The Imperial War Museum

The animation group met with Jared and Dan up London around 10:30, and headed off to the Imperial War Museum. I had never been there before, but was interested to learn that it was built on the old Bedlam Mental Hospital grounds. The museum itself covers only a third of the grounds, so the hospital must have been such an eye sore when it was there! To think how many it must have housed is quite scary and now its an example of how environments change over time.

We then had a couple of hours to wander round the museum at our leisure, sketching the exhibits and people walking round as well as taking photos that would most benefit our project. I managed to draw a few sketches but found as it was so busy there (what with it being half term, I think every set of grandparents in the country had taken their grandchildren to experience what they had!) So I found myself snapping away with my camera as there was a lot of material there we could use as reference for our project:

• Art Inspired - Some artwork we saw that was relevant to our project which I thought I'd post up here. Its interesting to see how art will change according to events happening in the world and how it can be an outlet of panic, fear or a way to promote strength and unity of a nation. Propaganda images are a key example of this. Imagery might be useful for recreating the chaos from the nuclear explosion in terms of smoke, fire and debris. 

• Why is there War? - These quotations were found dotted round the museum and was a point Jared discussed with us that day: What are the reasons for war, and are they all negative points? Can war actual be a good thing in terms of change and progression of the world we live in? Its good to consider these points...perhaps our spiders would eventually rebuild our destroyed city? 
  
  
  

• The Trench Experience - Although this was only a short experience I found this a very good example of an environment that recreated a moment in time and experience for those walking round. As soon as we walked through the door the stench of death hit you. The space was small and narrow and made you feel very claustrophobic. Having no separate space of your own Im sure the lads at war found it very hard to be in each others company all the time, though this could have also brought them together as a group - not knowing who was left out there, and these could be your last days alive, treasuring the time with one another. Spaces can have different affect depending on how you look at them. Of course, everything was very make shift as you knew that the soldiers would move on once ordered to, so the set itself was very basic. Also, the trenches would be constructed by materials found nearby such as branches to help strengthen framework - links back to years before housing when people would construct homes out of whatever they could find. 

• The Blitz Experience - Another key example of recreating a moment in time AND was incredibly useful to walk round, photograph and experience for our project. Whilst we waited, there were photographs taken from the Blitz covering the walls depicting destroyed houses and people taking shelter in London's underground. The first room we were in played a voice over of someone talking about the neighborhood, places nearby them that had been bombed and loved ones they'd lost. Even in the darkest of times it seems society will unite and stay positive as the voices began to sing. It encourages a sense of belonging and the belief that no matter what happens they have each other. Through to another door we were led to a recreation of a destroyed street. Although we didn't have a lot of time (Im not sure we were supposed to be taking pictures) we managed to get some good photographs to use as reference when designing our own street. Extremely useful to the project!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The destruction of buildings. Matt had mentioned the use of a red sky in our project which does enhance a sense of choas though it does seem to distract your eye soley to the sky here. We will have to complete a few tests to see if this works or not.
  
  
  

• Other photos from the exhibition

A good find here by Dan as we almost nearly walked by with the amount of crowds around. This is a model depicting a destroyed city after bombings during the war and therefore EXTREMELY good reference for our porject!

Warning! Radio Activity! Keep clear! Will we include any signs like this in our project or will no one have survived in order to say this? 
Example images depicting town destruction from the aftermath of the war. 



Nice scale model of the battles that occurred on the trenches. You can see the vast amounts of destroyed open spaces and where battles commenced. Good to keep in mind how the scale affects how you view the environment. 

I do like old signs (a bit weird I know) but the designs, prints and texts have always interested me. I like this shot in particular as the children are standing next to the sign saying "Suicide Corner"
An example room I imagine would have been for an army general or officer. Another great example of an environment: everything is sort of flung together in one room, its so squashed, claustraphobic and lonely with only a tiny window with no view. I can imagine its very cold in there by no means of heating and the fact the man has so many layers on. 

Further example images of town destruction. 



Thousands of people were gassed during the war but I've always found the design of the gas marks quite frightening. They make you look alien like! I can imagine they would be very uncomfortable to wear even if they serve strict purpose of saving your life.




Bombs away! Maybe this is what hit our city? Its strange to just see weapons in an exhibit too but then again, its probably the only time you can see one up close in safe knowledge it wont explode!

• The Design Museum - After our visit to the Imperial War Museum, the group headed on over to the Design Museum to view an exhibition of work by Alan Aldridge. Its a shame you weren't allowed to take photographs as the bold sense of design and colour in his drawings were amazing. His work did remind me of some tattoo/graffiti artists and was very impressive. There were some great storyboards to look at as well all drawn by hand but again had considered everything such as camera angle, tone as well as depicting some great exaggeration in the drawings he truly was "the man with the kaleidoscope eyes" I didn't really see anything that would be helpful to our current project, but there was lots to see and take in that could be used for another project in the future. At any rate, his name is forever down on my list of people to research and reference and its great to have seen something new today.

• London Town - 2nd visit to the Imperial War Museum (returning so we could see the Blitz experience when it would not be so crowded) we returned to the street we'd located last time to set our environment in. As Dan had not had the chance to visit it before it was the perfect opportunity to go and see it as well as take some more reference photography:

On our way I spotted this mirror. These are dotted all around London but I'd had an idea to include it in our environment and have one of the spiders walk past/react to one shattered on the ground. 

By the time we'd walked to the street it was nightfall so apologies if some of the shots are a little blurred. However, this is great as now we have some great reference shots from day as well as nighttime!

• That Evening... - The trip to London inspired me to get creative again when I returned home, and I completed a few sketches/concept work for the project:

Some sketches of crushed/damaged cars completed in biro, charcoal and orange pencil to reflect night lighting. Trying to incorporate the style of John Virtue again. Perhaps we could have a few of these dotted around our street, would need to keep the model simple though! Notes around the edge are points I would like to mention to the group tomorrow when we meet up. Top left depicts an example camera angle which I would like to display in our fly through sequence to emphasize the chaos

Concept sketch completed on black card with white chalk. Based on a photograph taken in the Imperial War Museum but altered to look more London. 

Overall, it had been a very good day to experience both the new and old, to take in new artistic movements and reflect on moments of the past. There has been a lot of reference material collected here and I was inspired to go home and draw after everything I saw today.