Dr Anna Bentkowska-Kafel.
For up-to-date programme
and information about
speakers please visit
www.chart.ac.uk
Kaizen Dance Workshop
with live drumming
Join Kwenda Lima in an
exhilarating workshop of
Kaizen Dance – a structured
yet improvised use of West
African dance techniques in
non-narrative, movementbased therapy that makes
participants reflect on
their immersion in modern
life. Kaizen instigates a
mind-body connection
that balances Buddhist
emphases on meditation
and detachment with West
African spirituality’s intimate
relationship with communal,
percussion-led movement.
Through a unique
combination of intuition and
analytical intelligence, the
charismatic Kwenda is able
to reach out to the group
no matter what the precise
conditions are: the dimensions
of the room, languages shared
(or not), and the number of
participants.
This is guaranteed to
be an exhilarating and
transformative experience for
all. Come and feel the power
of percussion coursing through
your body as you move (and
think) like you never thought
you could!
Dance workshop
11.00-14.00, Saturday 18 October 2014
Chapters, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Image: courtesy Elina Djebbari
KWENDA LIMA was born in
Cape Verde in 1977. He is an
accomplished dancer and
choreographer with more
than 10 years’ experience
in teaching traditional and
modern couple dances from
Angola and Cape Verde. His
unique command of style and
musicality has made him one
of the world’s most sought
after teachers of the Angolan
dance form kizomba. With his
dance company, he is also
building up a repertoire of
contemporary African dance,
including, most recently,
the thought-provoking work
Muloma (Let Us Be United).
In another life, Kwenda also
obtained a PhD in Aerospace
Engineering from Kingston
University in London; he
believes in having carried
over (and transformed)
engineering’s basic principle
of creating comfortable
conditions for human
existence, into his current
work with kaizen dance.
Presented by Modern Moves & the Arts & Humanities
Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
29
Forgiveness, Relationship & Reunion:
Haydn & the Seven Last Words of Christ
on the Cross
sequence ‘Seven Words and
an Earthquake’, a response
to the Words and also to
Haydn’s music and his Finale,
Il Terremoto, an evocation
of the earthquake which,
according to St Matthew,
took place at Christ’s
death. Her poems bring out
a progression in Christ’s
The Seven Last Words of
Words from attending to
Christ on the Cross were
other people, in Forgiveness,
excerpted from the four
gospels and form a traditional Comfort and Relationship,
part of services in Holy Week. to acknowledging personal
Dr Rowan Williams discusses feelings in Abandonment,
Need, Fulfilment and
their history and resonance
Reunion. Dr Williams will
and cellist David Waterman
read his poem ‘Gethsemane’
discusses Haydn’s string
and the Endellion String
quartet Op. 51. Haydn was
commissioned in 1787 to write Quartet will play Haydn’s
seven movements in response music with Ruth Padel
to Christ’s Words to be played reading poems between each
of Haydn’s movements. Each
between a bishop’s sermons
upon them in Cadiz Cathedral poem ends with the Word on
which the following music
at Easter. Ruth Padel
meditates.
introduces her new poetry
In King’s Chapel, designed
by Gilbert Scott in 1864
and modelled on an ancient
basilica, we embark on a
unique journey of words and
music with the Endellion
String Quartet, Dr Rowan
Williams and poet Ruth
Padel.
Poetry & music
17.00-19.00, Saturday 18 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of English
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
30
Image: Endellion String Quartet © Eric Richmond
The ENDELLION STRING
QUARTET, ANDREW WATKINSON
and RALPH DE SOUZA violins,
GARFIELD JACKSON on viola,
DAVID WATERMAN on cello, is
“arguably the finest quartet
in Britain, playing with poise,
true intonation, excellent
balance and beautiful tone”
(New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians).
DR ROWAN WILLIAMS, poet
and theologian, Master of
Magdalen College Cambridge
was Archbishop of Canterbury
2002-12. His collected poems
came out in April (Poems of
Rowan Williams, Carcanet
2014).
RUTH PADEL, Poetry Fellow
at King’s, is a prize-winning
poet whose latest collection
is Learning to Make an Oud in
Nazareth. “Inlaid poetry. The
magnificent section on the
crucifixion is an imaginative
feat” (Observer).
Film screening: Rikos ja Rangaistus
(Crime & Punishment)
Inspired by Dostoevsky’s
famous novel, this engrossing
Finnish version of Crime and
Punishment revolves around
an ex-law student in Helsinki
(Markku Toikka) who now
works in a slaughterhouse.
One day the worker searches
out the drunk driver that
had killed his fiancée and
coldly shoots him to death.
The worker does not get
away without being seen
by a woman named Eeva
(Aino Seppo), and in spite
of the fact that the woman
knows everything, including
his name (Rahikainen), she
says nothing to the police
about it. Instead, she and
Rahikainen, the murderer,
become involved in an affair
that cannot possibly have a
future.*
Image: Toneli Eskola, Sputnik Oy
Specially chosen by RICHARD
AYOADE, to be a companion
piece to The Double, which will
be screened on the evening of
Sunday 19 October (see p36).
These film screenings will
inform the panel discussion
with Richard Ayoade, taking
place on Monday 20 October
(see p38).
Not suitable for those under 12.
* source: Rotten Tomatoes – www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rikos-ja-rangaistuscrime-and-punishment/
Film screening
18.00-21.30, Saturday 18 October 2014
Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
31
Rebetika & the Eastern
Mediterranean underground
The popular musics of Greece,
Turkey, Egypt and the
Levant shaped an affective
underground across the
region for much of the 20th
century, the popular styles
of one country spilling over
into the next thanks to radio,
film and recordings. Post
war migration made them
a subterranean presence in
London’s soundscape, too,
from Green Lanes to the
Edgware Road and beyond.
What imbued these hybrid,
cosmopolitan musical
practices with such power,
persuasion and resilience?
What did the authorities, from
place to place, from era to era,
fear in them, exactly? How
did the musical underground
of one country become that
of another? What cultural
and political labour do these
genres still perform? What
charge do they still carry?
Roderick Beaton, Director
of the Centre for Hellenic
Studies and Koraes Professor
of Modern Greek and
Byzantine Language and
Literature and Martin
Stokes, King Edward
Professor of Music, will
give two short, illustrated,
talks, exploring the idea,
and the allure, of a musical
underground, Beaton focusing
on rebetika, Stokes on broader
Eastern Mediterranean
soundscapes.
Cigdem Aslan, Oxford
Maqam and friends will
give musical performance
exploring the shared repertory,
the connections and the
differences.
Talk & performance
19.30-21.00, Saturday 18 October 2014
Tutu’s, Macadam Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Centre for Hellenic Studies & the
Department of Music
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
32
CIGDEM ASLAN’s recent album
Mortissa received rave
reviews for interpretation of
rebetika songs. Working with
London-based musicians, her
singing brings together the
hitherto unexplored crossAegian dimensions of this song
tradition, from the amused
perspective of the ‘Mortissa’,
the good-time girl of Greek
and Turkish cafe society in the
1940s.
OXFORD MAQAM, a Londonbased Arab music ensemble,
has received plaudits from the
world press, and toured the
UK and beyond. With the vocal
improvisations of Tarik Beshir
at their heart, they perform
the music of the early 20th
century recording era in Egypt;
a time of musical exploration,
creativity and artistic licence
that set the tone for the entire
Eastern Mediterranean.
Sunday 19 October 2014
12.15; 13.15
14.15; 15.15
Guided tours: Somerset House
13.00-15.00
16.00-18.00 Practical art workshop: Life Drawing
14.00-16.00
Discussion & performance:
Beyond Burlesque:
the changing face of caberet
15.00-17.00 Theatre: Early Days
(of a better nation)
18.00-19.30
Film screening: The Double
see p10 for details
see p7 for details
Beyond Burlesque –
the changing face of cabaret
Cabaret and burlesque has
always been a performance
art on the fringes of
society; from the bohemian
beginnings of the Moulin
Rouge in Paris to the newly
established Butterfly Club
in Melbourne. It has been
celebrated all over the western
world by those looking for
entertainment that is a little
different, a little racy and
challenging the status quo.
In recent years cabaret has
had a renaissance in popular
culture and more mainstream
venues have opened, with a
leaning towards burlesque
performance of a bygone age.
