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REVISIONARY SUBURBIA

Conferences

In Search of Suburbia, MoDA, October 2005 - March 2006

Return of Suburbia

Saturday 18 March 2006, 10am – 4pm, MoDA Lecture Theatre

The exhibition In Search of Suburbia, on show at MoDA from October 2005 until March 2006, was accompanied by a conference, Return of Suburbia. This one-day conference invited reflection on the cultural and social history of suburbia and its presence today in the national consciousness. The speakers were from various fields of interest in suburbia and the suburban. Introduced and chaired by Professor Barry Curtis (Middlesex University), speakers and papers included:

  • Rob Stone, Middlesex University, Suburban Theologies
  • Paul Overy, Middlesex University, Modernity on the Edge: Modernism and Suburbia
  • Claire Pajaczkowska, Middlesex University, Unreal Estate; Suburbia and Infantile Omnipotence: repressed childhoods and the pictorial imagination
  • Christine Jordan, De Montfort University, Suburbia: a Provincial View
  • Elizabeth Lebas, Middlesex University, _The Suburban Landscape and the Origins of Common Ownership_
  • Michael Ann Mullen, Middlesex University, The Suburban Garden: Its Social & Aesthetic Origins
  • Rebecca Preston, Centre for Suburban Studies, Kingston University, Between representation and reality: reading sources for the suburban garden

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Constructed Landscapes

Saturday 17 March 2007, 10am – 4pm, MoDA Lecture Theatre

London Underground’s posters from the 1920s and ‘30s offered their viewers very distinct representations of the urban, suburban and rural environment. Images of the city emphasised work, leisure and sophistication; the suburbs were portrayed as leafy and domesticated, whilst references to the ‘countryside’ focused on freedom and the exploration of unspoilt terrain. This Study Day will explore the ways in which urban, suburban and rural landscapes were constructed in a variety of cultural forms during the interwar period. 

Speakers

  • Oliver Green, Curator of London’s Transport Museum, How Transport Shaped Suburbia and Modern Art Sold It: Metro-land, The Tube and the Promotion of a New Lifestyle
  • Dr. Bronwen Edwards, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Hull, ’A Pleasant Little Shopping Expedition’: Making Fashionable London in 1930s Vogue
  • David Heathcote, Freelance Architecture and Design Historian, Betjeman’s Shell Guides: In Search of a Perfect England
  • Barry Curtis, Emeritus Professor of Visual Culture, Middlesex University, Suburbia and the Modern City

Tickets

£35 full price, £27 concessions (students, Middlesex staff, Friends of MoDA, senior citizens, registered disabled people and ES40 holders) Optional buffet lunch £6.50

For enquiries and to book tickets please contact MoDA’s Bookings Administrator on 020 8411 4394 or email MoDA

REVISIONARY SUBURBIA / EXHIBITIONS / PUBLICATION

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