The Cultures of Early Television programme

John Wyver writes: After months of preparation The Cultures of Early Television conference takes place at Portland Hall in London on Thursday and Friday this week. A University of Westminster conference, supported by The British Academy, this two-day event will explore television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union. I am delighted to say that the full, 24-page conference programme, with a schedule, detailed abstracts and biographies of the speakers, as well as suggestions for further reading can be downloaded here. 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. With presentations, panels and screenings of rare archival material, the event marks the centenary of the first British public…