The cultures of early television

The Cultures of Early Television is a two-day University of Westminster conference exploring television before the Second World War in Britain, continental Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Featuring presentations, panels, and screenings of rare archival material, the event marks the centenary of the first British public presentation of what John Logie Baird called “true television,” which took place in London in early 1926.

The conference brings together scholars and archivists from Britain, Europe, and North America to explore imaginings and understandings of early television, including its productions and its people, rather than its technologies, which have dominated historical accounts to date.

One central focus will be early television’s intermedial entanglements with radio, cinema, theatre, dance, and the visual arts in the first half of the twentieth century. Alongside this is a commitment to developing a transnational dialogue in a field that has largely evolved along national lines.

The conference will be of interest not only to media historians but also to those concerned with mid-century culture more broadly, as well as to social historians and anyone with a general interest in the development of television.