However, during this time it
has also been embraced by
artists who take an alternative
view of the traditional cabaret
offering, and use the art form
for their own purposes, to send
out messages about feminism,
body fascism, gender roles,
world politics and so on.
Featuring performances and
presentations, this intimate
event in the underground
Cellar Door bar on Aldwych
looks at the changing face of
cabaret as an alternative art
form and its importance in
giving a voice to those outside
the narrow lines of mainstream
performance practices. With
contributions from some of
the leading performers and
academics working in the
field, the audience will be
able to ask questions and
take part in the discussion,
while being entertained and
enjoying a glass of bubbly.
Not suitable for those under 18.
Tickets: £8 including complimentary drink. Book at www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
Discussion & performance
14.00-16.00, Sunday 19 October 2014
Cellar Door Caberet Bar, Zero Aldwych
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
34
Introduction by LAURA DOUGLAS
with contributions from
SIMON CASSON is the producer
for Duckie, a post-queer
performance and events outfit
that create Good Nights Out.
CHRYS COLUMBINE is a queen of
international burlesque, she’s
the only showgirl in the world
who combines her stunning
skills as a classical pianist
with the art of striptease.
PETE SAUNDERS plays piano
and sings. Working a rich vein
of blues jazz and standards he
has a deep gritty unaffected
voice and a rhythmic piano style.
JAY STEWART is a co-founder
of Gendered Intelligence, an
arts-based organisation that
delivers projects to create
debate and explore gender in
creative ways.
LISELLE TERRETT is an applied
theatre lecturer at Coventry
University, and neo-feminist
burlesquer known as Doris La
Trine.
Early Days (of a better nation)
Coney are interactive theatremakers.
Weaving together theatre
and game design, they create
dynamic experiences that
can take place anywhere that
people gather: in theatres,
schools, museums, on the
streets and online. Coney’s
work takes whichever form
is best suited to the story and
always responds to the site,
setting and imagination of its
audience.
All of Coney’s work is guided
by principles of loveliness,
curiosity and adventure and
inspired by the belief that
theatre can create a playful
space which allows ordinary
people do extraordinary
things. Collaboration and
dialogue between artists,
audiences, peers and partners
are at the heart of everything
Coney makes.
The experience starts when
audiences first hear about it,
and only ends when they stop
thinking and talking about it.
Tickets: £8 Book at www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
Theatre
15.00-17.00, Sunday 19 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Image: © Ryoko Uyamai
The war is over and the nation
lies in ruins. You and fellow
survivors must find safety
and start to rebuild. What
are the rules you’re going to
live by? And can you avoid the
mistakes of the past?
Drawing inspiration from the
2011 England riots, Arab Spring
and Iceland’s crowd-sourced
constitution Early Days (of a
better nation) is a response to
growing public disenchantment
with politics.
With a dynamic combination of
theatre and a playing audience,
Early Days explores the
possibilities of nationhood and
democracy in a political game
of unintended consequences.
Developed in dialogue with
political economist PROFESSOR
ROD DACOMBE at King’s, Early
Days (of a better nation) has
been co-commissioned by
Warwick Arts Centre, National
Theatre Wales and Battersea
Arts Centre. Production
development supported by
Cultural Institute @ King’s.
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
35
Film screening: The Double
In this Dostoevsky adaptation,
directed by Richard Ayoade,
Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon,
a timid, isolated man who’s
overlooked at work, scorned
by his mother, and ignored by
the woman of his dreams (Mia
Wasikowska).
The arrival of a new coworker, James (also played
by Eisenberg), serves to
upset the balance. James is
both Simon’s exact physical
double and his opposite
– confident, charismatic
and good with women. To
Simon’s horror, James slowly
starts taking over his life.
Not suitable for those under 15.
* source: Rotten Tomatoes – www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_double_2013/
Film screening
18.00-19.30, Sunday 19 October 2014
Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
36
Image: Dean Rodgers
To be a companion piece to
Crime & Punishment, which
is screened on Saturday 18
October (see p31).
These film screenings will
inform the panel discussion
with Richard Ayoade, taking
place on Monday 20 October
(see p38).
Monday 20 October 2014
17.30-19.00
Panel discussion: Double Vision:
Dostoevsky on film
18.00-19.15
Guided tours:
Aldwych Underground Station
see p6 for details
19.00-20.30
Talk & demonstration:
Splice: an underwater event
19.00-20.30
Panel discussion: Modernism
Underground
19.30-20.30
Illustrated debate: Radical Opera
20.00-21.30
Theatre: Colony: Part I
see p5 for details
Double Vision:
Dostoevsky on film
This evening discussion
brings together four very
diverse panellists to discuss
the critically-acclaimed film
The Double, released in the
UK earlier this year and
starring Jesse Eisenberg and
Mia Wasikowska. Based
on a novella by Fyodor
Dostoevsky, this dark,
surreal and frequently funny
film explores themes of
anxiety, isolation, jealousy,
competition and madness
through the relationship
between two doppelgängers,
Simon James and James
Simon.
Our panellists will be
Richard Ayoade, the film’s
co-writer and director,
Rowan Williams, former
Archbishop of Canterbury
and a celebrated writer on
Dostoevsky, Catherine
Image: Dean Rodgers
Wheatley, Lecturer in
Film Studies at King’s
College London, and Max
Saunders, Director of the
Arts & Humanities Research
Institute at King’s College
London. The evening will be
chaired by Ben Quash of the
Department of Theology &
Religious Studies.
The discussion will use both
Dostoevsky’s novella and the
film it has inspired to think
about how the themes of
doubles and doubleness can
help us think about sameness,
otherness, the sustainability
and dissolubility of selfhood,
and the difficulties involved in
negotiating identity under the
pressures of modernity.
Ayoade’s The Double will
be screened on Sunday 19
October (see p36) and Crime
& Punishment on Saturday 18
October (see p31).
Panel discussion
17.30-19.00, Monday 20 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
38
RICHARD AYOADE is a writer
and director. He is the cowriter (with Avi Korine) and
director of the film The Double.
CATHERINE WHEATLEY is
Lecturer in Film Studies
at King’s College London.
Currently she is writing
two books: a monograph on
Christianity and European
Cinema; and a joint-authored
textbook on Film and
Philosophy.
MAX SAUNDERS is Director
of the Arts and Humanities
Research Institute, Professor
of English and Co-Director of
the Centre for Life-Writing
Research at King’s College
London, where he teaches
modern literature.
ROWAN WILLIAMS is currently the
Master of Magdalene College,
Cambridge. He is a noted poet
and translator of poetry, and,
apart from Welsh, speaks or
reads nine other languages.
Splice: an underwater event
The information environment
that we inhabit in the 21st
century gives us imaginative
access to the novelty and
challenge of a world reshaped
by cables and signaling.
At this full-immersion
‘undersea’ event you are
invited to experience the
materiality of the 19thcentury Atlantic Cable at
first hand, and to think about
its material history alongside
its long-term legacy in
electronic messaging today.
The event will include
soundscapes, readings from
the logbooks of the cablelaying ships with details of
the practices of grappling and
splicing and unwinding and
rewinding cable, and practical
demonstrations of splicing
and net-mending. The focus
will be on material practice
and the materials themselves
involved in laying the first
transatlantic cable between
1857 and 1866.
Professor Mark
Miodownik, founder of the
Institute of Making and New
York Times bestselling author,
will be discussing the material
properties of components of
the cable: hemp/copper/iron/
gutta percha/rubber.
We will also use the
underwater cable to think
about joining and collage
in the practice of history
and the way in which it is
impossible to fully ‘know’
the past but only recreate
parts of it by stitching and
joining bits together.
This event is run by
‘Scrambled Messages: The
Telegraphic Imaginary 18571900’, a four-year AHRCfunded research project
currently in its first year. It
is a joint interdisciplinary
project between the English
Department and the
Wheatstone Archive at King’s
College London, The Courtauld
Institute of Art, and the
Engineering Department
and Institute of Making at
University College London.
Event Leaders from the
project:
MARK MIODWNIK, Professor of
Materials and Society at UCL
CASSIE NEWLAND, post-doctoral
researcher.
ANNE CHAPMAN, PhD student.
NATALIE HUME, PhD student.
CLARE PETTITT, Professor of
Nineteenth-Century Literature
at King’s College London.
