Tag Archives: Dr David Clarke

Free talk on the Visual Folklore of UFOs – 26th March, Sheffield

A selection of participant UFO Drawings from the ‘In The Eye of the Beholder’ Project, 2023-2026.

Invasion of the Saucer Men – The Visual Folklore of UFOs, UAPs and Flying Saucers

Free Public Gallery Talk – 6.30 pm, Thursday 26th March – Tickets HERE

Dr David Clarke and Andrew Robinson will be hosting a free illustrated public talk titled ‘Invasion of the Saucer Men’ to accompany the exhibition of the same name currently on show in the Post Hall Gallery, Old Head Post Office, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, S1 2AY. The talk takes place in the Gallery space at 6.30pm on Thursday 26th March.

The talk will explore the visual folklore of UFOs, UAPs and Flying Saucers, with a particular focus on British sightings and publications. David will trace the origins of flying saucer and UFO folklore and explore the important role played by a small group of highly influential individuals.

Andrew will then discuss the initial findings of the ‘In The Eye of the Beholder’ research project he and David have been running for the last three years. The research project has seen the pair host talks and participatory events at locations as far afield as Pennsylvania, USA and Calvine, Scotland including The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London, Todmorden’s  Centre for Folklore, Myth and Magic, and the National Space Centre in Leicester.

At these events, members of the public were given ten minutes in which to draw what they imagined a UFO might look like, resulting in the 378 drawings presented here. Whilst these inventive and creative images portray all types of UFO, the flying saucer or disc dominates, with more than 65% of drawings picturing this classic shape, a testament to the longevity of this visual legend which dates back to 1947 or earlier. Andrew will also discuss his use of AI in the creation of artworks exploring the contested space between truth and fiction in photographic representations of UFOs.

David will have a few remaining copies of his book ‘UFO Drawings From The National Archives’ (pub. Four Corners, 2017) for sale and there will be a free 60-page booklet to accompany the talk and exhibition for the first 50 attendees.

TICKETS – The talk is FREE, however please register your interest via Eventbrite HERE so we can manage numbers.

  • Further information on the exhibition click HERE
  • Read an interview with Andrew about the project on the National Folklore Survey website HERE
  • Read a review of Andrew’s artwork by Matt Edgar HERE

For further information please contact:

andrew.robinson@shu.ac.uk or david.clarke@shu.ac.uk

Theatrical release poster by Albert Kallis for ‘Invasion of the Saucer-Men’, Dir: Edward L. Cahn,1957 for American International Pictures.

NFS in WATEROSE Magazine

The National Folklore Survey including a short interview with Dr David Clarke and photographs by CCL member Andrew Robinson, is featured in the 6th February edition of the Waitrose Weekend magazine (Issue 732, page 4) – Pick one up at your local store or view online HERE !

Page 4, Watirose Weekend Magazine, Issue 732

David Clarke Intereviewed about CCL and the National Folklore Survey on ‘Look Up Sheffield’

David talks about the CCL National Folklore Survey, his interest in Folklore and his roots in Sheffield along with a number of related topics for the ‘Look Up Sheffield’ Newsletter HERE below is a short extract….

Tell us about the Centre for Contemporary Legend. How did that start?

Photograph © David Clarke 2025.

“It was a group of like-minded people, like-minded academics, coming together and saying, ‘Oh, you know we ought to set up a research group.’ But we’ve got an actual office now, a physical office at Sheffield Hallam Uni, for the project. We’ve got a new postdoctoral research associate starting in January who’s going to be working with me for two years on the survey, Sophie Parkes-Nield.

We’ve got Diane Rodgers, also of Sheffield Hallam, Andrew Robinson, Ceri Houlbrook and Owen Davies who founded the MA Folklore Studies course at Hertfordshire University, together with US sociology professor Christopher Bader.

So we will be surveying a sample of I think about 3, 000 people, and we can definitely say it will shine a light on modern folklore because this will be a gold standard survey, it won’t just be an anecdote here or an anecdote there. It’s great to have 10,000 collecting slips with bits of information about people’s ghost stories and sayings and dialect. But at the moment, those survey slips are just tied up with string sitting in a basement at University of Sheffield. I want something that will give us robust data.”

Read the full interview HERE