Sir Christopher Frayling

6pm, 24 April
Dalhousie Building

From Brunel to Wallace and Gromit - The changing public image of the engineer

Engineers and designers always seem to be concerned about their image among the non-specialist public, and the esteem in which they are held. This illustrated lecture - still and moving images - examines one kind of evidence of "public image" - the stereotypes of the engineer and the engineering designer in popular film. Starting with the "missionary" image in the I930s, the "boffin" in the Second World War, the "teacher of the world" in the 1950s, the lecture moves on to discuss "Q" in the James Bond franchise ... and concludes with an eccentric potting-shed engineer and his plasticine dog. An epilogue looks at what is to be done and asks whether this kind of stereotyping really matters.

Sir Christopher read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He taught history at the University of Bath and in 1979 was appointed Professor of Cultural History at London's post-graduate art and design school, the Royal College of Art. Since 1996 he has been Rector in charge of the College. He was the Chairman of Arts Council England until 2007, Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, and a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was a governor of the British Film Institute in the 1980s.

Christopher Frayling was awarded a knighthood in 2001 for "Services to Art and Design Education" and chose "PERGE SCELUS MIHI DIEM PERFICIAS" as his motto, which translates as "Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit". He wanted to evoke the well-known words attributed to Callahan in Dirty Harry: "Go ahead, punk, make my day".

He has had a wide output as a writer and critic on subjects ranging from vampires to westerns. He has written and presented television series such as The Art of Persuasion on advertising and Strange Landscape on the Middle Ages.

He has conducted a series of radio and television interviews with figures from the world of film, including Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, Ken Adam, Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood. He has also written and presented several television series, including The Face of Tutankhamun and Nightmare: Birth of Horror.

Tickets are available from the University's Online Store.

Drinks reception follows.

Overflow theatres may be in use.

Archive -
2010 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series
2009 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series
2008 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series
2007 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series
2006 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series
2005 - Saturday Evening Lecture Series