Renewal – The University of Dundee Culture Day

RENEWAL

The University of Dundee Culture Day, featuring a wide range of stimulating presentations exploring themes of rebirth and regeneration.

Provisional programme – Renewal – University of Dundee Culture Day

1.45 Welcome

1.50 Ali Floyd (School of Life Sciences)

A Wellcome Welcome to Culture

At the Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research, regeneration and renewal are at the heart of our work, whether in discovering new medicines or in engaging with the public. You’ll find out what the Centre does globally and locally, both on-campus and across Dundee, in some unexpectedly creative spaces.

2.05 Susan Mains (Geography, School of Social Sciences)

The Sea Inside Outside: Exploring Coasts, Place and Creative Practice.

The sea has been a landscape of fascination over many centuries, symbolising opportunities and challenges, as well as changing emotional states. Coasts in particular have increasingly become viewed as important settings for rejuvenation and renewal. Through a range of creative practices, Susan explores images of the sea and coast, and our connections to place.

2.20 Kenneth Baxter (Archive Services)

Charting the evolution and regeneration of Dundee Waterfront through the Archives

From its earliest days Dundee’s waterfront has played an important part in the city’s history. As Dundee developed in the 19th and 20th centuries its waterfront was greatly altered. The advent of the railways and expansion of the docks in the 19th century pushed the waterfront further away from the city centre, while developments in the 20th century eventually saw much of the waterfront cut off from the town, while the decline of shipping and industry had a major impact on the area. The 21st century as seen major work to regenerate the waterfront and reconnect it to the heart of the city. Using a variety of archive material including photographs, maps and unrealised plans, this talk will chart the evolution of the waterfront and its ongoing regeneration.

2.35 Break

2.50 Matthew Jarron (Museum Services)

Growing Pains – The Rebirth of Dundee’s Art College

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design is now one of the UK’s leading art schools, yet for many years it was the poor relation to Scotland’s other, larger colleges. An astonishing rebirth occurred in the mid 20th century, but it was a slow and at times painful process, with many difficulties along the way. This presentation will explore the challenges and personalities involved.

3.05 Christine Kingsley (Design & Making, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design)

Regenerating Local Pottery Traditions

Christine will talk about her work at Buttery Wynd Pottery, the regeneration of the material they are using (red earthenware dug locally) and reviving a tradition of the potteries in Fife that was a 19th Century industrial practice.

3.20 Kevin Frediani (Botanic Garden)

From A Garden: A Story of Continuity and Renewal

Dundee Botanic Garden is 50 years old this month. Reflecting upon that half century of the making of a garden, the incoming Curator explores the opportunities for rebirth and regeneration inspired by the living collection to connect to landscapes beyond the Garden walls.

3.35 Keith Dinnie (Marketing & Management, School of Business)

One City, Many Discoveries: Renewal and Re-focusing of Dundee’s City Brand

In recent years Dundee has reinvented itself through a commitment to culture and creativity. This presentation will explore current approaches to Dundee’s city branding by the public and private sectors, as well as identifying potential future directions for Dundee’s city brand.

3.50 Break

Renewal – University of Dundee Culture Day

4.05 Theresa Lynn (Community Education, School of Education & Social Work)

Creative Processes for Engaged Regeneration Planning

Over recent decades in Scotland and the UK, the desirability of creative consultation of communities, to achieve sustainable physical regeneration, as well as the renewal of community networks, has become widely recognised.

We will look at the uses of arts-based activities as a basis to access underlying collective cultural strands, as a Cultural Planning process, through various local and national examples.

4.20 Keith Williams (English, School of Humanities)

The Ghost of Futures Past – Resurrecting the Lost Scottish Father of Transatlantic Science Fiction

This talk introduces the life and work of Cupar-born Robert Duncan Milne (1844-99). Milne published over fifty Science Fiction stories from 1879-99. He pioneered themes such as climate catastrophe, cryogenics, molecular re-engineering of the body, personality transfer, scientific terrorism and drone warfare, remote surveillance and telecommunications, satellite phones and technologies for visual time travel which anticipate cinema and TV. Scotland appears to punch below its weight in relation to early science fiction, yet Milne is an extraordinary lost presence who slipped through the cracks of the canon by a series of historical accidents – until now.

4.35 Husam Al Waer (Architecture & Urban Planning, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design)

Facilitating the 20 minute neighbourhood – Revisiting Urban Proximity, Density and Diversity in the age of Covid-19

This presentation will explore whether the ‘20 minute neighborhood’ is a welcome or effective way to organise urban life. This initiative builds upon the long-established notion that people should be able to access most daily needs within 20 minutes of their home, thereby reducing commuting lengths and transport demand, and promoting local neighbourhood identity, health and liveability. However, this initiative raises some critical questions, particularly in the context of Covid-19 and the future of sustainable cities. This presentation aims to address issues such as: Can we accommodate an urban quarter in 20 minutes? Could it draw investment, services and power back into local communities? Or does it misjudge the hierarchical nature of cities, including the role of their centres? What would the benefits and risks be for the economy, health and the environment? For residents, traders, employers and transport providers? For the old and young, families and singles?

4.50 End

Renewal – University of Dundee Culture Day

Image: Moth Life Cycle – drawing from the series Memory System for D’Arcy Thompson by Lindsay Sekulowicz, 2012 (University of Dundee Museums, copyright the artist)