Talk & demonstration
19.00-20.30, Monday 20 October 2014
Anatomy Museum, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of English
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
39
Modernism Underground
In January 1863 the first
underground train departed
from Paddington to
Farringdon in London. By
1902 there were metro and
U-Bahn trains running in
Paris and Berlin. Suddenly,
journeying beneath the
city became a regular part
of modern life and writers
and artists responded with
curiosity, excitement or horror
to the new 20th-century
underworld, voyaging into
modernity or descending
into hell depending on
their inclination.
Here cultural critics Kevin
Jackson, Adam Mars-Jones
and Ian Patterson will
consider the representation
of the underground in
modernist art, ranging across
art forms and cities. They
will be in conversation
with Lara Feigel.
Image: © Trustees of the British Museum
KEVIN JACKSON is the author
of about 20 books, including
Constellation of Genius: 1922,
Modernism Year One and
Carnal, a collection of essays
on cinema, photography,
painting, writing and
pataphysics.
ADAM MARS-JONES is a
novelist and critic. His books
include the novels Pilcrow and
Cedilla, part of a millionword sequence, and the
monograph Noriko Smiling,
about a classic Japanese
film. He writes regularly for
the London Review of Books.
IAN PATTERSON is a Fellow of
Queens’ College, Cambridge,
where he teaches English. He
is the author of Guernica and
Total War, Time to Get Here:
New and Selected Poems and
translator of (among other
things) Proust’s Finding Time
Again.
Panel discussion
19.00-20.30, Monday 20 October 2014
Edmund J Safra Lecture Theatre,
King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Centre for Modern Literature & Culture
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
40
Radical Opera
Ever imagined Puccini set in a
Chinese restaurant or Berlioz
transported to Nazi Germany?
Radical stagings of opera such
as these are not unusual. But
what would happen if you
radically interpreted the music
of an opera as well as the
staging?
Join Professor Daniel
Leech-Wilkinson (Head of
the Department of Music at
King’s College London) and
Frederic Wake-Walker
(artistic director of Mahogany
Opera Group) as they debate
this question. The contrasting
arguments will be illustrated
by opera singers directed
by Frederic, fresh from his
Glyndebourne production of
Mozart’s la finta giardiniera.
Arias from this lesser-known
Mozart opera will be remixed to present a range of
different interpretations, both
musically and dramatically,
to see what would happen
if music were to be handled
as creatively as the staging.
Illustrated debate
19.30-20.30, Monday 20 October 2014
St Davids Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
DANIEL LEECH-WILKINSON
studied composition,
harpsichord and organ at
the Royal College of Music,
then took the MMus at King’s,
specialising in 15th-century
music. He is currently working
on “Performers’ Perceptions
of Music as Shape” within
the AHRC Research Centre
for Musical Performance as
Creative Practice.
FREDERIC WAKE-WALKER is a
director, producer and curator
of opera and multi-discipline
arts. He has directed at
Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera,
Buxton Festival, La Monnaie
Brussels, Opera North, Oviedo,
Konzerthaus Berlin, RCS
Glasgow and Aldeburgh Music.
MAHOGANY OPERA GROUP
creates new opera in new
ways, in different spaces and
places throughout the UK and
internationally. It presents
each distinct project with a
vitality that stretches the
boundaries of what opera can
be and who it is for.
Presented by the Mahogany Opera Group & the
Department of Music
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
41
Tuesday 21 October 2014
10.00-12.00
Performance: Underground Medieval
London 1
12.00-13.00 & Walking tours:
17.00-18.00
Underground Medieval London 2
19.30-21.00
Panel discussion:
Underground Medieval London 3
18.00-19.30 Talk: The Subterranean Topography
of Oliver Twist
18.30-20.00
Department of German Annual
Bernays Lecture: Notes from
Underground: on Marx &
belatedness in Alexander Kluge
18.30-21.00
Discussion & performance: Brazilian
Music from underground to pop
19.00-20.30
Panel discussion: Mining Literature
19.00-20.30
Debate: Death: clinical, historical &
philosophical perspectives in dying
20.00-21.30
Book launch: Poetry in the Blood
20.00-21.30
Theatre: Colony: Part I
see p5 for details
Underground Medieval London 1:
site specific performance
The first in a series of events
exploring Underground
Medieval London: drop-in
to the atmospheric crypt
of St Etheldreda’s Church
in Ely Place to see a sitespecific performance from the
Irish artist Ceara Conway.
Working with a group of PhD
students from King’s College
London, Ceara has created
a performance piece for the
13th century crypt underneath
St Etheldreda’s Church
inspired by the location and
the story of St Etheldreda,
whose left hand is kept in a
glass reliquary in the church
above. Wander in throughout
the morning and soak up the
atmosphere of this beautiful
and historic building.
Image: Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photograph
Collection, #15-5-3090. Division of Rare and Manuscript
Collections, Cornell University Library.
CEARA CONWAY is an artist and
singer from the Connemara
Gaeltacht in the west of
Ireland known for her large
scale sculptural works and
multi-disciplinary public
performances incorporating
narration, projection and
song. In her most recent
works, Vicissitudes (2013) –
commissioned by ‘Difference
Exchange’ and the Derry
City of Culture and Making
Visible (2013–14) supported
by the Irish Arts Council/
CREATE – she has responded to
various themes such as exile,
ritual, lament and the current
socio-political experiences of
women living within the Direct
Provision System in Ireland.
Drop-in performance: visit any time between 10.00-12.00,
stay as long as you like
Performance
10.00-12.00, Tuesday 21 October 2014
St Etheldreda’s Church, 14 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY
Presented by the Department of English and the
Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
43
Underground Medieval London 2:
guided tour
Continue the journey through
underground medieval
London on a walking tour
through the hidden medieval
sights of central London with
PhD students from King’s
College London as your
guides.
The tour starts at the beautiful
13th century crypt of St
Etheldreda’s, where you will
hear about the severed hand
of St Etheldreda, still kept
in this church at the heart of
the city of London. You will
visit medieval inns, dubious
medieval pubs, hidden crypts,
and hear the story of the
Knights Templar!
Guided tours – see side panel for details
12.00 & 17.00, Tuesday 21 October 2014
St Etheldreda’s Church, 14 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY
Presented by the Centre for Late Antique &
Medieval Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
44
Image: Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photograph
Collection, #15-5-3090. Division of Rare and Manuscript
Collections, Cornell University Library.
Tours led by KATHRYN MAUDE,
FRANCESCA BROOKS, HANA
VIDEEN, GABRIELA CAVALHEIRO,
MAMI KANNO, and CHARLOTTE
KNIGHT, PhD students from
the Centre for Late Antique
& Medieval Studies at King’s
College London.
TOUR TIMES:
12.00 – 13.00
17.00 – 18.00
beginning at St Etheldreda’s
Church, 14 Ely Place, EC1N 6RY
Underground Medieval London 3:
panel discussion
The Underground Medieval
London series will conclude
with a panel discussion on
creative engagements with the
medieval.
This an opportunity to
hear Irish artist and singer
Ceara Conway reflect upon
her engagement with the
medieval past in her work.
She will also answer any
questions about her specially
commissioned performance
for St Etheldreda’s crypt.
Ceara will speak alongside
academics who will discuss
their creative responses to
their own medieval research
on the city, saints’ cults and
devotional culture.
Panel discussion
19.30-21.00, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Old Committee Room, Strand Campus
CEARA CONWAY, artist from
Galway – see p43 for more
information about Ceara.
JESSICA BARKER, Courtauld
Institute of Art – Jessica’s
research explores the
commemoration of married
couples, looking at what this
might reveal about medieval
attitudes to marriage, death
and resurrection. It seeks to
draw together two strands
of scholarship: the social/
religious history of marriage
and the development of tomb
sculpture.
KATHRYN MAUDE, King’s College
London – Kathryn was a
scholar in residence on the
island of Raasay as part of
the Colm Cille Spiral, a series
of contemporary art and
literature commissions and
dialogues rethinking the legacy
of 6th Century Irish monk
Colm Cille, or St Columba. She
studies the involvement of
women in the literature of the
early middle ages.
Presented by the Centre for Late Antique &
Medieval Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
45
The Subterranean Topography
of Oliver Twist
Since the publication of
her book Dickens and the
Workhouse (Oxford University
Press, 2012) Dr Ruth
Richardson has continued
to consider the central
London setting of Dickens’s
childhood and adolescence
in geographical terms, his
familial and social roots in the
same area, and the impact of
this deep relationship with
place on the plot of Oliver
Twist. This paper presents
a summary of her findings
relating to Oliver Twist, and
the results of continuing
researches and thought.
