Readings, Lectures, Talks, Debates - the best of November

Readings, Lectures, Talks, Debates - the best of November

26 October, 2011
by: Spoonfed Arts Team

Our selection of the five best talks, readings, lectures, debates and other wordy-based events taking place across London next month.

Thursday 3rd November
Resisting Control @ Bishopsgate Institute
£8, from 7.30pm
As part of the Whose Mind is it Anyway? series curated with Little Atoms comes this discussion about the nature of dissent – particularly in light of the recent increase in disenchantment with mainstream politics. Author Dan Hinds, journalist Bibi van der Zee, historian Alex Butterworth and Ted Vallance from the University of Roehampton discuss protest, its history and its complex present-day legal status.


Tuesday 8th November
The End (and Ends) of Photo Criticism @ Hotshoe Gallery
£6, 6pm
Heavyweight American photography critic and author AD Coleman is at Hotshoe Gallery to discuss the history of photography criticism over the past 40 years. Coleman was the first dedicated photography critic for the New York Times and is considered by many to be the first postmodernist writer on the medium. The decline in art criticism in the past few years has been widely lamented, so expect this to be a fiery but fascinating discussion.


Thursday 24th November
How to Change the World @ Soho Theatre
£35, 7.15pm
Programmed alongside their current play, A Walk on Part – a dramatisation of the political diaries of former MP Chris Mullin – the Soho Theatre are putting on an after-show debate, exploring how to change the world (for the better, we assume). Channel 4's Political Correspondent chairs a discussion with Lib Dem MP Don Foster, Artistic Director of Newcastle's Live Theatre, Max Roberts, and the Soho's own Artistic Director Steve Marmion. Your £35 includes a ticket to the play and a glass of wine – not too shabby.


Friday, 25th November
folio, issue 1 launch @ Banner Repeater
Free, 6-9pm
This November sees folio launching issue one of their new magazine (perplexingly it's actually the second issue as they started on zero) at Banner Repeater, on platform 1 of Hackney Downs overground station. folio sees itself as “an exhibition space on paper” and issue 1 contains work by a host of promising contemporary artists, including Edward Salem, Yunji Park and the brilliant Chloe Ostmo.


Tuesday 29th November
The Politics of Good Taste @ National Theatre Lyttelton
£4, 6pm
For the annual Jocelyn Herbert Lecture, polymath set designer Ultz discusses the evolution of British set design since the 1950s. Ultz' recent credits include Chicken Soup with Barley at the Royal Court, for which, incidentally, Herbert designed the very first set back in 1958. Ultz is known for his rich and sensitively symbolic designs, and this is a unique opportunity to hear from a leader in a profession that is at once so public, but whose practitioners are so often unsung.


Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in London.
Return to Spoonfed's London Art homepage.

Spoonfed Arts Team