Launch: London’s Lost Cinemas 28th October

Sam NightingaleExhibition

Former Highbury Picture Theatre

LONDON’S LOST CINEMAS @ UCL Cities Methodologies 2014

Dr Chris O’Rourke & Sam Nightingale

29 – 31 October 2014
Exhibition Launch: 28 October 18.30 – 21.00
Opening Times: 29 – 31 10.00 – 20.00

UCL Cities Methodologies 2014
5th Floor, Slade Research Centre
Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AM

London’s Lost Cinemas brings together an interactive map showing London’s lost or forgotten cinemas and photographs of the spaces that they once occupied. Between 1906 and 1930, nearly one thousand cinemas opened in and around London. These ranged from converted shops and amusement arcades to lavish ‘picture palaces’. The exhibit showcases new research and creative responses to this early period of cinema history. It invites visitors to imagine the impact that cinemas have had on London’s streets and its people, and to consider how the relationship between moving images and the city has changed over time.

Sam Nightingale’s work focuses on the London Borough of Islington where he has photographed the many locations where cinemas once stood. The images articulate the latent (or spectral) presence of this history through photographing what remains: depicting urban spaces that are at once both in the present and out of time.

Interactive map presentation times:
Wednesday: 11:00-13:00, 17:00-18:00
Thursday: 12:00-14:00-17:30-18:30
Friday: 13:00-Close

Bio
Dr. Chris O’Rourke is a Research Associate in film studies funded by the UCL Centre for Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Projects (CHIRP). His research looks at the early history of cinemas and cinema-going in London. He also teaches on UCL’s MA in Film Studies and MSc in Urban Studies.
Twitter: @ChrisORourke1 / www.ucl.ac.uk/chirp/research/projects/filmland

Sam Nightingale is a London-based artist who works with photography and the moving image. Nightingale’s practice is concerned with enlivening and imploding the hidden spaces within and between built structures.He works in a research-based and site related way to reveal the multiple histories of cinematic spaces both real and imagined.
www.samnightingale.com / www.islingtonslostcinemas.com

Cities Methodologies is an annual exhibition and programme of events showcasing innovative urban research methodologies. Through peer-reviewed exhibits and events, it draws together undergraduate, masters, and doctoral research, alongside work produced by academics and other researchers and practitioners.