Dr Richardson comments:
For some clever
people, thought may be
instantaneous; but for me, it
can sometimes be very slow.
Thoughts take time to form,
and sometimes they may take
years to resolve themselves
into something coherent.
Other times they come in
a flash. This paper is the
result of both these kinds of
thinking, and partly relates to
work I did years ago. I find
myself circling on a cluster of
associations in Dickens, and
finding that they intersect
with the idea of landscapes of
familiarity and of fear.
“
”
This paper looks at Dickens
in his first London home.
It glances at Sketches, but
focuses on Oliver Twist, and
draws together the topography
of the novel and of the street,
and the ways in which they
operate below the surface of
the story.
Talk
18.00-19.30, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
46
Image: courtesy of Dan Calinescu
RUTH RICHARDSON is Senior
Visiting Research Fellow at
King’s Centre for Life-Writing
Research. She is the author of
many papers and articles, and
several books, including Death
Dissection & the Destitute
(University of Chicago Press,
2000); The Making of Mr Gray’s
Anatomy (OUP, 2008) and
Dickens and the Workhouse
(OUP, 2012). She has presented
a number of TV and radio
programmes, and is an active
supporter of the campaign
to save the Cleveland Street
Workhouse. She is President of
the Dickens Society.
Notes from Underground:
on Marx & belatedness in Alexander Kluge
In 2008 the German
filmmaker and writer
Alexander Kluge published a
nine-hour DVD production,
entitled News from our
ideological antiquity: Marx/
Eisenstein/Das Kapital,
ostensibly a re-enactment of
Eisenstein’s failed attempt
of filming “Das Kapital”.
For Kluge, Eisenstein’s
impossibility became a
meditation on the possibility
of rescuing the core of
Marxism for the 21st century.
Anticipating the financial
crisis and the general sense
that the neo-liberal economic
project as well as ‘the end of
history’ paradigm had come
to an end, Kluge interprets
his own belatedness both in
relation to Eisenstein and
to Marx as an opportunity
for a new beginning, where
history does not signify the
past, but – like antiquity
for the renaissance – the
inexhaustible repository
of unfulfilled potential for
reinventing oneself.
THOMAS ELSAESSER is
Professor Emeritus at the
Department of Media and
Culture of the University of
Amsterdam and since 2013
Visiting Professor at Columbia
University. He has authored,
edited and co-edited some 20
volumes on early cinema, film
theory, German and European
cinema, Hollywood, new media
and installation art. Among his
recent books as author are:
Film Theory: An Introduction
through the Senses (New York:
Routledge, 2010, with Malte
Hagener), The Persistence
of Hollywood (New York:
Routledge, 2012) and German
Cinema – Terror and Trauma:
Cultural Memory Since 1945
(New York: Routledge, 2013).
THE BERNAYS LECTURE is the
annual German Department
public lecture. It is staged this
year in association with the
Centre for Modern Literature
and Culture.
Department of German Annual Bernays Lecture
18.30-20.00, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of German, supported by
the Centre for Modern Literature & Culture
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
47
Brazilian Music
from underground to pop
How did Brazilian musical
forms that are refractions
of European contact with
African populations and
cultures in the New World,
move from the underground
to the foreground? From the
underclass to the creative
class? From the countercultural to the Pop?
The choro genre emerged
in Rio de Janeiro in the late
19th century when musicians
blended African-Brazilian
rhythms such as the lundu
with the polka and the
schottische from European
court society. Pixinguinha
took the genre to new heights
in the 1930s and 40s, and
travelled to Europe as a kind
of cultural ambassador with
his band, Oito Batutas, only
to be derided back home for
projecting an image of Brazil
as African, as black.
The samba, Rio’s black and
mulato music par excellence –
the groove we heard most
during this summer’s World
Cup – is considered the
country’s ‘national’ genre and
has found ever greater global
audiences over the last 80
years or so.
The bossa nova, a jazzinfluenced middle-class twist
on the samba, came to be at
the centre of fierce debates
over what ‘Brazilian’ music is
in the 1960s, while conquering
global pop music markets.
Music includes vocal pieces
from the colonial era as well as
from more recent genres.
This notion of the underground
thus departs from the one
associated primarily with
non-mainstream or antiestablishment rock music.
Rather, we take a long
historical view on music, race,
rhythm, and the popular.
Discussion & performance
18.30-21.00, Tuesday 21 October 2014
River Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Music
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
48
Image: with thanks to the
Biblioteca Nacional Digital Brasil
The concert will be conducted
by VINÍCIUS DE CARVALHO, a
new lecturer in the Brazil
Institute at King’s, and
directed by FREDERICK MOEHN,
Lecturer in Music at King’s
College London. Dr Carvalho’s
research interests include
Brazil in peace keeping
operations, literature and
violence in Brazil, Brazilian
music, Brazilian religions.
FREDERICK MOEHN’s research
has generally focused on how
popular music making inflects
settings marked by broad
social changes and transitions.
Also participating are Camões
Professor of Portuguese DAVID
TREECE, who has written
widely on Brazilian music,
and FELIPE BOTELHO CORREA, a
Lecturer in Lusophone Studies
at King’s College London
whose research focuses on
narratives and modern culture
of Portuguese- speaking
countries from the 19th
century onward.
Mining Literature
Gordon McMullan is
Director of the London
Shakespeare Centre. He
specialises in Shakespeare
and early modern theatre
and culture. He is a general
textual editor of the
Norton Shakespeare and
a general editor of Arden
Early Modern Drama.
Centre. Philip researches
Australian literature in the
contexts of world and regional
literature, literary education
and digital humanities.
Janet Floyd began teaching
American Studies at King’s
in 2002, moving into the
English department in 2010.
During that time both her
research and her teaching
have focused on 19th century
American literature and
culture in a transatlantic
and a global setting.
Adelene Buckland came
to King’s in September
2012 from the University
of East Anglia. Adelene’s
main research interests
are in literature and the
history of science. Her new
project is on the writing
about coal, gold, diamond
and lead mining in the 19th
century, with a particular
focus not only on novels,
short stories, periodicals
and poetry, but also – and
especially – on science.
Philip Mead is Winthrop
Professor, inaugural Chair
of Australian Literature,
and Director, Westerly
Rosalyn Buckland is a
PhD candidate at King’s
College London, in the
department of English.
This panel discussion will
explore the representation
of mining and miners in
literature with examples
drawn from the Renaissance
to the present. We will discuss
the ways in which the labour,
science, technology and
social history of mining have
dug their way into English,
American, Canadian and
Australian literature.
CHAIR:
• Professor Gordon McMullan
SPEAKERS:
• Dr Janet Floyd
• Professor Philip Mead,
Winthrop Professor
and Inaugural Chair of
Australian Literature,
University of Western
Australia
• Dr Adelene Buckland
• Rosalyn Buckland
Panel discussion
19.00-20.30, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of English & the Menzies
Centre for Australian Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
49
Death:
clinical, historical & philosophical
perspectives on dying
We are all going to die. But
how should we think about
death? In what ways might
our health and social systems
better deal with it? How have
earlier thinkers made sense
of it? Is it something that we
should fear?
Join clinicians, intellectual
historians and philosophers as
they debate a topic in which
we all have a stake.
Image: from the Gordon Museum
With contributions from:
DR JOHN CALLANAN
(Department of Philosophy,
King’s College London)
DR SACHA GOLOB (Department
of Philosophy, King’s College
London)
DR CLAYTON LITTLEJOHN
(Department of Philosophy,
King’s College London)
PROFESSOR DAVID PAPINEAU
(Department of Philosophy,
King’s College London)
DR KATHERINE SLEEMAN
(Department of Palliative
Medicine, Cicely Saunders
Insitute)
Debate
19.00-20.30, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Edmund J Safra Lecture Theatre,
King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Philosophy
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
50
Poetry in the Blood
Poetry in the Blood, a speciallycommissioned and unusual
volume to celebrate the power
of poetry, edited by Tony
Roberts, poses one question
to more than a score of
practising poets: ‘What poetry
have you carried with you for
so long that it has entered your
bloodstream?’
This book launch presents
an opportunity to hear some
of the twenty-one poets who
have each contributed an
essay and a poem to Poetry in
the Blood. The evening will
feature readings by a number
of the book’s contributors, and
signed copies of the book will
also be available for purchase.
