Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and silent filmmaker praised for his sense of fun and ability to astound. A collection of some of his most famous films have been donated to The Internet Archive for free downloading and reuse.
By popular demand this exam time we have created silent and whisper only areas in our libraries so in celebration of silence and whispering during exams we’ll be showing a selection of silent films in The Murray and St Peter’s Libraries - pop into our libraries to view or click the links below to watch them straight away. Good luck with all of your revision and we wish you fantastical success in your exams!
Le Voyage Dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon, in English) is perhaps Georges Méliès‘ most famous film, and is considered to be the first science fiction film in cinematic history. The 12 minute film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule.
The Man With The Rubber Head, or L’Homme à la tête de Caoutchouc, is a French silent film from 1902 directed by Georges Méliès. A scientist places a living copy of his own head on a table and makes it swell like a balloon
“The Inventor Crazybrains and his Wonderful Airship” (Le Dirigeable Fantastique ou le Cauchemar d'un Inventeur) A Jules Verne-like flying airship soars the skies with floating mermaids before out of control fireworks put an end to the crazy inventor’s dreams.
Seven identically-dressed Georges Méliès playing musical instruments and interacting with one another in remarkably convincing synchronisation.
Le Monstre (1903) - 2 mins 7secs
The film tells the story of a chaotic attempt to bring an Egyptian Princess back to life.
Cendrillon (1899) - 5 mins 41 secs
Possibly the earliest film version of Cinderella, Cendrillion (1899) was landmark for Georges Méliès; it founded the techniques and tricks he would later master and become famous for, earning him the title of The Cinemagician.
Le Papillon Fantastique (1909) - 1 min 47secs
On exiting a strange cone a young girl deploys her butterfly wings.
Le Mélomane (1902) - 2 mins 43secs
A marching band appears, and the band-leader prepares to give them the music for the song he wants them to play. He has prepared a large staff above their heads, and he now creates notes by making duplicates of his own head.
La Sirène (1902) - 3 mins 58 secs
A man in a silk top hat stands in front of an empty aquarium. Mermaids and magic ensue.
Le Royaume Des Fes (1903) - 16 mins 35 secs
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry, when a witch suddenly appears..
Professor Ahmed Elmarakbi Professorial Lecture 2015/16 - “Innovative Graphene-based Polymer Composites for Next Generation Automotive structures.” Tuesday 19th April 2016, 6pm Murray Library Lecture Theatre, City Campus, University of Sunderland, SR1 3SD, UK
The global automotive industry is currently facing great challenges; increasing CO2 emissions, lack of strong decarbonisation targets, fuel consumption, and safety. Over recent decades, cars have become larger and heavier due mainly to safety and comfort requirements. To reduce the environmental impact of future vehicles, there is a need for the development and manufacture of more energy-efficient vehicles, whilst maintaining safety. Attempts have been made to strengthen lightweight vehicle structures to enhance crashworthiness, however, safety issues remain the main obstacle to producing lighter and greener cars. In his lecture, Prof Elmarakbi will introduce his work on the development of novel graphene-based composite materials. He will discuss the potential applications of this research within the automotive industry in relation to the optimisation of advanced ultra light composite materials, efficient fabrication and manufacturing processes, life cycle analysis, environmental impact and enhanced vehicle safety. Prof Ahmed Elmarakbi obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Toronto, Canada in 2004 and is currently Professor of Automotive Composites in the Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology (DCET), University of Sunderland. He has extensive experience of managing national and international projects, including multi-disciplinary collaborative projects within Europe, USA, Canada, China, Japan and Brazil in low-carbon technology, energy efficiency, zero emission transportation, smart vehicle structure, advanced composite materials, including graphene, and the design of automotive industry and the design of automotive components for the transport sector. He has an extensive track record of collaboration with the automotive industry and academic institutions and has worked closely with a number of highly respected researchers and engineers in world-leading laboratories and organisations. Prof Elmarakbi’s work is recognised internationally as evident from his 80+ plenary lectures, invited talks and presentations, 130+ peer-reviewed research papers and his recently published book (“A.Elmarakbi (2013) Advanced Composite Materials for Automotive Applications: Structural Integrity and Crashworthiness”, Wiley, UK). He has received many prestigious awards and grants, including funding from FP7 and Horizon 2020 (EU), EPSRC (UK), JSPS (Japan) and NSERC and OGS (Canada). Prof Elmarakbi is also a visiting Prof at Hunan University (China) and laureate in the “1000 talents-111program” of China. He is also a member of the EU Graphene Flagship. He has chaired and governed a number of international conferences; has served as an Expert Reviewer for FP7, Horizon 2020 and ESPRC; is founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Automotive Composites and Editor-in-Chief of Vehicle Engineering. He is also founder and chairman of the international conference on Automotive Composites.
Here’s some background information taken from the Digital Innovation Research Beacon Newsletter:
‘In November 2015, Professor Helen Edwards, newly appointed Emeritus Professor for the Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology is being funded by the Digital Innovation Beacon to travel to Nairobi, Kenya to Chair an inaugural research conference at INtel Institute of Higher Education, one of the University of Sunderland’s most esteemed and longstanding collaborative TNE partners.
The conference entitled, “Creating Futures Through Research: Meeting Challenges, Embracing Opportunities and Delivering Impact”, will be used to formally mark and showcase the opening of INtel’s new postgraduate teaching and learning facilities. Going forward this new capital investment will enable INtel to begin the process of transforming key aspects of its academic staff base to enable it to achieve its goal of becoming a research active provider of high quality higher education in Nairobi, in line with the Kenyan 2030 vision for the university education sector needed to support a rapidly expanding knowledge-based economy.
One of the key goals of this inaugural collaborative research conference will be to inspire academic staff at INtel to engage in research activity to help develop and embed a research culture. In particular, to provide INtel staff interested in undertaking Ph.D research with the University of Sunderland, with an introduction to the research process and the steps involved in engaging in and completing a Ph.D or a Professional Doctorate.’
This is a great example of how SURE can promote research that might otherwise be quite difficult to find. Thanks to Dr Susan Jones for passing this material on to me.
THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES RESEARCH SEMINAR
Monday 11th April 5.30pm
Martin Barker (Aberystwyth University)
Room 233, The David Puttnam Media Centre For further information contact Prof Clarissa Smith T: 0191 515 2708 E: clarissa.smith@sunderland.ac.uk
The REF is scary – and not least because no one quite knows if they can trust the various claims made by its official spokespeople, documents, etc. – or if they mean what they say. The REF is also scary for the members of the Panels who conduct the actual business. Martin Barker served as a Panel Member for Media, Communication, Film & Cultural Studies in 2007. In this presentation, he will discuss the actual work of a Panel member, and how the Panel arrived at decisions on the value of individual works of research. Rules of confidentiality still apply, so the examples chosen for discussion will of course not be the actual ones considered.
SURE can help with making your research REF-able. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch:
