Category Archives: Culture

Database Trial – Archives of Sexuality & Gender

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Our latest trial comes courtesy of the Gale Group, and will likely be of great interest to humanities, media and politics students.

With material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups, the documents in the Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 present important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. The archive illuminates the experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community. Historical records of political and social organizations founded by LGBTQ individuals are featured, as well as publications by and for lesbians and gays, and extensive coverage of governmental responses to the AIDS crisis.

The archive also contains personal correspondence and interviews with numerous LGBTQ individuals, among others. The archive includes gay and lesbian newspapers from more than 35 countries, reports, policy statements, and other documents related to gay rights and health, including the worldwide impact of AIDS, materials tracing LGBTQ activism in Britain from 1950 through 1980, and more.

To begin searching go to:

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/loughuni?db=AHSI

Access is via IP address and the trial is available until 9th May 2018

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn ( s.c.corn@lboro.ac.uk ) with your comments.

Stephen Hawking 1942-2018

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Visionary scientist Stephen Hawking has died aged 76.

Famed for his study of black holes and relativity, he wrote several best-selling science books including most notably A Brief History of Time, which sold over ten million copies worldwide.

At the age of 22 he was given only a few years to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease, which left him confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser, but he defied the odds and overcame his disability to become the scientist widely regarded as the greatest since Albert Einstein.

He gained immense popularity outside the academic world, including appearances in popular TV shows including The Simpsons and Star Trek: The Next Generation. In 2014, he was portrayed by Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, a dramatic reconstruction of his early life and struggles.

We have several works by and about Stephen Hawking in the Library, including A Brief History of Time – you can find them here – http://bit.ly/2p8Nfqi

Database Trial – Oxford Art Online/Grove Art Online

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Art students and art lovers alike will find our latest database trial of great interest, as we take a trip through the archives of Oxford Art Online’s Grove Art Online.

This trial provides access to the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, covering both Western and non-Western art. First published as the landmark 34-volume Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, the content of Grove Art encompasses all aspects of visual culture.

To begin searching go to: www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart

No need to sign in as access is via IP address.The trial is available until 21st March 2018

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn – s.c.corn@lboro.ac.uk – with your comments.

Online Daily Newspaper Access

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While our daily newspaper deliveries have been temporarily suspended, what better time to remind people that you can still catch up with the latest news via Nexis UK.

The Nexis UK database provides a wide range of UK, European and U.S. newspapers online, on the day of publication. You can find all of the UK national papers as well as a wide range of regional titles.

Nexis UK can be found via the Library Catalogue, you just need your Athens username and password.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/auth/athensredirection.do

Congratulations to Kazuo Ishiguro

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Congratulations to British author Kazuo Ishiguro, who was today announced as the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Best known for the 1989 Booker Prize winning novel The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan in 1954 but emigrated with his family to England in 1960. His first novel, A Pale View of Hills (1982) actually started life as his masters thesis! He has published 8 novels in total so far, and two – Remains of the Day (1993) and Never Let Me Go (2010) – have been successfully adapted for cinema.

The Library holds copies of several of his novels among our literature section on Level 2, along with a broad spectrum of representative and critical works of the greatest authors of all time.

Loughborough Town Hall Summer Open Exhibition

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Loughborough Town Hall has just begun its annual Open Exhibition in its Sock Gallery Exhibition space this week.

The Open Exhibition offers the opportunity for local artists both professional and amateur to apply and exhibit two-dimensional work ranging from paintings, photographs, drawings, original prints and mixed media work in a professional gallery.

The exhibition is running from the 5th August to 9th September. The Sock Gallery is free to enter and is open Monday – Saturday from 9am – 5.00pm and when the venue is open for shows.

For & Against: Campus Art Exhibition

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Loughborough University Arts is hosting a free exhibition in the Martin Hall Exhibition Space this summer.

For & Against: Art, Politics and the Pamphlet is a collaborative project between Radar and Loughborough University academics Dr Gillian Whiteley and Dr Jane Tormey, RadicalAesthetics-RadicalArt (RaRa).

This engaging programme responds to research into the political pamphlet and the relevance of the pamphlet for contemporary art practice. It has comprised a series of public workshops, a symposium, a Charnwood Museum exhibition and Pamphlet Day, a day-long public event in the town centre. Jane Tormey and Gillian Whiteley are working on a forthcoming edited book, ‘Art, Politics and the Pamphleteer’, to be published in the RaRa series by Bloomsbury.

This exhibition shares elements of this project, including new pamphlets by artists Patrick Goddard, Ferenc Gróf and Rory Pilgrim, commissioned by Radar; a selection of historical pamphlets from the Art of the Pamphlet exhibition; documentation of a series of pamphlet workshops led by artists Freee, Ruth Beale, Ciara Phillips and Little Riot Press and artworks inspired by For & Against workshops led by artists Chiara Dellerba and Sarah Green, and writer Alison Mott.

The exhibition runs until 1st September.

Robots at the Cope Auditorium

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To mark UK Robotics Week next week the Cope Auditorium is opening its doors for an evening of cybernetic discussion under the banner Robots at the movies: The portrayal of robots and androids in contemporary films.

Automata, robots and androids have been a creation and fascination for humans over centuries. From Maria (Metropolis, 1927), R2D2 and C3PO (Star Wars, 1977), WALL-E (2008), The Terminators (1984, 1991, 2003) to Transformers (2007), they have been portrayed as our friends, adversaries, alien to almost human, invaders and enslavers or as our saviours and trusted companions.

These portrayals in the movies have reflected and perhaps influenced our opinion of them. Join us for an amusing evening reviewing our relationship with these technologies as reflected in their portrayal in the movie industry.

The discussion runs from 6pm – 7.30pm next Thursday (28th June) in the Cope and is brought to you by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence in support of the UK Robotics Week 2017. The event is free, but booking is necessary – visit the link below to do that.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robots-at-the-movies-the-portrayal-of-robots-and-androids-in-contemporary-films-tickets-31961461592

Loughborough Arts Degree Show 2017

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Loughborough University’s School of the Arts, English and Drama will be hosting its annual final year degree show this month in the School’s Edward Barnsley Building.

The display showcases the work of the School’s final-year Fine Art, Graphic Communication and Illustration, and Textiles students, and includes an exhibition by Foundation Art and Design students.

Staff, students and members of the public are all welcome and for anyone thinking of applying to Loughborough, it is an excellent opportunity to see the work our students produce.

The show begins with on June 9th and is open daily until 18th June, 10am – 5pm.

Details of the exhibits will be displayed online at this address: www.lboro.ac.uk/artsdegreeshow .

On the Radar – Curating National Narratives

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As part of the Politicized Practice Research Group Seminar Series, the School of the Arts, English & Drama will be staging Curating National Narratives in the new Radar ArtSpace next Wednesday 10th May.

This joint talk by Sofia Mali and Marina Maximova will explore the different ways that national narratives are reproduced and communicated through exhibitions. It will examine the curatorial processes taking place in different settings: European national museums and the Venice Biennale.

The event takes place between 12-2pm on Wednesday 10th May in the Radar ArtSpace in the Edward Barnsleu Building. Admission is free, but booking is required – to do so, email your interest to aed.research@lboro.ac.uk.