The result has been essaylength answers on the work
of such poets as Yeats, Rilke,
Auden, Thomas, Lawrence,
Lowell, Murray, MacNeice,
Stevenson, Doty and
Burnside. Some illustrate
the extent to which poetry
influences our way of seeing
the world; others reveal
how poetry inspires us to be
creative. All testify to the
power of the poem to tap the
deep strata of our existence.
Image: from the cover of Poetry in the Blood © George Goode
The volume includes essays
and poems by:
Clare Brant, Nadine Brummer,
Jim Burns, Roger Caldwell,
John Greening, Richard
Kell, Angela Leighton, John
Lucas, Alexis Lykiard, Paul
McLoughlin, Christine McNeill,
Helena Nelson, Tony Roberts,
Lawrence Sail, Andrew Sant,
Jonathan Taylor, Michael
Waters, John Weston, John
Hartley Williams, Merryn
Williams, Gregory Woods.
Book launch
20.00-21.30, Tuesday 21 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
51
Wednesday 22 October 2014
15.00-16.00
17.00-18.00
Guide tours: Under King’s: tracing the outlines
of the old Somerset House
17.30-19.00
Panel discussion & book launch:
Invisible Languages
see p8 for details
18.00-20.00 Practical art workshops: Life Drawing
see p7 for details
18.30-20.30
Panel discussion: New Ground Down Under:
land, country, nation & the future of
Australian Studies
18.30-19.30
Performance: Choir of King’s College London
18.30-20.00
Panel discussion: Marriage, Civil Partnerships
& Gay Rights: contemporary debates in
historical perspective
19.00-20.30
Talk: 53 Million Artists
20.00-21.00
Performance: Rob Newman: A New Theory of
Evolution
Invisible Languages
Are minor languages the
essential constituents of
cultural diversity and ancestral
knowledge or just passports
with restricted validity,
serving no purpose in today’s
global world? According to
estimates by UNESCO, if the
current trend toward linguistic
homogenization continues,
half of the 6000+ languages
spoken today will disappear
by the end of this century.
But even if they are still alive
and kicking, minor languages
are often invisible. A recent
report published by English
PEN has highlighted how
literature written in ‘small
languages’ has little chance to
be translated into English and
thus make it into the global
literary market.
On UNESCO’s list of
endangered languages is
Friulian, a language spoken
by about half a million people
in Friuli, a region of northeastern Italy. In this event,
leaders in their field will
conduct a conversation on the
value and the future of lesserused languages, using Friulian
as the starting point for the
discussion.
The event also launches the
book The Friulian Language:
Identity, Migration, Culture
(Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, 2014), edited
by Rosa Mucignat from
the Comparative Literature
Programme at King’s College
London. The volume is the
first comprehensive study of
Friulian to be published in
English.
Image: ‘Chiesetta votiva - Remanzacco, 1961’
by Elio Ciol
EMMA CLEAVE runs the Writers
in Translation programme at
English PEN.
FEDERICO FALOPPA is Lecturer
and Programme Director
for Italian Studies at the
University of Reading. His
research focuses in particular
on the analysis of ethnic
stereotyping and linguistic
construction of ‘otherness’.
ANGELA FELICE is Director of
the Centro Studi Pier Paolo
Pasolini of Casarsa della
Delizia and artistic director of
the Teatro Club Udine.
ROSA MUCIGNAT is Lecturer
in Comparative Literature
at King’s College London. She
is the author of Realism and
Space in the Novel, 1795-1869
(Ashgate, 2013).
Panel discussion & book launch
17.30-19.00, Wednesday 22 October 2014
River Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Comparative Literature
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
53
New Ground Down Under:
land, country, nation & the future of
Australian Studies
What does it mean to be
‘Australian’ in a global
age? And how do the
transnational experiences
of so many Australians alter
the way we understand
and write about ‘nation’?
This panel discussion brings
together experts in the
history, politics and culture
of Australia to debate the
future of Australian Studies.
Issues raised will include
the impact of global
frameworks for area studies,
the growing significance
of ecology and planetary
timescales in research, and
competing conceptions
of ‘land’ and ‘country’.
A standalone event, ‘New
Ground Down Under’
also marks the start of a
symposium expanding on
all these issues and kicks
off celebrations of the 15th
anniversary of the association
between King’s College
London and the Menzies
Centre for Australian Studies.
Chair: Dr Ian Henderson
(Director, Menzies Centre
for Australian Studies,
King’s College London)
Speakers include: Associate
Professor Anne Collett
(Distinguished Visiting
Chair of Australian
Studies, University of
Copenhagen) and Dr Gaye
Sculthorpe (Head of
Oceania, British Museum).
Panel discusssion
18.30-20.30, Wednesday 22 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
54
The MENZIES CENTRE FOR
AUSTRALIAN STUDIES,
established in the University
of London in 1982 and moved to
King’s College London in 1999,
is endowed by the Australian
Government and subscriptions
from a large number of
Australian universities.
The Centre’s object is to
promote Australian studies
in British and European
universities, helping to cement
intellectual links between
the two regions. Our staff
are closely involved with the
British Australian Studies
Association and the European
Association of Studies on
Australia.
The Centre’s public activities
include lectures, conferences,
seminars and literary
readings and attract a diverse
audience, helping to produce a
more comprehensive, detailed
and balanced perception of
Australian politics, economics,
life and culture than is
popularly available.
The Choir of
King’s College London
A performance by the Choir
of King’s College London, of
pieces inspired by the Festival
theme ‘underground’.
The programme will consist
of music by William Byrd,
who was the leading English
composer of the late sixteenth
century and was a prominent
Roman Catholic composing in
an alien political environment.
Many of his motets echo
themes that the Jesuits used
to describe their plight in
Elizabethan England. They
often referred to the Catholic
community as being the
chosen people – Israelites –
and used metaphors of exile
(Babylonian, Egyptian) to
describe their circumstance.
The concert will include some
of the most important of these
motets, including Infelix ego,
Haec dicit Dominus, Cunctis
diebus, Laudibus in sanctis,
Vigilate and Laetentur caeli.
Image: © Pascal Belargent of La toison d’art, Paris.
The Choir of King’s College
London is one of England’s
leading mixed-voice university
choirs. They sing for the
regular services in the College
Chapel as well as at many
external events.
Renowned for their
performances of renaissance
polyphony, especially Spanish
and English music, they have
recently given concerts in
France, Italy, St Petersburg
and the USA.
They have made numerous
recordings, including recently
a disc of music by Gregorio
Allegri, and broadcast
regularly for the BBC.
Performance
18.30-19.30, Wednesday 22 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
55
Marriage, Civil Partnerships &
Gay Rights:
contemporary debates in historical perspective
In the last two decades,
significant progress in gay
rights has brought public
recognition and controversy
in relation to previously
‘underground’ relationships
and desires. With the 2013
Same-Sex Couples Act,
heterosexual marriage in
Britain has been extended to
homosexual couples, which
is part of a wider European
trend. The right to be married
has become a powerful
symbol of equal citizenship.
Equality campaigners are
calling for civil partnerships,
currently only available to gay
couples, to be extended to
straight couples.
But for some, marriage still
seems outdated. It is an
institution in flux and under
scrutiny: should it reflect
individual desires or civil
obligations? Should it still be
a key site of religious faith?
Is it a flexible institution that
can be reshaped according
to contemporary mores? Or
does it reflect traditions and
values that will resist the new
demands of sexual equality?
Such debates are nothing
new; marriage has a long
history of being reworked
according to changing social
needs. In the 16th century,
Britain controversially
introduced civil marriage as
a nonsacramental alternative
to marital unions sanctified
solely by the Church.
Understanding the longer
history of the reshaping of
marriage, and the broader
European context of same-sex
unions, can help shed light
on its current controversies.
This panel brings historical,
legal and social science
scholars into dialogue about
the ‘marriage questions’ of the
21st century.
Panel discussion
18.30-20.00, Wednesday 22 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by History & Policy
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
56
LUCY DELAP is Reader in
Twentieth Century British
History at King’s College
London and works on modern
British history, with a
particular focus on gender,
feminism and masculinities.
JULIA MOSES is a Lecturer
in Modern History at the
University of Sheffield. She is
writing a book on marriage
and the state in Imperial
Germany that investigates
conflict related to cultural,
ethnic and religious difference.
