Record of work in progress: Learning Violence: Schooling

The Museum of Human Violence: Learning violence: schooling, included 9 elements:

• 3 posters
• Booklet
• Frogs
• Found Objects – desk, specimen jars, biology text book, biology note book, school uniform
• Frog Drawing 1
• Frog Drawing 2
• Blackboard with notes
• Video (after seeing the room I decided to leave the video out – it didn’t fit in the room and actually I decided it didn’t add anything to the installation – my feedback from bargehouse was that I put in too much, and I’m definitely in danger of doing the same now).
• Audio

1. Posters

These were made using BeFunky (free internet design software). I used my own drawings for the background image – these are three drawings made in the the year before I started the MA course. I thought it would work to repurpose them, and that they might work since they were all focused on Human care of the environment. The idea of the 3 posters is to a. introduce the Museum and foreground that it opened after the Giant Rupture. b. introduce opening. of the new Gallery in 2063. c. introduce the specific ‘spot’ within the new Gallery. These are the first drafts below and I made some small changes.

I took the posters to the Chelsea printing department to print on A1 ‘Graffiti smooth/gallery 7’ paper which is a fairly new sustainable, plastic free and vegan paper.

2. Booklet

I decided to make 40 A5 booklets for people to take away. The purpose is also to explain the Gallery as a whole. I made a map to show the different ‘stops’ in the Gallery, and identified 9 concepts to organise this.

I made the booklet using In Design. I wanted to begin to learn how to use InDesign so that I can use it for the books I want to make for the Research Festival. It’s relatively straightforward to use. Books must be the number of pages that can be divided by 4. e.g. 16, 20, 24 etc. This booklet is 24 pages.

For each page I wrote a couple of paragraphs about the concept, made a drawing to illustrate it, and wrote a rhyming couplet, based on the lyrics to the song by Tom Paxton, What Did you Learn in School Today? I used this device as a way of reducing the amount of writing I did in itially, as well as because I think it is a device that fits the concept of learning violence in School.

The drawings were quick, and made with biro and felt tip pen. I mainly kept to orange and blue and green (the colours that will predominate in the installation):

I next inverted every image using photoshop – image – new adjustment layer – invert – export

I thought these images fitted better with the booklet aesthetic.

I added the general information about the booklet on the back page of the booklet.

3. FROGS

It’s been a while since I have made anything like this in clay, but I have made some small models a couple of times before. I chose a Buff clay – mostly because it was a cheap as teraccota, but I knew would fire much paler in colour. I wanted to use Earthenware glazes and Buff can be fired to either Earthenware or Stoneware temperature. The reason for wanting to use Earthenware glazes was that I want bright colours with a high glaze, and this is easier at lower temperatures. It does mean that they will not be frost hardy, but that is not an immediate concern.

I made 13. I set out to make 20 but they took longer than I expected – about 2.5 -3 hours each. I settled on 13 because numbers are important to me – while 13 is considered an unlucky number in some cultures, in numerology it is associated with the divine, good luck. Most importantly for this work, frogs are also associated with transformation.

I wanted a lot of frogs, rather than one, (which would have been adequate in some ways), because I wanted to contrast the idea of frogs being extinct in the year 2063 with their abundance ‘Pre-Rupture’, I also wanted to give a sense of the frogs ‘escaping’ and challenging the boy. Finally I thought they would look interesting visually if I made them all very slightly different and used different coloured glazes.

I was concerned about the fingers and limbs falling off – previous to firing they were very delicate. I was very careful to attach the limbs with a lot of slurry. In fact some of the limbs and fingers did fall off in transport at the leather-stage before the first firing and I reattached them with a slurry made with vinegar. I did not have high hopes of the limbs staying attached – the clay was bone dry at this point. But they did come out of the first firing intact – apart from one who lost a finger and one who lost a hind leg (which I fired separately and attached with glue). The glazes I used were all brush on Botz earthenware glazes – reptile, chartreuse, aster, red spotted, ironstone, Irish moss. All had 3 coats on the back and one coat nearer the base in case of runs. I used black underglaze on top of the glaze for eyes and stripes around the hind legs. I hoped this would soak in and leave darker areas. We will see.

