AGENDA
_ Public school
At the start of the year. Winterschool hits Glasgow bringing together I200 students, architects and artists from over 22 countries to participate in around l00 workshops. in the past this roving annual event has been mainly a talking shop for architecture students and professionals, with much ofthe energy and passion that it generates going unnoticed by the public. This year the organisers — mainly architecture students from Strathclyde University -- are keen to encourage the public to take part in debates which have as a loose theme the impact of urban environments on all our lives. The aim of Winterschool l994 is to involve the public directly to help young architects understand people and for people to understand the architects. according to project co-ordinator Kicran Gaffney. ‘Glasgow has made a bid to become city of architecture and design in I999. a project that is basically to get the public involved in architecture and Winterschool is another opportunity for that to happen.' he says. ‘Every year the Winterschool
reinvents itself to a certain extent and we decided that the most important thing was to involve the public in architecture.‘
The events embrace not only architecture but art, music. dance.
drama. poetry. theatre. literature.
‘ politics. philosophy, film and ; psychology in a multi-media. multi-
disciplinary event. The diverse activities include the transformation of an area of urban wasteland into a park.
Belgrade art group Skart which explores propaganda using alternative billboard art. and a ‘grunge ballet in Doc Martins' based on the poetry of D. H. Lawrence.
The organisers are taking over the Fruitrnarket in Candleriggs as a temporary venue for the night time events. Offering up their creative talents are musicians State of Flux, Andrew Wetherall and DJs from Pure and Flow. Ex-popsters the K Foundation have been participating in ‘ongoing anarchic communications' with the organisers of the Winterschool, which probably means we won’t be getting a blast of ‘3am Eternal‘.
In a different style. the city councillor Tommy Sheridan is due to consider the importance of socialism to planning and architecture. ‘Up until now the experience in Glasgow has been that the homes designed for people to live in were designed without much thought to the development of the community,’ he says. ‘lt is obvious that those who designed the homes don‘t actually live in the homes because they are a nightmare to live in.‘ (Rory Weller) Winterschool runs from Sun 2-Sun 8 Jan 1994. Full details of all events are available from the Winterschool on 04/ 552 4400 ext 2146.
:— Tartan tourists
The decision by Lothian Regional Council to back a proposed Tartan heritage centre beside Edinburgh Castle has raised concerns that the city is promoting the wrong image of Scotland to tourists.
The council wants to dispose of the Castlehill Reservoir building at the top of the Royal Mile and recently, invited proposals for a tourism-related development on the site. The winning entry was for a visitor attraction based on the history of tartan weaving and is backed by famous High Street kilt maker Geoffrey Highland Crafts.
But, the disposal of the site for commercial development has been criticised as ‘lacking vision’ and increasing the ‘tartanisation’ of the Old Town by a group of architects, supported by British Council Scotland. They want to turn the site into a centre to commemorate Edinburgh
of the nearby Ramsay Gardens. ‘Geddes could do for Edinburgh what Rennie Mackintosh did for Glasgow,’ according to one of the group’s supporters.
The Scottish Tourist Board accepts that the kitsch image promoted by some tourist outlets can be embarrassing to Scots but is supporting the proposed development at Castlehill. ‘We’ve always held the view that provided visitor centres are done tastefully, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be developed,’ an STB spokesman said.
The proposed attraction will need to be given planning consent before it can be built and the promoters of the Geddes centre say they will object to the application. (Eddie Gibb)
:- Talk radio
When the Radio Authority invited bids , for a new PM licence covering Central 3 Scotland it asked for something new. ‘ What we are likely to get is a ‘cross between Radio 2 and Radio 4’,
: according to Sir David Steel, chairman i , of the consortium that submitted the
successful bid.
~ companies, was awarded the licence
. of talk and music, with a typical 7 playlist featuring Elton John, Simply
Central Scotland Radio, backed by the Grampian and Border television
last week and promises a populist mix
Red and Dire Straits. ‘Jimmy Young, 3
I and others like him, have proved that i a mixture of popular music and speech 3 works very well,’ says Grampian chief :
architect Patrick Geddes, the designer ‘
I _
l
3 isn‘t pedestrian. but ‘fuitgangar‘. That‘s 1 the view of Colin Wilson. a HT
engineer who is campaigning for the
‘re-integration’ ofthe Scots language
? into everyday life. Wilson believes
T Scots speakers are forced to abandon
. their native language in favour ofa
; it is regarded as a sign of poor
executive Donald Waters. ‘But he is totally London orientated. Our I programmes will have an unashamedly , Scottish perspective.’
Border TV’s Kath Worall, a former Secretary to BBC Scotland, says that the talk element, which will take up
l I, ’0‘
I"
Central Scotland Radio chairman Sir navid Steel
around 50 per cent of air time, will
deal with ‘BBC’ issues — jobs, politics, entertainment, education - in a warm, chatty, local radio style. ‘We won’t be having Radio 4-ster documentaries,
; but plenty of phone-ins, celebrity ; interviews and presenters ringing up
the Gas Board on behalf of some
3 listener or other and sorting out their ! probl’em.’
As yet, Central Scotland Radio has
not hired any big names, but with
former Radio Scotland presenter
Art Sutter in a prominent advisory role, it looks likely that he will head the station’s line-up. Does this mean the new station will be chasing an audience abandoned by the recently shaken-up and Art-free Radio Scotland?
The decision to get rid of certain ‘couthy’ presenters had more to do with a push for consistency than popularity, according to one Radio Scotland insider. ‘Art Sutter undoubtedly had a big following, but Radio Scotland is trying to concentrate on programmes that are prohibitively expensive for commercial stations - built features, drama, serialisation of stories and so on. Central say they have conducted extensive research and found wide support for the safe format they seem to be proposing, but creativity is not market-led. How can people know if they like something if they’ve never heard it before?’
Central Scotland Radio will cover Edinburgh and Glasgow and is expected to start broadcasting in the autumn next year. (Catherine Fellows)
Speaking out
Don‘t say vacuum-cleaner. say ‘stoursoukar‘; you chat on the e ‘farspeikar‘, not the telephone; and it
standardised version of English because
education. ‘ln such a climate of hostility.
anything worthy of the description
: “Scots” is likely to disappear from
speech with the present generation. unless urgent action is taken,’ he says
L in an article published in a new 3 magazine Scot/ands Languages, which ; has been set up to promote the diversity
of Scottish speech.
Wilson argues that Scots. the language historically used by non-Gaelic speakers in Scotland. is wrongly regarded as a local variation of English and should be reclaimed as a separate language in its own right. He has started a Glasgow-based group which practises speaking Scots and is even
teaching the language to a few English enthusiasts. He believes that only by a deliberate attempt to speak the Scots language accurately can it be kept alive and eventually stand a chance of being reintegrated into everyday use, or ‘ilkaday speik'. (Eddie Gibb)
Colin Wilson welconres new members to the group and can be contacted at 30 Barrington Drive. Glasgow G4 907: A copy of Scotland 's Languages can obtained front John Lawson. Language and Literature Department. Jordan/rill ' College. Southbrae Drive. Glasgow (1‘13 1 PP.
4 The List 1'; December 1993—1 3 January 1994