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This project began with my dissertation question, did art cause empires to fall? Along the way I found out about the first art school, the Accademia del Disegno, and its founding principles, mainly to generate wealth and power. And I decided to write my dissertation on being critical of art and art schools. Here are the outcomes of the project that spanned my entire final year at university, and hopefully, will continue into the future.
Turning tools of war into tools of art. Paintbrushes made from bullet casings inspired by Pedro Reyes' project, Disarm.
Cross stitch inspired by Afgan war rugs, subverting the idea of traditional crafts.
These pieces were made during the writing of my dissertation. I intended to make the project into a book. However, I quickly realised, how can I make a book about being critical of art schools, when I haven’t been critical of my own university? The second part of the project began: Falmouth university on trial.
Bronze gavel keyrings, given to members of the jury. 3D printed and the cast.
Full sized beech gavel. 3D moddled and then milled on a CNC machine.
Falmouth on Trial poster. Etching on inside of hot chocolate tin.
For the trial I conducted anonymous interviews throughout the university. These were then transcribed, into about 40,000 words from 16 people, and edited down to form the script for the trial. The verdict? Watch and find out..
I want to give a big thankyou to everyone involved in the project. Thankyou to Kizzy Richardson, Matt Taylor, and CJ McLeod for their acting in the performance. Thankyou to the jury who deliberated for around half an hour. And finally thankyou to everybody who took part in the interviews and the technicians who helped with the artifacts.
And if you scrolled this far, yes. The uni did try and stop the project.