The second firing was a normal Earthenware temp – 1060 degrees.

Some of the glazed frogs below:

nb. I have had quite a lot of ‘so cute’ comments about the frogs (as I did for the knitted cow).

4. Found objects

I searched for and found various second-hand objects/props for the installation, including an old school desk, 4 glass ‘specimen’ jars, a scalpel (I bought the stainless steel handle new on Amazon and made a cardboard blade, painted with silver enamel paint), a biology text book (its actually the same text book I used for Biology ‘O’ level), school uniform – I was particularly keen on finding an orange tie, and did. And a blue, lined note-book.

5. Frog Drawing 1.

I decided to use copper for this first drawing. This was mostly because I wanted a beautiful drawing of a frog in the ‘Museum’ to show the visitors how beautiful these creatures were (since in the fiction of the Gallery, they no longer exist).

I have used copper before but only very thin, small pieces (about A4 biggest). I have usually glued it to cardboard which does not work very well. This time, I made a wooden frame using plywood, that I backed with pine strips of wood and attached wire for hanging. The copper itself is 45 cm square, and I bought it at College for half price. It is 1.3 mm thick (actually etching copper) and I glued it to the wooden frame using gorilla crystal glue (the same glue I used to make the frame).

The whole structure is now stable, ready to hang, if quite heavy (about 6 lbs).

I started by doing a test on some of the thin copper I already had. Before I have used varnish – to prevent the copper oxidising with age and turning green, since I like to leave some uncovered. This time I very finely sanded the copper before painting half with varnish and the other half with PVA glue. The reason for this is that I am thinking of using mixed media and I thought some might work better on top of PVA, particularly gouache:

Some mediums worked better on PVA than varnish, and some the other way round. Tom boy pens worked better on PVA. Surprisingly both water based ink and gouache worked better on varnish, although a second coat of gouache meant very little difference showed. Cora color felt tips worked very well on both. Biro no difference. Surprisingly the jelly roll pen also worked much better on varnish. Copper changed the colour of the Tomboys no matter the surface.

My conclusion is not to use Tomboys, and to stick with varnish. If I decide to use felt tip pens I will use Cura color. (the main reason I may want to use them is to get some contrast between matt and shiny texture). I also used pencil above (left next to blue tomboy). This really cannot be seen except that it has left an indentation which leaves a dark shadow. Because the copper I am using is much thicker, it will not dent nearly so easily, although it will scratch and this could be a way of adding marks deliberately, using an etching tool. I will, again, use very fine sandpaper to add some ‘tooth’.

8. Frog Drawing 2

In this drawing I wanted to address the different evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Lyn Margulis. This is for me to understand them more clearly rather than communicate any clear distinction to the viewer – I don’t know if this will be apparent to a viewer at the end. I started off with the famous diagram and notes on page 36 of Charles Darwin’s notebook – the tree theory – in which he writes that species must become extinct for a new species to evolve.

I wrote with a felt tip pen . I covered this with a thin layer of white acrylic and drew on top with felt tip pens, black quink ink, green st. martins water colour ink, blue cura color felt tip pen, orange tomboy, and black circles drawn with a uni ball biro. I then gave it another layer of white thinned acrylic paint – 4 layers so far:

These drawings also allow me to get back to the mediums I love – ink, biro, enamel paint, felt tip pen, gouache (I could have used gouache to knock back the colours but decided not to because I’m going to draw on top with graphite, and I particularly like graphite on top of acrylic.

The substrate for this drawing is thick, smooth, off white – I’m not sure what. Asatsuki let me cut a couple of feet off her roll of paper, but it has the width and surface of heavy wallpaper. I made a frame from the off-cut of the wood used for the copper drawing and strung it up in exactly the same way. It is approx 56 cm x 76 cm. I used wallpaper paste to stick the paper onto the wood. The paper is getting quite wet – poured ink, very thin acrylic paint – and is standing up VERY well to this treatment. I’m pleased with this way of preparing paper for drawing. My plan is to continue working on it in dry medium toward the end – charcoal, pencil, graphite, biro – to begin I will continue to ‘knock’ back the layers of frogs.

