Extraordinary Personal Stories of WW1

http://blog.europeana.eu/2012/05/extraordinary-personal-stories-of-world-war-1/

BLOG: Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's galleries, museums, libraries, archives and audiovisual collections.

''Untold and extraordinary real-life stories from World War 1 have come to light and will be shared online as a result of family history roadshows run by Europeana. ''

'' In preparation for the 100th anniversary of the conflict, WW1 roadshows have been held in Germany, England, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Denmark. People are invited to bring along WW1 memorabilia to be seen by experts and digitised. The Europeana 1914-1918 website also shows people how to upload their own digital scans. ''

 ''...45,000 photos of objects, scanned letters and diaries have been uploaded onto the website...''

Markus Geiler - pictures of his grandfather’s life-saving Bible, with the lump of shrapnel embedded in it from the grenade that killed his comrades while they slept

 

 

My nan

Saw my Nan this weekend and took down some notes whilst talking to her; watched her manor-isms to help influence the way I manipulate my elderly puppet:

• She talks then pauses, leans forward and then leans back, then carries on talking
• Looks at ground sometimes when in thought during what she is saying  
• Hand gestures - sometimes fast and sometimes slow
• Rocks forward when asking something
• Drinks tea slowly and carefully
• Very still
• Fixes scarf now and then
• Leans forward when listening 

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu - Old persons home

    

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu are two of China’s most controversial artists, renown for working with extreme materials such as human fat tissue, live animals, and baby cadavers to deal with issues of perception, death, and the human condition. In Old Person’s Home Sun & Peng present a shocking scene of an even more grotesque kind. Hilariously wicked, their satirical models of decrepit OAPS look suspiciously familiar to world leaders, long crippled and impotent, left to battle it out in true geriatric style. Placed in electric wheelchairs, the withered, toothless, senile, and drooling, are set on a collision course for harmless ‘skirmish’ as they roll about the gallery at snail’s pace, crashing into each other at random in a grizzly parody of the U.N.dead.

Watch video of installation through this link (exhibited at the Saatchi gallery) -

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/yu_yuan.htm?section_name=china_art

The elderly..

As many of puppets are elderly, we need to investigate into old people...

- Where will they be telling the story? At the park? In their house? At a care home? Indoors/outdoors? What scene?
- What are they doing? - drinking tea? playing cards? looking out the window? 
- What decor will be around them? 
- What furniture, if any? - will this be to scale?
- What habits, gestures and motions/movements are common within old people? 
- What props/possesions/things do they have with them? Glasses? Walking stick? Umbrella? Books? Handbag?

Looking around online at images of the elderly but I think it would be better to observe when I go out in town to see what old people do, or visit an old peoples home and see the things they do, and how they move - this is important as we will be manipulating an elderly puppet, we need to know how an elderly person moves. 

At the park? Feeding the birds, walking, sitting on a bench?

People caring/helping them move? Gives off the illusion that they are old and need help (fragility)

Looking out windows, being inside looking out onto the world and life - reminiscing; safe, protected (lonely?) 

Sitting on a bench together? The busy world going on around them whilst they sit still, resting and remembering.. (contrast)

Sitting at home in arm chairs, cup of tea? Warm side lamps? Picture frames? Carpet? (comfort)

They could all be at an old persons home having conversations and telling their stories? Means there could be carers (careers could be manipulators) 

BBC World War One

BBC is marking the centenary of World War One by featuring a lot of useful documentaries, programmes and drama series. I hope to watch as many as I can to get inspiration and learn more about WW1

To watch:

• Britain's Great War on BB1 - explores how Britain and the lives of British people were transformed by the Great War
• The Story Of Women In World War One - on BB2 - documentary about the achievements of women during World War One which in turn paved the way to fairness and equality for the women of Britain’s future

Dramas to watch (As our production will be a drama, it is useful to watch other dramas on WW1 and see how they approach the subject) - 

• The Ark on BB1 - story of World War One’s front line medics – their hopes, fears, triumphs and tragedies
• The Passing-Bells - on BB1, set during World War One and told through the eyes of two very ordinary young men who enlist in a war they expect will be over within months
• 
  

Shell shock

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml

Shell Shock during World War One

By Professor Joanna Bourke
Last updated 2011-03-10

Medical symptoms

Aerial shot of a battlefield on the Western Front  ©Arthur Hubbard was one of millions of men who suffered psychological trauma as a result of their war experiences. Symptoms ranged from uncontrollable diarrhoea to unrelenting anxiety. Soldiers who had bayoneted men in the face developed hysterical tics of their own facial muscles. Stomach cramps seized men who knifed their foes in the abdomen. Snipers lost their sight. Terrifying nightmares of being unable to withdraw bayonets from the enemies' bodies persisted long after the slaughter.

The dreams might occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation' when 'the face of a Boche that I have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle and grimace, comes sharply into view', an infantry captain complained. An inability to eat or sleep after the slaughter was common. Nightmares did not always occur during the war. World War One soldiers like Rowland Luther did not suffer until after the armistice when (he admitted) he 'cracked up' and found himself unable to eat, deliriously re-living his experiences of combat.

These were not exceptional cases. It was clear to everyone that large numbers of combatants could not cope with the strain of warfare. By the end of World War One, the army had dealt with 80,000 cases of 'shell shock'.

 

Imagery

Process of making my puppet continued...

The hands;

        

Process of making my puppet...

Drawing puppet to scale, working out sketches - front and side few:

Making the head:

Cut shape using the band saw...

Then front view too..

Now I have a weird shape to carve from using a sharp knife; 

Eventually moved onto scalpel; sharper and easier to start sculpting detail...

The ears;