art + power

The Slow Travel Agency exhibition at the Arnolfini explores ways of travelling that doesn't damage the environment. In slow travel, cars or aeroplanes wouldn’t be used because they cause pollution. Slow travel also takes a long time so there is a chance to really look around you as you travel.

Today, the participants of the writing group imagined that they were going on a long journey but not using a car or an aeroplane and wrote about the experience.

We would like to share the writing of one of our new writers, Sal Hillman.

Slow Travel By Sal Hillman

I am going to Australia on my own. It will take two months. What a long time. It will be very slow time as we will stop a lot of times. I am going by coach and then I will go by boat. There will be lots of different people there - the Queen and Prince Philip, punk rocking people who I lost in my life, people young and old. There are lots of things to do on the boat - swimming reading nice meals.

I left

England

in March and got there in May. What a lovely place and a very hot country. I will come back in a year. There are lots things on board. Just relax and watch people. What a wonderful adventure.

Over the last couple of weeks, the art + power writing group have been exploring a part of the exhibition at the Arnolfini called Adams and Smith. Here we found lots of objects displayed as though they were being sold in the future, at a time when they would be seen as rare and unusual. There was a smoke alarm, a bottle of water, a plane ticket, a golf ball and many other things.

Everyone in the writing group chose one object that they found interesting and imagined that it had a secret history. The object might have been to interesting places, experienced amazing things or been made by someone fascinating. Each writer then wrote the secret history of the object.

Each writer then took to the 'You're A Star' stage (created by Chris Rose) and performed their writing for everyone else. We decided to share all the work with you too.

In the Factory By Colin Dean

People are talking.
Giving instructions.
Putting the bits together.
Someone does the front bit.
Someone does the other half.
They make chairs, toilets, rocking horses.
Someone goes for a break.
One makes tin soldiers.
Another makes coat hangers.
Sometimes the machines break down.
And they have to do it by hand.

The History of the Chocolate Teapot By Alex Kyriacou

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, knowing now what we didn’t know then. As it happens, this can only be done by disasters, accidents, or pain and suffering. This is largely true but sometimes defying logic just smacks of stupidity. But, you know, you just have to try these things sometimes.

Edible products now just seem stupid but at the time of conception there was no landfill left, and the CO2 from burning rubbish had meant that all the plants that survived were neon green and became so important that so much as picking a flower became punishable by torture. Something had to be done. Science and marketing spin had conspired to create edible packaging and, later, edible products like candy mobile phones, granola bar chip board and candy floss roof insulation and ginger bread bricks or even Wham bar cardboard boxes. So, by eating packaging and certain products, waste is greatly reduced. Therefore, saving the environment.

So, in this climate, a few daft ideas came about, like jelly crumble zones on cars and marshmallow sign poles and lampposts. Didn’t last due to a lack of heat resistance. But by far the greatest flop was the use of chocolate to manufacture kitchen equipment. Of these, none gained more jokes than the chocolate teapot. After some hasty trials it was sold to the public as the cool new gadget, championed by the likes of Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey. It sold well, initially, until the first time you used it and got third degree burns. This inevitably led to the first billion pound law suit and coined the phrase ‘As much use as a chocolate teapot.’

The Day the Traffic Warden Booked the Car By Edward Philips

A bloke
A traffic warden
In a red uniform
He stands out in a crowd
Mr Bloggs
He saw a car parked in a bus lane
And gave it a ticket
Definitely
The driver came along
And said, 'I'm not paying'.
A lorry came along and took the car away
He paid the money in the end
And got his car back.

The First Smoke Alarm By Chris Rose

It was 1605 and Little Ben said, 'It's dinner time.'

Max lived a few doors down the road and every time Little Ben went off it reminded him of his toast always burning so he worked really hard to make something that would say 'Something's burning' and at the same time it could save his life.

Six months later he did it. It was a working smoke alarm and every day after it would save his burnt crust toast.

Soon after, everyone in London was talking about how fantastic Max's smoke alarm was and news got all the way to the Houses of Parliament. Max sold his smoke alarm to the Houses of Parliament for a lot of money and he had a smile on his face from ear to ear.

The first week they had it fitted everyone was excited that their toast would not be black but it did more than just that. A month later, the battery was running out and the smoke alarm was making funny noises so the guards went to see what it was. As they did, they found Guy Fawkes trying to blow the place up by lighting a firework through the letter box.

The battery ran out and they could not find a shop that sold batteries so they put it in the auction to sell as a toy smoke alarm.

