Illuminations

The Sunday dozen - Illuminations John Wyver writes: In this week’s choice of links that have interested and engaged me across the past week I have resolutely set my face against explicit engagements with the hideous politics of the w...

The Sunday dozen

Jesus of Nazareth, Orson Welles and Walt Disney; Jean Cocteau, Andrzej Wajda and Margaret Calvert; Daniel Defoe, Igor Levit, Morton Feldman, and more.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

Very grateful to @andrewmale.bsky.social for highlighting some of the early 30-line television content featured in 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain', and so pleased at the interest (and even sales!) this is stirring up.

The Sunday dozen - Illuminations John Wyver writes: In this week’s choice of links that have interested and engaged me across the past week I have resolutely set my face against explicit engagements with the hideous politics of the w...

The Sunday dozen

Jesus of Nazareth, Orson Welles and Walt Disney; Jean Cocteau, Andrzej Wajda and Margaret Calvert; Daniel Defoe, Igor Levit, Morton Feldman, and more.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

John Wyver on the absolutely perplexing disconnect between restored archive treasures on iplayer and the total lack of supporting publicity, or even explanation.

“Indoor” drone shots for the men’s luge and in game ads for the rugby: welcome to the future of screen sport.

I am reading this book now and it's terrific. Wyver's enthusiasm for his subject is ridiculously infectious.

Magic Rays of Light On the evening of 26 January 1926, inventor John Logie Baird held a public demonstration in his workspace on London's Frith Street of a 'seeing by wireless' app…

A month on from publication my book 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain' remains available from publishers Bloomsbury with discounts on the hardback, paperback and e-book versions.

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-ray...

We expect nothing less, but television shots including drone images of the Men’s Downhill are simply amazing #WinterOlympics

Dear BBC Archives... - Illuminations In a way, you’re spoiling us – and we’re grateful. ‘Us’ being the nerdy types fascinated by television’s deep archive. For so long, because of rights restrictions and a general lack of interest, telev...

Dear BBC Archives...

A letter to thank you for Mañana, the Ibsen collection and more,
to express my disappointment at how in certain ways you fail to treat these precious fragments with proper respect,
and to suggest how you could do things better.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/dear-bbc-arc...

This is very true. It's wonderful how much archive BBC material has been made available lately, but why go to the expense and effort of restoring it and clearing it for broadcast but then not bother to promote it or even explain what it is?

Image of Poems on the Underground poster, with Auden’s Epitaph on a Tyrant: ‘Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughte And when he cried the little children died in the streets.’

On the tube this morning.

Thanks - and there are other ways of alerting those at the BBC, although whether it will do any good is moot.

Dear BBC Archives... - Illuminations In a way, you’re spoiling us – and we’re grateful. ‘Us’ being the nerdy types fascinated by television’s deep archive. For so long, because of rights restrictions and a general lack of interest, telev...

Dear BBC Archives...

A letter to thank you for Mañana, the Ibsen collection and more,
to express my disappointment at how in certain ways you fail to treat these precious fragments with proper respect,
and to suggest how you could do things better.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/dear-bbc-arc...

Mañana, the reception - Illuminations John Wyver writes: With the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin’s commissioned opera Mañana currently and pleasingly on BBCiPlayer, I have written blog posts about the backstory to the project and ...

Yet more about the 1956 opera commissioned from Arthur Benjamin that is currently on BBC iPlayer. This third blog post consider the critical reception at the time, and raises some interesting questions about quite what 'television opera' is and might be.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-r...

Mañana, the production - Illuminations John Wyver writes: In a previous post I sketched the backstory of the BBC-commissioned opera Mañana, composed by Arthur Benjamin and produced for television in February 1956. Thanks to the seventieth ...

Mañana, the production

The second (of three) blog posts about the 1956 BBC transmission of Arthur Benjamin's commissioned opera, which is currently on iPlayer. With a host of framegrabs, this is a discussion of the production.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-p...

Mañana, the reception - Illuminations John Wyver writes: With the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin’s commissioned opera Mañana currently and pleasingly on BBCiPlayer, I have written blog posts about the backstory to the project and ...

Yet more about the 1956 opera commissioned from Arthur Benjamin that is currently on BBC iPlayer. This third blog post consider the critical reception at the time, and raises some interesting questions about quite what 'television opera' is and might be.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-r...

