Universettee
- Introduction
- The Universettee is a series of mobile lectures that happen in people's homes with a variety of speakers from different walks of life. The emphasis is on learning about all sorts of issues in a non-threatening environment. The lectures are free but participants are asked to bring some food or drink to share. The syllabus is flexible and shaped by those who offer to lecture or host the Universettee. Lectures will be approximately 30-40 minutes followed by time for questions and discussion. The formal part of the evening will last no longer than 1 hour. People wanting to attend are required to book a place in advance as spaces are limited.
Next Universettee Lecture
If I go suddenly... charity shop stories
Priscilla Robinson is a writer and performer living in Dublin. She has been trawling for treasure in skips, jumble sales and charity shops for almost 30 years. A dream came true for her in 2010 when she opened her own unique charity shop during the Absolut Fringe Festival in Dublin. It was called Help Me! Help Me! and she gave away over 600 of her things - many originally bought in charity shops - in exchange for people’s help.
Now she is worried that the type of charity shop she loves - muddled and a bit chaotic - is dying out in favour of more streamlined, corporate places. Come and hear this love story and lament. Will contain a charity shop raffle!
Date: Tues 7.2.2012
Speaker: Priscilla Robinson
Venue: Hackney Downs
Time: 7.30pm
Previous Universettee Lectures
23.1.2012 Throwaway lines –Andy Hayes
Find out about a brand new art form, 'Litterature' - a series of short stories created from rubbish. Throwaway Lines is the latest project from 26, the writers' collective. 26 writers created 26 stories from 26 scraps of handwritten paper, abandoned, found then rescued from London's streets over the past two years.
Andy Hayes will share his strange obsession for collecting litter and will be joined by two of the story writers, Jane Eden and Roshni Goyate.
http://26.org.uk
There's a leak in the boiler room. A few thoughts by Andrew Jones about a few songs by Tom Waits. We'll listen to Tom sing about the leak and how he thinks it can be fixed.
26.9.2011 Here we go again...again: Understanding the Hollywood Sequel –
The prominence of the sequel in contemporary Hollywood is hard to ignore, but little attempt has been made to understand how it is distinct from other forms of cinematic storytelling, or indeed why it is such a popular choice for both film-makers and audiences. With reference to Toy Story 3 and Die Hard 2 amongst others, this lecture will attempt to offer some explanation as to why the sequel has always played a part in Hollywood's output, and why it might be that we keep coming back for more.
22.6.2011 A screening of short films by artists and film makers
15.03.2011 A Method for Approaching Bamboo - David Henningham
How the world confronts the artist in the poetry of Basho and WG Sebald
What is nature and how long can it last? What happens when artists try to examine the world they are a part of? What happened when two poets born exactly 400 years apart passed each other on the road? What is a coin-operated buddha-during-enlightenment?
22.2.2011 A Heterodox Orthodox: Who was Fyodor Dostoevsky? - Svetlana Graudt
He may be hailed as one of the world's greatest writers, but how about a failed terrorist, a convict, a gambler and a devout christian to boot? Come to hear about Dostoyevsky the real man. You may be surprised by what you learn.
17.05.2010 The Edge of Music - Sarah Barnes
'Angels calling to each other across the universe, moon-struck wailing and a steam train on its way to Auschwitz - some of the strange, haunting sounds conjured by composers as they tried to express the extremities of the universe and human experience. This lecture will look at how Western composers have explored ‘the edge of music’ – either the meeting point between music and other media, or the point at which music begins to become something other than what what would normally be described as music (e.g. mechanical, recorded or environmental sound, ordinary speech, noise or silence). When is music not music? When does a musical work become ‘multi-media’? And what effect does that have on its meaning? At such meeting points, I think music can be at its most philosophically interesting….'