The Mobile Phone By Louise Morgan

Daisy and her company Samsung made a fantastic object - the mobile phone. Daisy and her company are the second largest makers of mobile phones and other handsets. Daisy owned the mobile phones so did her company, as well as Daisy’s family and friends. Daisy’s friends Vicky and Ralph, her brother Ed and Daisy’s sister Amy all owned a mobile phone.
The mobile phones went all around the world as Daisy sold them to different places like the US, Japan, Germany, Italy etc and the mobile phone had become really interesting. Daisy was happy that everyone around the world had bought a mobile phone. She was glad that she made it and she said to herself ‘Who knows where the object might end up in the future. It might be lost, given away or end up at the auctioneers. Only time will tell.’

A Few Years Later

Daisy is now an old lady and she went to an auctioneers. After going to many auctions but seeing no mobile phones she was hoping that a mobile phone would be there.

Someone said, ‘This amazing object was made many years ago by a company called Samsung.’

Daisy was glad that something she made was at an auction and she was happy about it.

The Gavel by Betty Sargent

Jack had wood in his shed. He made lots of different things out of wood. One day, he said, 'I know what I can make.' I will make a gavel. That will be good because different people could use it. He was pleased when he made it.

The Death Sticks Live By Jeff Johns

‘The death sticks live’, scowled a man with a thin whispy voice, croaking with a secretive smile.

‘Yes, they live in our collection’, spoke a fat man who had a bulbous tone. He pointed towards a 1960s style cabinet. His posterior had a sense of austerity about it as he shuffled towards the cabinet.

The thin scrawled man stared wild eyed.

‘Wow, Jesus, Holy Moley’, he said under his breath. ‘Lord Facetious would like these in his collection.’

His eyes glowed in the presence of a box that you and I would think looked like nothing special. Just ordinary white sticks but, dear reader, don’t be taken in by their bare existence. They have arms and legs and are well known for killing men dead.

Huthbert, the heavily scrawled man, was eying them up. He was wondering what they were really worth. He was also eying up the security as he was thinking of lifting the lid and placing his hand inside the cabinet.

He managed to work an opening and with that he heard voices screaming, ‘Me, me, me,’ in high pitched tones as the sticks came to life.

‘Shhh’, he said to them as he looked around the place before swooping his arm in to grab the packet.

He stuffed and it in to the pocket of his long trench coat before turning to leave. He gave the bulbous man a wicked glare and wished him good day but thought to himself that he had got what he had come for. The magic sticks were now back under his control.

The Secret History of Objects By Jonathan Barr Lindsay

Rick was at home watching TV. He likes to watch sports. Rick saw the best sport he liked. It was a game of golf. He liked seeing the ball in the sky coming straight down and looking at it from a long way away.

Rick felt happy as the men went up to the ball where it landed. Rick thought he would like to play golf. He wanted to meet people and be friends with them. He thought it would be good fun to play and walk around and see lots of different things around him.

Secret History of Objects By Mary Lansdown

A factory was owned and run by a family. The mum's name was Janet and the Dad's name was James. They made smoke alarms for houses and nursing homes. So when the alarms were tested to make sure the owners knew how to use them. One day, Janet went for a walk when she came across a house on fire. She rang the fire brigade...

The Double Buggy By Sally Hillman

There was a double buggy in that room and it was very dusty and very old. It was used by many children and many times by their parents. The man who made it was 99 and he made it in ten days. His hands did not work the way he wanted. He worked very early and finished very late, sometimes in the night. He got very little wages. Just enough for rent and food. He walked there and back, about ten miles each day, which took three hours there and back. He did not want to finish work. He wanted to carry on but he was not able to. He only got one break, that was ten minutes, in all that time.

The Aeroplane Stub By Daniel Bryan

One day there was a friend of mine. He was so handsome and nice at the same time. When this guy came to the Arnolfini to look for his ticket to get on the Red Arrow, he searched and searched everywhere. So he went back downstairs and rang his boss saying that he would be late back. This guy looked high and low and still nothing.

At last!! There was something shiny. He went over and there in front of his eyes was his ticket. He could not believe it appeared right there out of the blue. He picked it up and he jumped up and down and was amazed.

He went back to the Red Arrow and saw his boss. He went over and said ‘I’m back.’
The boss was relieved that he was back.

The plane took off into the sky. The pilot was very good. He was whizzy everywhere and did a fantastic display.