WELCOME & CONTENTS EDITOR’S COMMENT Dench’s digital drama
‘I don't know to what extent the council weighed up the benefit to the wider community against the supposed aesthetic impact ’
A COUPLE of British theatrical dames have been making their feelings known about intrusions into the environment. Dame Helen Mirren hit the headlines when she took some drummers to task when their performance outside the National Theatre could be heard during her performance inside it. As this exchange took place during the interval of The Audience, she was dressed as Queen Elizabeth II at the time – although the language she used probably ensured there was no mistaken identity. Receiving less coverage, though, were Dame Judi Dench’s recent comments about some digital signage – which you might be surprised to learn that she was defending. The Central School of Speech and Drama, of which she is a graduate, has for some 27 years been the site of two advertising hoardings, one of which is now digital. The school is located in the London borough of Camden, whose council has ordered that the boards be taken down. They are in a conservation area and the council believes that they detract from the local aesthetics. The school reportedly receives £150,000 a year for hosting these boards, and uses the money to support a number of good causes. According to The Observer newspaper, Dame Judi wrote to the council to protest against the loss of “a vital source of revenue” to theatre and arts education that the boards’ removal would entail. “To penalise this independent goodwill at such a time of recessionary hardship seems misguided,” she wrote. The billboards overlook a busy main road and are near a reportedly
“nondescript” modern building. Professor Gavin Henderson, the school’s principal, told the newspaper: “The council is quite happy to have hugely unsightly rubbish and recycling bins located immediately beneath these hoardings, with vermin running in and out.” We asked the council why they were taking this action now, after so long.
A spokesperson told us: “Hoardings without planning permission, with deemed consent, or around conservation areas (like this one) have been recognised as an issue in recent years. They’re an issue for many local authorities and this site in Camden isn’t unique. Indeed there are many around this particular conservation area that have been removed.” It is more than a little ironic that, at a time when central and local
government are cutting grants to arts bodies and encouraging them to do more to generate their own income, one organisation doing precisely that is having its hands tied by local government. I don't know to what extent the council weighed up the benefit to the wider community generated by the billboard’s revenue against the supposed aesthetic impact – but I do believe it has made the wrong decision. The matter has gone to appeal to the Secretary of State for the Environment, with a ruling expected in a few weeks’ time. If the council’s position is upheld, I wouldn’t be surprised if they found Dame Judi making representations in person; as she has played Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, that surely makes her even more of a redoubtable adversary than Dame Helen.
Paddy Baker, Editor, Installation –
paddy.baker@
intentmedia.co.uk
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Cover image: Videowall at Dutch broadcaster NOS, courtesy of eyevis
www.installation-international.com
June 2013 3
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