ROBERT WINTEMUTE is a
Professor of Human Rights
Law at King’s College London,
where he also teaches
European Union Law and
Anti-Discrimination Law.
KELLY KOLLMAN is a Senior
Lecturer in Politics at the
University of Glasgow. She
researches the influence of
transnational networks and
norms on policy outcomes
in western democracies.
53 Million Artists:
a creative discussion & workshop on ‘everyday art’
‘Art is what artists do’. Who
would disagree? And yet,
the capacity for doing art is
altogether characteristic of
what it is to be a human being.
We have all ‘done’ art at
some point in our lives; many
continue to do so, even if
they never dream of labelling
themselves as ‘artists’.
Suppose for a moment we
stop, take a step back, and ask
some questions about what’s
going on: ‘could everyone
be an artist?’ Indeed, ‘is the
potential within everyone
to be an artist… today…
everyday?’
Such questions are thoughtprovoking, and can lead us
to think about art and our
relationship with it differently.
Come along, join in, and be
part of a movement towards 53
million artists.
It is this approach that
motivates the idea behind
‘53 Million Artists’ (53MA)
– an art project and new
cultural movement that seeks
to unlock the creativity that
exists in every human being
in the country, bringing doing
art out of the ‘underground’
through giving space and
time to artistic practice and
reflection.
This event will introduce
some emerging findings from
the pilot phase of this exciting
creative project, encouraging
debate on the practical,
political and conceptual issues
that accompany the notion of
‘everyday art’. The audience
will be encouraged to reflect
on issues raised by taking
part in a shared experience of
responding to guided creative
challenges.
Talk
19.00-20.30, Wednesday 22 October 2014
Council Room, King’s Building, Strand Campus
image: Cat Harrison, 2014
53 MILLION ARTISTS has been
catalyzed by DAVID MICKLEM
and JO HUNTER working in
collaboration with NICK WILSON
and LAURA SPEERS (CMCI).
DAVID MICKLEM has played
a central role in some of
the most talked-about
performance projects of
the last decade including
Punchdrunk’s mould-breaking
The Masque of the Red Death,
Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s
Elephant, BAC’s One-onOne Theatre Festival and
WildWorks’ BABEL. He was Joint
Artistic Director and Chief
Executive of Battersea Arts
Centre, 2002-2012.
JO HUNTER was Head of
Strategic Development at
Battersea Arts Centre and
has worked as a programmer,
practitioner, producer and
funder with organisations
such as Harbourfront Centre
in Toronto, Youth Music, DCMS,
Julie’s Bicycle and as part of
the Bristol City of Circus.
Presented by the Department of Culture, Media &
Creative Industries
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
57
Robert Newman:
A New Theory of Evolution
Following this year’s sell-out
run in London’s West End,
and after sell-out shows in
Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham,
Cardiff, Manchester and
Edinburgh, A New Theory
of Evolution now comes to
King’s College London!
A New Theory of
Evolution tells how a series
of personal calamities and
jammy flukes led Rob to hit
upon a whole new theory of
evolution, which he calls the
Survival of the Misfits.
A New Theory of
Evolution explores the
exciting new discoveries in the
field of evolutionary biology,
which, the show argues, have
put paid to selfish gene theory
to open up instead a much
more intriguing world of
wonder.
A New Theory of
Evolution is a tour de force
that whirls the audience from
altruistic vampire bats and
laidback rats to WH Auden’s
last poem, the polar jet
stream and Richard Dawkins
wrestling naked with his
postman.
Performance
20.00-21.00, Wednesday 22 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
underground
Arts & Humanities Festival 2014
58
ROBERT NEWMAN is a
writer and comedian.
Born in Hackney. Grew up
in Hertfordshire villages
Datchworth, Codicote and
Whitwell. Turned down by
nine universities and only
accepted by one: Cambridge.
Skateboarding for 37 years
and still not any good. He lives
in London with his Bulgarian
partner and their child.
‘He is the funniest comedian I
have ever seen... A passionate,
chaotically brilliant comedian’
Sunday Times
‘If this world could be saved
by a Superhero whose
Superpower was Comedy, that
hero would be Robert Newman’
Kate Copstick,
The Scotsman
Thursday 23 October 2014
17.00-21.00
Exhibition: Autopoesis 2.0
17.15-18.15
Guided tours: Somerset House
see p9 for details
see p10 for details
18.30-20.00
Inaugural lecture: Kate Crosby:
Nirvana & the New Technologies: the
suppression & renewal of meditation
in Buddhist Southeast Asia
19.00-20.30
Debate & poetry reading:
“Making is our defence against
the dark”: conflict, conscious &
unconscious – & creativity
19.30-21.30
Performance: JARMAN
(all this maddening beauty)
20.00-21.30
Piano recital & talk: Music from the
Underground
20.00-21.30
Theatre: Colony: Part I
see p5 for details
Inaugural Lecture: Kate Crosby:
Nirvana & the New Technologies:
the suppression & renewal of meditation in
Buddhist Southeast Asia.
This talk looks at the impact
of the 19th century religionscience divide on Buddhist
meditation in Southeast Asia
during and after the European
colonial period. Meditation is
a technology of transformation
ultimately aimed at Nirvana,
Buddhist salvation. The
traditional techniques that
Buddhists employed to bring
about desired changes on the
path resonated with other
pre-modern technologies of
change such as medicine,
chemistry/alchemy, group
theory mathematics and
generative grammar.
knowledge systems in the area
of the physical world were
ignored, dismissed or actively
undermined, and European
systems imposed. As a result,
traditional meditation with its
own somatic practices went
underground.
In the same colonial context,
in Burma, a new form of
meditation arose: Vipassanā.
Focusing
on mind-culture,
Vipassanā was located ‘safely’
above the physical realms
over which colonial powers
claimed dominance, and
safely on the religion side of
the religion-science divide.
Some of these technologies were The resultant rise of the
more advanced in Asia than in sciences of the mind and an
emerging, global awareness of
19th century Europe, but the
military success of Europe in Asia Buddhism’s expertise in such
misled Europeans to assume that science, allowed Vipassanā to
flourish and spread, to make
they were more advanced
its own impact on Western
in all physical sciences. The
culture and modern medicine
notion of ‘progress’ was used
as ‘Mindfulness’. This lecture
to justify warfare, colonialism
traces this story.
and missionising. Asian
Inaugural lecture
18.30-20.00, Thursday 23 October 2014
Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
From the Department of Theology & Religious Studies
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KATE CROSBY is Professor
of Buddhist Studies in the
department of Theology
and Religious Studies at
King’s College, London. She
studied Buddhism and related
languages at the universities
of Oxford, Hamburg and
Kelaniya. She works on
Theravada literature and
practice in the pre-modern
and modern periods, and
has conducted fieldwork in
most Theravada countries.
Publications include Santideva’s
Bodhicaryavatara: Buddhist
Path to Awakening (OUP, 1995,
with Andrew Skilton); The
Dead of Night & the Women
(New York University Press
and JJC Foundation, 2009)
and Theravada Buddhism:
Continuity, Diversity, Identity
(Blackwell-Wiley, 2014). She is
co-editor of the international
peer review journal
Contemporary Buddhism.
“Making is our defence
against the dark”:
conflict, conscious & unconscious – & creativity
poems from this collection
and examines how poetry
can contribute to ways we
think about and acknowledge
conflict and difference.
Caroline Garland reads
her own poems on conflict,
international and individual,
which explores internal
repercussions of external
conflict, and discusses
psychoanalytic views of
conflict and creativity. Anna
Bernard reads poems by
Palestinian and Israeli writers,
The speakers are specialists in talks about popular western
discourse of the Israelconflict studies in the widest
sense: trauma, psychoanalysis, Palestine conflict, ways in
poetry, tragedy, and resonances which North Americans and
of the Israel-Palestine conflict. North Europeans internalise
and represent it, and
Ruth Padel’s poetry
contradictions it engenders in
collection Learning to Make
western ideas about belonging
an Oud in Nazareth puts
and identity.
together two ideas: that rifts
Each speaker will read, talk,
in the Middle East speak to
debate with the others and
conflict in everyone’s psyche
then take questions from the
and that creativity comes
audience.
out of conflict. She reads
Conflict is increasing
everywhere in the world.
