Design Idea - The book is Mightier than the Sword

A wise man once said that necessity is the mother of creation, he was only partly right. War is the mother of invention, its well documented that the greatest leaps in technology and medicine come about during wartime. Why is this? War tend to prompt urgency and both sides are trying very hard to either cause or avoid death. Now war is also a hotbed for art, various conflicts have prompted some of the greatest works of art ever. Both things in mind for this design Idea I explore war and invention in my own arty way. Instead of war as a whole I looked at POW escape kits, I’ve seen a lot of documentaries about the creative ways which the British government sent escape equipment to POWs. I was torn with this idea which angle of war to look at, whether to be satirical or serious, pro or anti-war, so I decided to do all at once, just like in popular American sitcom M*A*S*H. I research the sort of things that went into escape kits and came up with some ideas of my own. What to contain my escape kit in was obvious, the whole point was for it to look inconspicuous so I did the classic idea of hiding it in a book. I happened to have a very old compilation of Wordworths poems hanging around and decided it would be the perfect base for my kit I was planning to hollow out the pages but that far more difficult and laborious than you may think. Instead I replaced the pages with a box frame then painted the edges to look like pages. I won’t mince words I really enjoyed making this model for this design idea however I don’t really feel it relates well to my themes or question. This work link to my research into Da Vinci because it a piece of art where the elements as a collection are greater than the sum of the parts, much like his sketchbooks, and it links to the inventiveness and wit of Theo Jansen. I’d hoped to look at the relationship between warfare and invention however I think there are more fruitful avenues to take. That being said if I do continue with this design idea I would further research war artists, POW camps and military gadgetry.

Prison Of War Kit Inventory

Sterilised Surgical Needles for first aid

Microfiche of travel documents, permits and maps

Orders Envelope

Cork for making a compass with a magnetised need or for containing beverages

Magnifying lens for starting fires, enlarging microfiche and looking at small things

Needles for sewing, making compass

Roll of cotton for surgical or textile sewing

Paper String for strangulation, restraint and parcels

Pills assortment, aspirin (white), cyanide (red), penicillin (blue), anti-depressants (green) – Colours may vary

Dice for gambling with German/fellow inmates

Gold star for bartering with peasant girls, impersonating an officer

Lead Pencil for writing notes, planning escapes, collating memoirs

Trip/Garrotting wire, for tying between trees

Liquid Solvent for adhering or inhaling

Key (to open cell door)

Small Camouflage Material  for deception

Small Leather Change purse, prevents change rattling when running away from Germans

Coins for tossing or spending

Small Portable Window for seeing out of buildings

Penknife, for stabbing, cutting and trimming of facial hair#

Postcard to send to loved ones post-escape

Of all the pieces I’ve created so far for this project this is one of my favourites, I had the idea to create POW escape kit rattling round my brain but it only came to flourishion when I saw a little book of Wordsworth poems to use as a receptacle. I’ve seen the great escape enough times on boxing day to know about escaping a POW camp, based on my limited historical knowledge I collected and made objects to put in the book box, a list of which is above. My research into Da Vinci influenced this as well as looking into the creativeness of The Jansen, to actually make the book box I employed techniques I learned in making my own Da Vinci Style Sketchbook. I feel this study was one of my most successful so far because it is visually interesting, meaningful and as well as being well thought out and powerful it’s got a little bit of wit and humour too it. the problem is that I feel some people will question to what extent it shows artistic skill. One of the best elements of the piece is the reuse and repurposing of a old book into something more artistic. This piece had very interestingly explored a concept but brought up two things I find intriguing and would like to develop, the elements of satire I employed within the work and the repurposing of an old unloved object. These two elements are the most intriguing and have the most room to develop from this piece, from a media and technique point of view this piece is very much in my style, it’s a collection of object which as individuals are uninteresting and meaningless but are as a whole a piece of powerful art. In this project I am as I have in the past leaning towards an idea of creating a piece of assemblage.