15th Nov 2012: Manchester; Nature and museums by Henry McGhie and Manchester History by Dominique Tessier; Music by Kinaesthetic; 7 to 10pm at The Castle Hotel

Henry McGhiie

You are invited to the open event at The Castle Hotel  on the 15th November from 7pm to 10pm to enjoy two talks, some free food and some music.  It is an open door event, no tickets required; just come along, put your feet up and bring your friends.  The talks are as follows:

Museum nature and the nature of museums by Henry McGhie

For over a century, visitors to Manchester museum have learned about natural history by looking at stuffed animals in glass cases arranged by their scientific classification. Many favourites – the tiger, gorilla and polar bear – are still there in a series of 15 themed displays entitled Life, Bodies, Peace, Humans and Disasters.
But some distinctly un-museum like objects have now been added including origami birds, clockwork teeth and neon signs. Henry McGhie, Head of Collections and Curator of Zoology, said “The whole thing had become confused, it was out of date and it was time for a very serious change, insisting the artistic reinvention of the old Animal Life gallery was “far from cosmetic”. Here he gives an informal talk loosely around Living Worlds and how the collection aims to inspire people to think about the past, present and future and understand how we connect with nature…

  • Background to the Manchester Museum
  • Museum nature’ and the point of a museum is?
  • From natural history to human ecology
  • Specimens- documents vs agents for change
  • People power

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14th Dec 2010: Greek Myth by Heather Rae and Ayurveda by Diana Kras

The Wise Monkey

On Tuesday, the 14th December, 2010 the following talks were put on in The Wise Monkey (508 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 HDL) between 8:00pm until 10:00pm…

“Mythology of Greek Monsters” with Heather Rae

Greek Mythology has been around for a very long time and monsters feature in the corpus of both literiture and art.  I find Monsters interesting for their bodies, behaviour, and the way they can reflect and invert cultural norms. They are even used to question concepts of monstrosity and heroisim. I am looking at these issues and others in my PhD on Classical Monsters.  I shall be talking about Medusa, Scylla, and Giants.
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Asylum: A Journey Through Madness and Back by Dina Poursanidou

How I became involved with the Asylum magazine and what such involvement has meant for me:  a journey through madness and back by Dina Poursanidou

My first encounter with the Asylum magazine occurred in the spring of 2010 – when the magazine was relaunched after a 3-year break. I was introduced to Asylum by Helen (Spandler), a friend and colleague from the University of Central Lancashire and member of the Asylum editorial collective, and I have been reading it religiously ever since. In the autumn of 2011 Helen asked me whether I would be interested in being involved in the Asylum editorial collective, stressing that ‘the collective is open to anyone who wants to help produce and develop the magazine, working in a spirit of equality’. I was pleased to be asked and I have been a member of the collective for about a year. Read more…

Trees Not Trash has landed in Scotland! by Kate Gilliam

We have started the first of TNT Edinburgh’s community green spaces, on a stretch of unused land adjacent to the Union Canal in the Shandon area of Edinburgh. This piece of land is generally overgrown with a forest of stinging nettles, so we are transforming it into usable growing space. We have chosen this spot for its high pedestrian traffic and proximity to water, and have so far enjoyed great support and met many keen gardeners who have been dropping by to help out with our Sunday gardening days! We garden every Sunday from 11am onwards.

So far we have built 3 vegetable beds, and have planted crops chosen for their winter hardiness: kale, black radishes, oriental greens, spinach, cauliflower and rocket. We have also planted an apple tree and a berry bush and plan on much more.

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