Conflict Studies are on the rise
in universities. So is Creative
Writing. This event explores
poetic, psychoanalytic,
sociological and literary
understandings of conflict,
and also the relation of
conflict to creativity. What
can poetry, for example,
bring to our understanding
of conflict – its multiple
meanings and resonance and
possible reconciliation?
ANNA BERNARD teaches English
and Comparative Literature
at King’s. She writes on
Palestinian and Israeli
literature and culture, the
international circulation of
Arabic and Hebrew literature
in translation, and transnational cultural advocacy and
activism.
CAROLINE GARLAND is a
psychoanalyst and poet.
She founded the Unit for
the Study of Trauma and its
Aftermath at the Tavistock
Clinic and has worked for
over fifteen years in the
theoretical understanding and
psychotherapeutic treatment
of trauma.
RUTH PADEL is Poetry Fellow
at King’s and Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature.
She has published ten poetry
collections and a range of nonfiction including In and Out of
the Mind: Greek Images of the
Tragic Self; and The Poem and
the Journey.
Debate & poetry reading
19.00-20.30, Thursday 23 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute
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JARMAN
(all this maddening beauty)
About the artists:
John Moletress
(director/performer) is
an interdisciplinary artist,
educator and Founding
Director of force/collision, a
performance ensemble based
in Washington, DC. He has
created new work for both site
and stage, having performed
at such venues as The John
F Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts, George
Washington University and
Unity Theatre for Homotopia!
Caridad Svich (writer) is a
playwright, songwriter, editor,
translator and founder of
NoPassport, an international
theatre alliance and press.
Her awards and fellowships
include a 2012 OBIE Award
for Lifetime Achievement in
the theatre, a 2012 Edgerton
Foundation New Play Award
and the 2011 American
Theatre Critics Association
Primus Prize. She has also
been a Radcliffe Fellow at
Harvard University.
Performance
19.30-21.30, Thursday 23 October 2014
Tutu’s, Macadam Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Performance Research Group,
with support from Queer@King’s &
the Department of English
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Inspired by queer icon Derek
Jarman, ‘JARMAN (all this
maddening beauty)’ merges
video and live performance
to reconstruct the essence
of the cult figure, artistic
legacy and punk movement
through the Transatlantic lens
of today. Can we ever fully
recover our queer history or
will our legends be forever
pressed between the pages of
the archive? JARMAN brings
together a community of over
40 performers through video
and sound, manipulated in real
time by one performer whose
own story of artistic survival
unravels within that of Derek
Jarman’s.
Producing Company: force/
collision
Text: Caridad Svich
Director / Performer: John
Moletress
Video: Benjamin Carver
Sound: David Crandall
Scenic: Lisi Stoessel
Music from the Underground
Rob Keeley presents
a programme of works
connected by the theme of
‘underground’: Mozart’s
C minor Fantasy explores
‘infernal’ topics he would later
explore on the stage in Don
Giovanni, and Dr Matthew
Head, also of the Music
Department will explore
‘how classical music can ‘go
underground’ – specifically
the musical devices Mozart
uses to convey ideas of
descent, the experience of
the Classical underworld,
and the horrid delights of
the subterranean as a space
of the creative imagination.
Next, the French Baroque
harpsichord master Francois
Couperin gives us a group of
short but telling vignettes of
lost souls wandering in the
nether world: both Mozart
and Couperin were, in
different ways, fascinated by
the ‘underground’ culture of
Freemasonry. A more recent
French composer, Tristan
Murail, depicts the mandrake
root (supposedly in the form
of a man, and liable to emit
a piercing scream if pulled)
growing at the foot of the
gallows in his La Mandragore
of 1993, while in Pictures at
an Exhibition Musorgsky
provides us with a series vivid
musical paintings, including
the extraordinary Catacombs
movement and finishing with
the tolling bells of the Great
Gate of Kiev.
ROB KEELEY is currently
Lecturer in Composition at the
Music Department, but is also
active as a pianist. His recent
CD Dances with Bears, on the
Lorelt label, was critically
acclaimed by Stephen Pettit in
The Sunday Times, who wrote:
‘Keeley produces a compelling,
primarily contrapuntal music
characterised by strongly
defined rhythms, motoric
drive and beautifully imagined
textures.’
Rob has premiered works by,
among others Michael Finnissy,
Geoffrey Poole and Harrison
Birtwistle and currently
Gordon Crosse is writing him
a series of short piano pieces
for performance in 2015.
Piano recital & talk
20.00-21.30, Thursday 23 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of Music
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Friday 24 October 2014
13.00-15.00
Practical art workshop: Life Drawing
see p7 for details
17.00-21.00
Exhibition: Autopoesis 2.0
see p9 for details
18.00-19.15
Guided tours: Aldwych Underground Station
see p6 for details
18.30-21.00 Talk & film screening:
Charlie Chaplin’s America:
the Essanay & Mutual years, 1915-1917
18.30-20.00 Panel discussion: Hellish Persons:
personifications of the underworld from
antiquity to the present
19.00-20.30
Art installation & panel discussion:
The Cenotaph Project & the public sphere
Charlie Chaplin’s America:
the Essanay & Mutual years, 1915-1917
Dr Harvey G Cohen will
discuss how, during the
Essanay and Mutual era, apart
from creating many hilarious
films, Chaplin confronted
and subtly commented upon
important controversial
historical and political issues
of the day. Immigration,
homelessness, religion, World
War I, child labour and drug
abuse were all addressed,
giving voice and respect to
the immigrant working class
that made up the majority of
the American film audience
in this period. Such views
went against the prevailing
conservative Victorian
aesthetic, and comedy films
had never before included
such disturbing images of
urban misery. No wonder
many conservative critics of
this period viewed Chaplin
and his work as a “social
menace”.
Cohen argues that this
phenomenon represented
one of the reasons audiences
worldwide identified with his
films and the Little Tramp
character, making Chaplin
the most famous human being
in the world at this time.
Though not given credit
for it at the time, Chaplin
was a modernist, employing
realism to peel back layers of
American society that white
elites wanted to leave covered
up. While such left-leaning
sentiments in his films satisfied
millions of patrons during the
1910s, similar sentiments led
in part to Chaplin’s eventual
tragic expulsion from the
United States during the Cold
War period.
Image: with thanks to the George Grantham Bain
Collection (Library of Congress)
HARVEY G COHEN writes and
teaches about the history
and business of the music and
film industries as a Senior
Lecturer in the Department
of Culture, Media & Creative
Industries at King’s College
London.
His book Duke Ellington’s
America was named one of
the best books of 2010 by the
Washington Post, and his new
book The Great Depression
Musicals and Hollywood’s New
Deal will be out in 2015. Both
are published by the University
of Chicago Press.
The talk will be followed by a
screening of four of Chaplin’s
short films (25 minutes each):
• Work (1915)
• The Immigrant (1917)
• Easy Street (1917)
• The Adventurer (1917)
Talk & film screening
18.30-21.00, Friday 24 October 2014
Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, Strand Campus
Presented by Department of Culture, Media &
Creative Industries
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Hellish Persons:
personifications of the underworld
from antiquity to the present
Hades, Sheol, and hell are
different kinds of underworld,
ranging from shadowy cold
realms of the dead to fiery
places of punishment. Over
the centuries, they have also
been imagined as persons
with distinctive motivations
and identities. This event
will explore the varied ways
in which poets, artists,
philosophers and theologians
from classical antiquity
to the present day have
represented the underworld
as a person, whether as a
god (Hades, Pluto, Orcus),
as a personification of the
underworld, or as the JudaeoChristian Lord of hell.
Four short talks will explore
ideas of hellish persons in
four different periods and
areas. Emmanuela Bakola
will begin by examining
personifications of Hades in
the classical Greek tradition;
Emily Pillinger will then
investigate the Roman
expressions of this figure.
Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe will
explore the Christian Sheol/
Hades of late antiquity and
the early middle ages, and
David Ricks will consider the
figure of Charos in modern
Greek poetry.
EMMANUELA BAKOLA,
Leverhulme Early Career
Research Fellow, Department
of Classics
Our panellists will ask
what such personifications
reveal about their authors
and societies. What hopes
and anxieties about death,
suffering, and judgment are
suggested by these images and
ideas? What differences were
there between the demeanour
of male Hades and female
Sheol? And how were the
rulers of hell thought to relate
to the other inhabitants of
the underworld, whether as
judge, monarch, comrade, or
antagonist?