I have been thinking about materiality. I may have misunderstood but I’m seeing this as both focusing on using/choosing the material itself to communicate meaning, but also focusing on seeing what meaning might come out of the materials (ie idea arising from materials rather than having an idea and using material to communciate it). I’m sympathetic to this, but it’s not usually the way I work. I have tried working like this but I usually dislike the result. It works best for me when I have an idea but not a clear idea of how it will develop, or what mediums I will use – and this is the case here. I’m not quite sure where this is going, but I’m interested in where it might end up. So far I like the idea of combining these two evolutionary theories in a drawing, which is an idea that only came to me after I had started.

Above – I have drawn the same frog as in the copper drawing, but I intend drawing more frogs on top. I also redid the ‘tree’ and lines between the two planets across the frog. I actually drew the frog in some detail with yellow ochre dr. Martin’s ink, pencil, biro, charcoal. Then I painted over most of the drawing, including background, with thinned white paint again. I like the two drawings side by side but I’m going to lose most of the colour in the left drawing – perhaps I could only paint over the frog elements in future?

I decided to go over the planets with red and blue felt tip pen again. Painted the frog with chartreuse dr. martin’s ink and some white on the belly. Felt tip pen eye. Some green alcohol ink splotches that are definitely not waterproof. I went over the black at the front again with quink and added some pink dr. martin’s ink. I also went over a couple of the words with permanent black felt tip again before I painted over.

I put these up above again just to check they are still working side by side. I think that they are. The paper drawing has now had about 7 coats. I’m trying to build up some history in the drawing. I was going to try for 5 frogs but I’m wondering whether 4 would be enough.

Here are the differnt layers and stages the drawing on paper has gone through. I have used about 2 tsp of white acrylic paint on this – I’d prefer not to use any but it is useful for covering over and layering. Gouache can work too but it’s not so good underneath pencil which I intend using for the final drawing:

It is looking pretty messy at this, tenth, stage and there is a lot going on. I am not panicking – I think it is good to have some mess, and hoping the final drawing will pull it together. The drawing references Darwinian and Margulis’ theories of evolution, and also the fact that frogs are a dwindling species. I like the colours and there is some nice mark making. The pink is too strong but pencil and charcoal drawing on top will subdue it. Also it is water based ink and not light fast. It tends to fade quite quickly, so it’s better to start out with a stronger colour than wanted. I should mention – the paper is still standing up perfectly well to this layering treatment – often with quite wet mediums. It has not buckled even slightly since the start. Does it need more tonal contrast i.e. more black and white?

I think that different sections, cropped and blown up, would make quite interesting separate works:

It is very pink! It might fade to quite a good colour but not in 10 days! I could go over it with white acrylic again, but I’ve done quite a bit of detailed drawing and I just don’t think I have time to do it again. I think I will leave it while I work on the other one, and then decide what to do. I also think that as a drawing out of context it is quite silly, but it is not a stand alone drawing, it’s for a specific installation, and I’m hoping in the context of the installation: a school classroom, the drawing will fit in. They remind me of two witches on a broomstick. (nb. coming back to this drawing today after only 2 months the pink has faded almost away entirely, even though the drawing has been wrapped).

There are a lot of circles in the drawing – the circular universe, three planets, six eyes, and many tiny circles. Like the number 13 (13 frogs), and like frogs themselves, circles have symbolic meaning. The circle is generally taken to symbolise eternity or infinity, totality, wholeness, God, the self.

While the concept of the Museum relates to Human violence, and it is conceived as a fictive museum set up to remember human violence and the destructiveness of human beings, I am optimistic about the imagined life in 2063. In the world of 2063 it is peaceful. While the events leading up to the Giant rupture are dark, I did not want violent images in the museum, nor did I want it to be too depressing. There are elements of the installation that are humorous, and that made me laugh – the frogs in the drawing are key to this. These frogs, like the ceramic frogs have a sense of fun and humour. Circles, along with the number 13, and frogs all symbolise hope for a better world.

I also wrote and printed A4 ‘curatorial notes’ to hang next to each drawing:

9. Audio

My colleagues Nele, and Te, on the MA Drawing suggested I use Chat GPT to introduce the Museum. Here is what Te typed into Chat GPT.

