Tuttle Club projects « Counterpoint

Tuttle Club projects

20 October 2009

Tuttle Club Social Planet Projects

by: Lloyd Davis

We're looking at interesting ways of talking about what the British Council does and has done, in the context of its 75th Birthday this year. Initially there are four project streams designed to build a community of interest in cultural relations; to celebrate the Council's work in the last 75 years; and to help staff to extend and amplify what they do by using the social web.

15 October 2009

Watching British Council documentaries at the BFI

by: Al Robertson

I’ve visited the BFI Mediatheque and seen my first British Council films – as it turned out, a very interesting selection from the 30s, 40s and 50s. And, I’ve been inspired by them – rather than writing about them, I thought I’d introduce them on film. So, here’s a bit of (almost live) videblogging from the South Bank

British Council Films of Britain Catalogue, all rights reserved

14 October 2009

Introducing 'Mining the Archive'

by: Al Robertson

The British Council is well known and well respected, but there’s one area of its work – and, indeed, its history – that’s sadly slipped into obscurity. From the early nineteen thirties, for a period of about twenty years, it was an enthusiastic commissioner and distributor of documentaries from some of the finest film makers of the time.

We are a group of consultants, members of London’s Tuttle Club, who are helping Counterpoint to look at interesting ways of talking about what the Council does and has done, in the context of its 75th Birthday this year.We are carrying out work in four project streams, each of which you’ll be able to read about and discuss here. We are committed to carrying the work out as openly as we can and so we will be writing about our experiences, what we’ve done and what we’re learning as we go along.

The project streams are:

Conversations – we are experimenting with getting conversations about culture and cultural relations started in small, face-to-face groups as well as online.

Testimony – we’re asking several people to reflect on the question “What has the British Council ever done for me?” and we’ll be some short films out of the results.

Film Archive – we have access to the Council’s film archive going back to the 1940s, we’ll be exploring that and writing about what it tells us about how views of culture have changed in the lifetime of the Council. We hope also to be able to share clips of archive material.

Exploring the Social Web – we’ll be working with staff of the Council to teach and encourage them to extend what they do by adding the use of social media and online social networking to their working lives

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CounterpointStimulating debate with the British Council