DAVID RICKS, Professor, Centre
for Hellenic Studies
Panel discussion
18.30-20.00 Friday 24 October 2014
Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by Departments of Classics and Theology &
Religious Studies and the Centre for Hellenic Studies
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EMILY PILLINGER, Lecturer,
Departments of Classics and
Liberal Arts
SOPHIE LUNN-ROCKLIFFE, Senior
Lecturer, Department of
Classics
MODERATOR:
BEN QUASH, Professor,
Department of Theology &
Religious Studies
The presentations will be
followed by a half-hour panel
discussion and question-andanswer session.
The Cenotaph Project &
the public sphere
This panel revisits Stuart
Brisley and Maya
Balcioglu’s Cenotaph
Project (1987-91). The
British painter, sculptor and
performance artist Stuart
Brisley is widely regarded as a
key figure in British art. Along
with his frequent collaborator,
Maya Balcioglu, he has
unflinchingly probed the
political, cultural and social
mores of his time in a career
now spanning its sixth decade.
revealed and what remains
underground, buried and
concealed.
Cenotaph literally means an
empty tomb (from the Greek
kenos, empty and taphos,
tomb.) It both conceals
remains that are lost or buried
elsewhere and serves as a
powerful signifier of military
and state power. It thus raises
questions about the relation
between what is ‘above
ground’, state-sanctioned,
The discussion concludes
with a reading by author
Tony White from a new
work of critical prose fiction,
which uses the figure of
the cenotaph to focus on
revolutionary aspects of Stuart
Brisley’s work since the early
1970s.
For this project the artists
exhibited replicas of the
Whitehall Cenotaph, scaled
down to match the typical
height of a council flat ceiling,
in six locations across the
country. From a mute signifier
of ‘official history’ the various,
smaller cenotaphs opened a
space for a critique of history
and the possibility of change.
This event results from a
loose collaboration between
BALCIOGLU, BRISLEY, SANJA
PEROVIC (Senior Lecturer in
French, King’s College London)
and TONY WHITE that has been
made possible by White’s
appointment as creative
entrepreneur in residence
at King’s College London,
supported by CreativeWorks
London.
A cenotaph will be on display
in the Chapel throughout the
Festival and can be viewed
10.00-22.00.
Art installation & panel discussion
19.00-20.30, Friday 24 October 2014
Chapel, King’s Building, Strand Campus
Presented by the Department of French & the Centre
for Enlightenment Studies
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Inaugural Lectures in the
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
The programme of inaugural lectures, in which new professors
introduce themselves and their research to the wider academic
community, is a great opportunity to find out about the varied
research going on across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
Inaugural lectures are open to all. Forthcoming lectures include:
Ananya Kabir, Professor of English Literature, Department of
English
A Secret History of the Dance Floor
18.30, Thursday 16 October 2014, Anatomy Lecture Theatre
(part of the Festival programme, see page 15)
Kate Crosby, Professor of Buddhist Studies, Department of
Theology and Religious Studies
Nirvana & the new technologies: the suppression & renewal of
meditation in Buddhist Southeast Asia
18.30, Thursday 23 October 2014, Anatomy Lecture Theatre
(part of the Festival programme, see page 60)
Anna Reading, Professor of Culture & Creative Industries,
Head of Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries
Title to be confirmed
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Richard Kirkland, Professor of Irish Literature & Cultural
Theory, Department of English
Title to be confirmed
Thursday 22 January 2015
For further details of the Inaugurals programme,
and to view past lectures, go to
www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/research/inaugurals/index.aspx
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ARTS & HUMANITIES RESEARCH
INSTITUTE (AHRI)
The AHRI is a hub to foster
innovative interdisciplinary
research across the Faculty
of Arts & Humanities and
beyond. Its main areas of
responsibility are toward the
Faculty’s nine interdisciplinary
research centres; and to
provide a platform for public
engagement, showcasing the
dynamism, intellectual rigour
and creativity of arts and
humanities research at King’s
College London.
In addition to the A&H Festival,
we offer a wide range of
events throughout the year,
including seminar series,
public lectures, book launches
and conferences covering a
myriad of subjects. For details
of forthcoming events, go to
www.kcl.ac.uk/ahri
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Terrible Beauty: Music &
Writing of the First World War
Out of the debris of the First World War emerged some of
the most haunting literature and music of the 20th century.
Terrible Beauty will take us through the tumult of the
times through an evening of songs, music and writings from
combatants and non-combatants, men and women, responding
to the conflict from Great Britain and beyond. It will include
performances by the British tenor Andrew Kennedy and
readings by the poet-critic Angela Leighton, among others.
This concert is organised in conjunction with the British
Academy conference First World War: Literature,
Culture, Modernity and is in collaboration with
King’s College London and Humanities in the
European Research Area (HERA) project ‘Cultural
Exchange in a Time of Global Conflict’ .
19.30, Tuesday 11 November 2014
Chapel, King’s Building
King’s College London, Strand Campus.
Book your place at this free event:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/terrible-beauty-music-andwriting-of-the-first-world-war-tickets-11615964663
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20–26 October 2014
Inside Out Festival is held in association with
Times Higher Education.
Inside Out Festival is curated and produced by TCCE (The
Culture Capital Exchange) and sets out to showcase, for the
5th time, the fascinating contribution made by our London
member universities to the capital’s cultural life. A huge
number of events will take place on both university campuses
and leading London venues throughout the week. The public
is encouraged to participate in a wide range of activities from
the performing and visual arts through to literature, design,
fashion as well as the sciences and social sciences.
Inside Out Festival was established in 2009. Since then we
have curated, produced and supported nearly 200 events in
the festival’s first four years, working with partner venues
including Somerset House, Tate, NPG, RSA, Calvert 22,
The British Academy, ICA and Museum of Brands.
TCCE is a company promoting
the exchange of Universities
knowledge and expertise with
the capital’s business, cultural
and creative sectors. The
members are: University of the
Arts London, City University
London, Royal Central School
of Speech and Drama, Guildhall
School of Music & Drama,
King’s College London, Kingston
University London, Middlesex
University London, Queen Mary
University of London, Royal
Holloway University of London,
Trinity Laban Conservatoire
of Music and Dance and
University of West London.
The 2014 programme will include an eclectic mix of debates,
performance, workshops, screenings, walks and concerts
(many of them free) held within our universities and with
cultural partners.
For more information and to book:
www.insideoutfestival.org.uk
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Cultural Institute at King’s
Where King’s & culture connect
The Cultural Institute at King’s College London connects
the College with practitioners, producers, policy makers and
participants across arts and culture, creating space where
conventions are challenged and original perspectives emerge.
It aims to ensure that thinking generated within King’s
delivers benefits and drives innovation across the cultural
sector, and that arts and culture inspire new approaches to
research and learning throughout the College.
Several of the projects taking part in the Festival have been
supported by the Cultural Institute, including Autopoiesis
and 53 Million Artists, both of which were made possible
through collaborations between leading academics and
cultural practitioners.
For details about how to get involved
with the Cultural Institute, see
www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/culturalinstitute/howwecollaborate
We also have a number of events
and exhibitions coming up,
including:
The Joy of Influence: a
collaboration between the
Department of English and the
Cultural Institute at King’s which
will see some of the country’s best
known journalists come to the
College to discuss the novel that
changed their life
18.30–19.30, 22, 23, 26, 29
September & 3 October 2014,
Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre,
Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS
Tickets: £5 (£3 King’s staff and
alumni, students)
De/Coding the Apocalypse: following
Michael Magruder’s Leverhulme
residency with the Department
of Theology & Religious Studies
at King’s, this exhibition aligns
contemporary art and theological
study to create new ways of looking
at the Book of Revelations.
12.00–18.00, Tuesday–Sunday,
7 November – 19 December 2014,
Inigo Rooms, Strand Campus,
London WC2R 2LS
Free admission
For tickets & details of all our
events, see www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural
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Programme design & layout: WM Pank
Cover image: Michael Farrant
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Virginia Woolf Building
King’s College London
22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NR
FESTIVAL ORGANISATION
Festival curated by the Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI)
Festival Director: PROFESSOR MAX SAUNDERS
Festival team: PELAGIA PAIS
LAURA DOUGLAS
ABBIE GERRARD
ALEXANDRA CREIGHTON
Tel +44 (0)20 7848 2375
Email [email protected]
Festival website: www.kcl.ac.uk/ahfest
#ahfest
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
King’s College London
Strand London WC2R 2LS