THE CULTURES OF EARLY TELEVISION

A conference about television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union.
About this Event

The Cultures of Early Television, a two-day University of Westminster conference about television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union. With presentations, panels and screenings of rare archival material, the event marks the centenary of the first British public presentation of what John Logie Baird called “true television”, which took place in London in early 1926.

The conference brings together scholars and archivists from Britain, Europe and North America to explore imaginings and understandings of early television, and its productions and people, rather than its technologies, which has been the dominant construction of this history to date

One central focus will be early television’s intermedial entanglements with the radio, cinema, theatre, dance and visual arts of the first half of the twentieth century. Parallel to this will be a concern to develop a transnational dialogue for a field that has largely developed along national lines.

The conference should be of interest not only to media historians, but also to those concerned with mid-century culture more broadly, to social historians, and to those with a general interest in the development of television.

Thanks to the generous support of The British Academy, registration for the conference is free

Event Programme