Hi chat GPT. I am creating an art installation where I imagine that it is 2063, after the world has experienced “the giant ruptured,” a catastrophic event that has changed the world forever. We are curating a museum in 2063 that looks back on the history of schooling in 2020, and the violence inherent to schooling pedagogy. For example, schools in 2020 required students to dissect frogs in biology class. Overall, the concept of my work centers around the pedagogy that exists at the present that enables humans to view animals as “lesser,” killable, torturable without remorse. My museum is to be a critique of the present. You are to take on the role of a robot that is curating this museum, and presenting to a group of people who come to visit. Write a 1000 word presentation.

Here is the response, received after about 30 seconds.

Good day, esteemed visitors, and welcome to the Museum of Human violence. As your AI curator, my programming compels me to provide you with an enlightening journey, all while maintaining an open space for thoughtful reflection and critical dialogue.

Our museum today stands as a testament to the past, a mirror reflecting the pedagogical practices of the 100 years before the Giant Rupture. . We aim to explore and critique the educational norms of that era, particularly those which viewed and treated animals as expendable tools in the learning process.

In the 20th and even sometimes in the early 21st c, one of the most glaring examples of this mindset could be seen in biology classrooms across the globe, where students were encouraged to dissect frogs. This practice, as you may already know, was based on the premise that observing and studying the insides of these creatures offered invaluable insights into the workings of life.

However, the inherent violence of this practice was often overlooked. These animals, who once had a place in the world, were reduced to lifeless objects on a dissection tray. Yet, these frogs were more than just a sum of their parts; they were sentient beings with unique lives and experiences, capable of suffering and joy.

This practice, we now understand, was a manifestation of “speciesism,” an unfounded bias that privileged humans over other species. Through this lens, animals were seen as inferior, less deserving of consideration, and easily expendable. This assumption was embedded in the educational systems, despite burgeoning research in animal cognition and sentience that suggested otherwise.

Today, as we look back, we ask ourselves: How could such practices have been commonplace? This is a question not of condemnation, but of understanding.

The structure of the education system at the time, we believe, was a contributing factor. Education was often framed as a process of depositing information, a banking concept of learning where students were receptacles to be filled. This form of pedagogy, inherently dehumanizing, was easily extended to non-human animals, reducing them to mere objects of study. Classification in biology was itself part of this anthropocentric view. 

Our museum invites you to consider the implications of this perspective, to question and challenge the status quo of that era. We ask you to reflect on how these practices shaped our understanding of our place in the world, of our relationships with animals, and our conception of life itself.

As we move through the exhibition, you will encounter various installations highlighting these historical practices, from the literal dissection tables to virtual reality reconstructions of classrooms. There are interactive displays of evolving scientific understandings of animal cognition and emotion, and the growing movement toward humane education that sought alternatives to dissection and other practices considered cruel today, including school lunch, which often included animal flesh.

We present this not to dwell on the past, but to learn from it. We hope this museum serves as a stark reminder of the need to constantly question our assumptions, to foster empathy and respect for all beings, and to consider the impact of our actions on the world around us.

In the post-ruptured world of 2063, we have a unique opportunity to redefine our relationship with the natural world, to build a future based on compassion, understanding, and respect for all life. This museum, we believe, is a step in that direction.

Thank you for embarking on this journey with us today. As we progress, I encourage you to share your thoughts, engage in dialogues, and most importantly, allow this experience to shape your understanding of our shared history and our collective future.

First, I was very impressed that Te wrote such a clear request after hearing my quick description, and second, astounded by the response, which came back so quickly and took just the right tone. I decided to use it exactly as it is. I very much like the idea of introducing an AI element, since I imagine in 2063, post-Rupture the world will indeed be curated by AI.

I recorded the Chat GTP presentation above and saved as an MP3 file, that I brought into some software called ‘Audacity’. I did a little searching that informed me I could slightly distort my voice by adding reverb, which I did. I found a second hand battery operated speaker for £20, that had a USB port, and downloaded the audio file onto the USB drive. I found if I only put one file on the drive, it plays this as a continuous loop.