From Pit to Port: Coal, Community and Globalisation

Following a screening of Simon Pope’s film, ‘Primary Agents of a Social World’ a panel of speakers from the University, the Museum and the Community will discuss how coal connected Cardiff with the world.

In Primary Agents of a Social World artist Simon Pope has instigated a series of conversations and interactions centred on a large specimen of coal in the Museum’s collection. The conversations took place on a bus journey that followed the coal-seam from Blaenavon to Cardiff, stopping at various points along the way to recruit new participants. The resulting film documents the formation of a new ‘community’ by tracing connections between this specific coal specimen and those whose lives it may have transformed. In this way the specimen – extracted from the Deep navigation Colliery in 1955 – becomes a ‘social object’. It encourages an exploration of the way coal is transformed by humans, but more importantly the way human lives have been transformed by coal.

Venue: Culture and Media Centre, Loudoun Square, Butetown, CF10 5HW (Centre's phone: 029 2046 8416).

Time: 2.30 pm (lasting 2 hours)

This event is free to attend and open to all. There is no need to book in advance. 

This event is taking place in partnership with Dr. Martin O’ Neill and The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Method (WISERD).