The Rest Is Noise Festival - My weekend in the 1960s

This post will give you a general overview on the talks I've attended during the past weekend, I have many notes to go through and I unfortunately got ill, so the posts on each event will be a little bit delayed, but I promise I'll try to write them as soon as I can!
This said here are the fantastic events I attended, (desctriptions taken from the event's booklet).

Saturday 26

Richard Weight - The Sixties, For Now

Richard Weight discusses the social liberalism of Britain in the 1960s, the country's relations with the USA and Europe and the founding of the modern, largely secular country we live in today. This is followed by a discussion with Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, before questions are taken from the audience. Richard is the author of Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000 and Modern British History: The Essential A-Z Guide. Richard also taught history at UCL, King's College London and Boston University.

Psychiatry and the 1960s

The writing and teaching of R D Laing caused a dramatic shift in attitudes towards mental health in the 1960s. Heavily influenced by existential philosophy, Laing tore up the rule book and became a huge influence on successive generations of psychiatrists, writers, and philosophers. In this event, his son Adrian Laing, a lawyer and writer, discusses his influence with chair Anthony David.

Double Bill: John Cage & Roland Kirk's Sound & What the Future Sounded Like

Dick Fontaine's experimental 1966 film Sound brings together two very different musical iconoclasts - Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage - who shared a similar vision of the boundless possibilities of music. In What the Future Sounded Like, the fascinating story of British electronic music is revealed.

The Noise of Third Cinema: 1968 and Film

Bev Zalcock, filmmaker and teacher, and Helen de Witt from the BFI explore the relationship between radical film practices and politics, including the emerging influence of feminism. Taking Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino's revolutionary film, The Hour of the Furnaces, and their manifesto, 'Towards a Third Cinema', as the starting point, this discussion, which included extracts, will look at the films of the anti-Vietnam War protests, the May '68 uprisings, the Black Panther Party and other activist movements.

Sunday 27

The Beat Generation

Iain Sinclair has long been recognized as a great writer of the marginal and the esoteric, and his latest book American Smoke is a journey in the footsteps of the Beat writers and the landscapes rhey inhabited. He discusses the lasting impact of figures such as Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac and William Borroughs with chair Garth Cartwright, author of More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music.

Zappa on Zappa

Gail Zappa, Frank Zappa's widow, in conversation about her life, the 1960s in the US and the UK, and being a rock and roll wife. 

Noise Bites

A whistle-stop tour of the key artists, movements and political breakthroughs of the era. With 15 minutes per topic, the need-to-know subjects include the cult film Performance, The New Hollywood, Computers and Artistic Experiment, and Feminist Performance Art.

Roger McGough & Brian Patten

The cultural melting pot of 1960s Liverpool gave rise to the most significant poetry movement of the era, when Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten fused pop sensibility and a zest for performance to create The Mersey Sound. At this very special event, McGough and Patten read poems and discuss Liverpool during that heady decade, before taking questions from the audience.

Angela Davis

Angela Davis is an iconic figure of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. She emerged as a nationally prominent activist and radical in the 1960s as a leader of the Communist Party USA and had close relations with the Black Panther Party. At this event, Angela Davis looks back at the enormous social gains made during a decade of revolution, and their resonance for the present day. Chaired by Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre.