Events are overtaking me
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| Uh-oh. |
Firstly there's an event at Manchester Metropolitan University, 1st May 2014, called Manufacturing Utopia. It's a day long affair at Manchester Art Gallery, with a very interesting and hugely varied cast list discussing the theme of happiness in urban environments. Is the ideal urban environment within our reach or are cities losing their humanity? I'm going to be talking about three different postwar approaches to urban living, and what happened once they were built. This is where the absurd flyer image (above) comes from.
Then there's an event in Sheffield on the 6th May as part of the In The City festival. The event is called To Build a Home: Modernism and Urban Planning in Postwar Britain. I'm giving a talk on the different ways in which the public were included or excluded from the planning of many of our biggest postwar schemes, from Blitz rebuilding to the Byker estate in Newcastle.
After that I'm on a panel talking about Ian Nairn as part of an afternoon of film screenings at the Bristol Festival of Ideas on Sunday 11th May. Gillian Darley, who co-wrote the wonderful Ian Nairn: Words in Place is introducing the films, and also on the panel will be Owen Hatherley and Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson.
And finally I'm appearing at Boring 4, on the 31st May at Conway Hall, London. I suspect this is going to be the most fun, partly because I'm only speaking for ten minutes, and partly because it's half lecture, half stand-up, so much more within my comfort zone. I'm going to be talking about Ladybird's obsession with concrete. Sadly this event is already sold out.
My hope is, I'll manage to be interesting (even at Boring). I must try to keep my desire to turn everything into stand-up in check. As such, it's an intimidating series of things to be doing, but then we could all do with a kick up the arse now and again, right?
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