Hidden Histories – 3 images, 1 story

I completely forgot to post this. But, here is the final result of our Hidden Histories project. It’s complete mixed media, pencil, water color, inks and ink pens. The newspaper was designed in InDesign, the transfered to Photoshop to age it. I printed it on thin newspaper like paper, smudged it up with coffee, rescanned it, fixed it up and printed again. It is glued on the background for a 3D effect. The other 2 images are a mix of analog and digital, as well as photo manipulation.

The British Museum Egyptian Ghost

 

This is the story as told in many forms:

Opened on 30 July 1900, British Museum Station at Bury Place served the Central Line on London’s underground rail network. The station was closed on 25 September 1933 when platforms for the Central Line opened at the nearby Holborn Station. For a brief time in the 1960’s a military emergency command post occupied the station but now there is no access to the station from the surface, the platforms have been removed and it is used to store track parts by engineers.

The station has become associated with the British Museums myth of the mummies curse. It is said that the ghost of Amen-Ra, an Egyptian Princess, dressed in a loincloth and Egyptian headdress would haunt the station and her screams could be heard in the tunnels.

In 1935 the film Bulldog Jack involved a fictitious Underground Station called Bloomsbury (supposedly based on the British Museum Station) which had a secret tunnel leading into the British Museum and exiting in from Egyptian sarcophagus. This was probably inspired by the ghost story. The opened in April 1935 and there is a story that on opening night two women disappeared from a platform at nearby Holborn Station and strange marks were discovered on the walls of the then closed British Museum Station.

Some sources suggest that a newspaper offered a reward to anyone willing to spend a night in the haunted station, prior to its closure in 1933. Apparently no-one took them up on the offer.

The Bigger Picture Doodles

At the moment we are in this terms final unit at CSM, called the Bigger Picture. It’s all about being aware of our worlds economy, what we can do as designers to change the world, consumerism, de-industrialization and so on. The first week of the unit was all about listening to talks from people in different fields touching on these subjects. Some were provocative, some were interesting and some plain old useless. But, I must say it was indeed a learning experience. Every day after our talks we grouped up with fellow students from Architecture, Graphic Design, Ceramic Design and Product Design to discuss what we had heard during the lectures.Fo me personally it was quite interesting, as I am quite worried about what will happen after I finish my BA. Will there be jobs? Will I be able to work for someone that cares about making changes or will I have to work for someone who only adds to the problem of consumerism?

Along with taking notes I find it helpful to draw as I listen. These are the sketches I found amongst my notes from 4 days of lectures at CSM Kings Cross.

The Bigger Picture

The library at CSM is amazing, and we had a quite useful talk from our head librarians about what we can find and how we use the library.

The power of dreams - In order to change something we don't like, we have to dream big.

We have to use our technology to our advantage.

Architects and Designers can create Smart Cities

As consumers, do we really have the freedom of choice to choose the important things?

 

And there it is, a 4 day seminar and lectures full of new ideas, old systems, great questions and new ways to think. More will be posted on the subject later on as I start writing my essay that will be the final outcome of this 4 week unit.

Hidden Histories 11.11.11 11:00

We all presented our final works for the Hidden Histories Brief today. Here’s my class in action. I’ll post more pics soon.

Robot Drawing

The other half of the illustration class have been playing with Drawing robots this past week. Right now I am here at Csm watching their presentations. Some weird stuff really…

First test print for Hidden Histories

Still some editing left, but coming along nicely. I will post more details when Im done. My first real Illustration project at Csm!

Hidden Histories

This might be part of a film project. Or not.

Typography Celebrity

I’m hanging out with Lior at Renshis place in Dagenham for a few days. There will be a post on this shortly. But, I just had to add this picture from Central Saint Martins today.

The one and only Erik Spiekermann!