Mañana, the production - Illuminations John Wyver writes: In a previous post I sketched the backstory of the BBC-commissioned opera Mañana, composed by Arthur Benjamin and produced for television in February 1956. Thanks to the seventieth ...

Mañana, the production

The second (of three) blog posts about the 1956 BBC transmission of Arthur Benjamin's commissioned opera, which is currently on iPlayer. With a host of framegrabs, this is a discussion of the production.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-p...

Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Minneapolis: how digital circulation boosts the impact of a protest song The singer’s song about the killings in Minneapolis translates private loss into a collective experience rapidly shared through social media.

'Streets of Minneapolis is both traditional and distinctly contemporary. It draws on the narrative starkness and moral framing of folk protest, but gains traction through digital circulation.'

theconversation.com/bruce-spring...

Magic Rays of Light On the evening of 26 January 1926, inventor John Logie Baird held a public demonstration in his workspace on London's Frith Street of a 'seeing by wireless' app…

A month on from publication my book 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain' remains available from publishers Bloomsbury with discounts on the hardback, paperback and e-book versions.

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-ray...

Ghosts of sculptures past - Illuminations John Wyver writes: An inconsequential observation, and as such one that hardly warrants its own post. But I was at Tate Britain this morning, among crowds attracted by the final days of Lee Miller (un...

Ghosts of sculptures past

An inconsequential evening post about shadows left by sculptures on the floor of the south Duveen gallery at Tate Britain. Truly.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/ghosts-of-sc...

Quietly pleased with this post; I learned so much researching it.

Quietly pleased with this post; I learned so much researching it.

Mañana, the backstory - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Late on Sunday night, BBC Four brought to the screen the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin’s 75-minute opera Mañana. The transmission was 70 years to the day after its televisi...

With the rare and remarkable 1956 television opera Mañana by Arthur Benjamin currently on BBC iPlayer, I've researched the backstory to its commissioning and production (ahead of a later post in the form of a review).

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-b...

I have to say I found this fascinating, and am just disappointed that the BBC features nothing of this background online. I feel certain that this context would both attract more people to the recording and enhance their enjoyment of it.

Mañana, the backstory - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Late on Sunday night, BBC Four brought to the screen the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin’s 75-minute opera Mañana. The transmission was 70 years to the day after its televisi...

With the rare and remarkable 1956 television opera Mañana by Arthur Benjamin currently on BBC iPlayer, I've researched the backstory to its commissioning and production (ahead of a later post in the form of a review).

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/manana-the-b...

Close reading paintings - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Over the past five years, at the online Arts & Design pages of The New York Times, Jason Farago and colleagues have been reinventing visual arts criticism. Their latest offering in ...

Close reading paintings
Over the past five years, at The New York Times, Jason Farago and colleagues have been reinventing visual arts criticism. Their latest offering is about the work of Jacques-Louis David. Today's blog post celebrates their approach.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/close-readin...

Close reading paintings - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Over the past five years, at the online Arts & Design pages of The New York Times, Jason Farago and colleagues have been reinventing visual arts criticism. Their latest offering in ...

Close reading paintings
Over the past five years, at The New York Times, Jason Farago and colleagues have been reinventing visual arts criticism. Their latest offering is about the work of Jacques-Louis David. Today's blog post celebrates their approach.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/close-readin...

Mañana Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC.

Delighted to see some real digging on BBC4 lately. Like a sort of anti-TOTP, here's Arthur Benjamin's Mañana, commissioned by the BBC and screened in 1956: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

The Sunday dozen - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Slightly late posting this today, but offered now in the hope you’ll find it interesting and useful. Asd ever, it’s a miscellany of stuff that I found valuable and engaging over the...

The Sunday dozen for Monday

Listen to Bruce (twice), read Fintan O'Toole and Adam Shatz on America, watch Blue Lights and Ryan Coogler, and Andy Warhol and Frederick Wiserman...

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...

The Sunday dozen - Illuminations John Wyver writes: I’m slightly late posting this today, but I hope you’ll find it interresting and useful. Asd ever, it’s a miscellany of stuff that I found interesting and engaging over the past sev...

The Sunday dozen

Minneapolis, Minneapolis -- plus toothbrushes in Blue Lights, Hitchcock as a vertical microdrama, television post-Tr*mp, Warhols he never saw, aspect ratios and old guidebooks.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-sunday-d...