16.2.2010 Picture Books and Controversial Issues - Sophie Mackay
This lecture will be interactive and will focus on the ways in which recently published picture books for primary age range children tackle controversial issues including war, sexuality, globalization and sustainable development. I will be arguing that texts which focus on what might be perceived as controversial issues are relevant to children’s lives today. I will be suggesting that in fact such texts should not be seen as ‘controversial’ and considering the need to re-think what we mean by childhood innocence and reflecting on what can we can consider as the potential ‘corruptors’ of children. In the session there will be an opportunity to look at the picture books I discuss and time for discussion of questions raised in the presentation.
18.1.2010 Roots Manuva: A Romantic Soul - David Barnes
British hip-hop and Romantic poetry might seem like an unlikely pairing. We are used to mainstream rap music as a byword for bragging, egotism and misogyny. Roots Manuva bucks the trend. Instead of ego, he gives us tortured introspection; instead of boasting, he puts his self-doubt on show. In Roots’s struggles with depression, the nature of reality, and God, he provides a model of rap music that is closer to the Romantic poetry of Coleridge and Wordsworth than it is to Snoop Dogg. Come and hear about Roots Manuva’s conflicted romantic soul and why his quintessentially British rap lyrics are worth a closer look.
30.6.09 The world in an hour and a half - Andrew Jones
Donkeys are rarely seen as great spiritual teachers. In 1966 Robert Bresson made a film called 'Au Hasard Balthazar'". The main character in the film is a donkey called Balthazar. This illustrated lecture will explore why Bresson's film is regarded by many as a spiritual masterpiece.
19.5.2009 Volunteering in post-war Liberia - Michal Tkachenko and Nigel Barker
Two volunteers who spent 7 months in Liberia talk about living in a post-war country that is still host to the second largest United Nations peacekeeping troops in the world. We will take a closer look at working on a hospital ship and some of the medical issues involved.
21.4.2009 J.S.Bach, Goldberg Variations, (Piano Recital) - Kerry Yong
16.3.2009 Inventing a Fairer Coffee Machine - Andrew Stordy
Inventor Andrew Stordy has designed a machine that aims to change the way the coffee industry works, for the benefit of coffee farmers. Come and find out about coffee, where it comes from and how the machine works. (Safety glasses will be supplied).
17.2.2009 Refusing to accept the absurdity of the world picture offered us - Jane Trowell
What is activism? A poem, stopping Stansted Airport, a research report, a hug, a struggle with the police, an allotment, an unaverted gaze? PLATFORM works between art, campaigning, education and activism, tonight represented by Jane Trowell. www.platformlondon.org *John Berger
19.1.2009 Signs and wonders: the art of Sister Mary Corita - Murray Macaulay
'Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail. Only make.' (Rule 9, The Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules') An introduction to the art of Sister Mary Corita Kent, a Los Angeles screen-printing nun and teacher, who made art about faith and packaging. An unlikely, but true story, about a cardinal and a juicy tomato, Jesus and the Chevrolet man, a pray play book, a Jesuit draft burner, and an art agnostic who found he just might be able to believe again.
2.12.2008 The sacred art of obituary writing - Matt Cresswell
A journalist ruminates on the art of capturing a life span in 500 words
3.11.2008 Robots, micro nations, perverse urbanism and other fiction from the not so distant future -
... and other fiction from the not so distant future ... narrated by TomorrowsThoughtsToday. TomorrowsThoughtsToday is a London-based think tank exploring the consequences of fantastic, perverse and underrated urbanisms. tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com
29.9.2008 Is history bunk? - James May
History sells. TV series and printed history alike are very popular. The question ‘do I like history?’ however, is different from the question, ‘do I think history is important?’ Many people find it interesting or entertaining – but does it matter? Can we learn anything from it, should we learn anything from it, do we learn anything from it? Is there any significance to the progressing story of the human race? To borrow from Shakespeare; is the life of the human race but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: is it a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? I don’t think there are any easy answers – but plenty of questions that are worth asking. Why not come to Universettee and join in the discussion?
2.9.2008 ‘It was not my intention to take the biscuit’ - rumination on tea-party etiquette with some delightful suggestions for what to do with crumbs - Emma Robertson
29.7.2008 Library as Utopia - Nick Brown
Or why meaning is hidden in gibberish. A few thoughts about how libraries shape our lives, touching on memory, totalitarianism, architecture, copyright, lying, bedbugs and Dolly Parton. Plus a few rude words about a politician.
31.3.2008 Hunchbacks, lunatics and biopolitics in the work of W.G.Sebald - Ping Henningham
The lecture will give a history of what is behind the many physically and mentally malformed characters in W.G. Sebald’s books. The lecture will touch upon all his works, concentrating the most on chapter 5 of The Rings of Saturn. This chapter is worth reading before you come to the lecture, but hopefully it will make sense even if you have never read any Sebald before. He Is A Great Writer.
25.2.2008 From London to Beijing - Tom Keogh and Hans Askheim
Tom and Hans will discuss a curatorial project that comprises a 6-week trans-Eurasian journey from London to Beijing. A team of 4 curators (Hans Askheim, Claire Davis, Tom Keogh and Miranda Pope) will transport a single artwork by the German artist Tobias Rehberger across Europe, Central Asia and China. The presentation of the work will be carried out in conjunction with local artists, curators and art professionals at a number of pre-arranged stop off points (galleries or cultural institutions) along the way.
19.11.2007 AIDS and HIV in Africa - Jason Christopher
A medical doctor who has spent time in Uganda and has also recently completed postgraduate study on public health will share his perspective on the problem of HIV and Aids in Africa.
22.10.2007 God vs. R.S.Thomas: a divine perspective on a Welsh poet - Andrew Jones
RS Thomas was a twentieth century vicar-poet who struggled with God. This lecture will explore God's struggle with RS Thomas.
10.9.2007 Performance of belief - Megan Macdonald
Megan Macdonald will be talking about her current PhD research into how people 'perform' their belief through the body. Belief is not just something you think about - belief requires action. The work of contemporary performance artists will be used to examine how and why we perform our beliefs.
21.5.2007 The Suit - Bryan Parsons
From a thought attached to something else to a thought process. From looking at the conventions of comics. A suit was made and developed. Now it is part of something bigger and more optimistic
30.4.2007 An inaugural lecture of the pocket department - Gary Woodley
exploring the diversity and deployability of pocket spaces
16.4.2007 Who the heck is Zizek? - David Henningham
Slavoj Zizek is a name on everyone’s lips, cautiously perhaps, but nonetheless widely known. He has been cast as a sort of Elvis of Psychoanalysis. He’s a Marxist and a Materialist but he calls for Judeo-Christian thinkers and believers to join with Marxists to resist the onslaughts of Neo-Paganism, Neo-Nazism and Western Buddhism in culture. Why? This lecture will be an introduction to his central ideas towards Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and various other forms of Paganism, and a glimpse at his biography. Come and find out why Bush and Blair are Buddhists. It will save you a lot of dense reading; it may also cause some.
26.3.2007 Valerie Solanas - Stephanie Moran
Stephanie Moran will discuss what she likes about Valerie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto which she believes is unfairly vilified and dismissed as just a man-hating text. (Valerie Solanas is the woman who shot Andy Warhol)
12.3.2007 Michael Wedgwood and Eddie Farrell of the Shytstem in association with The Universettee present an informal, nae relaxed, talk on The cardboard box
We met across a crowded room of them…. First collaboration – BOX University College London, North Cloisters Monday 24th February 2003 …Now we speak across continents through one Year long publication work – SHYTSTEM - No fixed abode 5th September 2006 till……………?
26.2.2007 Is children’s literature really just for children? - Sophie Mackay
The first part of the session will focus on how the changes and developments in children's literature reflect society's changing attitude to children and childhood. In the second half the audience will be invited to look at a selection of picture books and reflect on the images of childhood they depict.