August 2011
7 posts
10 tags
The Piper of Loos by JF Derry
I was a typical prepubescent boy: Commando comics, stenn gun sticks, fir cone grenades. Incongruously violent games for kids; Bang! Bang! Neeeooow! Kabooosh! There was no honour or glory in our play, no honorable mentions in dispatches, no medal ceremonies, no weeping widows. Just brutal annihilation.
Lie down! You’re dead! I got you. No you didn’t!
At secondary school, this interest manifested...
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We Can Rebuild You: The Bionic Hand by Lucy...
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
(Douglas Adams)
Deadline-crashing habits from time served in the media die hard so here I am on the morning of 28 July with various false starts, sitting on the western-most edge of the Isle of Lewis trying to think about a bionic hand lying in a museum several hundred miles away.
Outside, long strips of crofting land and...
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A Tartan Tale by Kate Tough
Learning which object I’d been assigned (Ross Tartan Suit), I was delighted. I had no problem with it. Not at that point.
OK, who among us didn’t look down the list of 26 objects to see what everyone else had ‘got’? And who didn’t wonder what it would have been like to have been paired with something else, something more immediately glamorous or dangerous: the Lewis Chessmen, miniature coffins, a...
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Rat-a-tat-tat by Christine Finn
Mary Barbour’s rattle sounded out to me long before I ever saw it. I was delighted to be paired with such a fascinating object, especially one so much outside my ken; I knew nothing about Scotland during the First World War. But I should have done. Going to see it meant I could pursue another lead, possibly one to draw on, which had rattled away in the cupboard of family tree stories ...
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"Gneiss to meet you" by Janette Currie
My object is the Lewisian Gneiss [rhymes with ‘nice’]. It isn’t a personal object - didn’t belong to someone famous or infamous. What can be said about a lump of grey rock? What can you even think about a rock? I’m a researcher at heart, so, being paired with an object and subject-matter completely outside my field, I scurried in search of the undiscovered country: geology.
Both in the NMS...
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Saint Fillian's Magic by Linda Cracknell
I love the kind of writing commission which delivers a subject without any choice. Anxiety nags at me initially but then I discover there’s something about it I’ve always wanted to write about, even if I didn’t realise it.
When I got matched with the ‘Coigrich’ – the 16th century silver gilt case or ‘shrine’ which represents the handle of Saint Fillan’s Crozier, and became one of his...
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DIG OUT YOUR DANCING SHOES by Collette Davis
I was meant to go to Orkney today but a wise Neolithic archeologist persuaded me otherwise. I made the decision to venture North a couple of weeks ago after speaking to Ian Begg, who I came across in June when dipping my toe into the 26 Treasures research waters. Ian is a retired architect who just so happens to have a specific interest in the carved stone balls of Scotland. He suggested I write...
July 2011
10 posts
11 tags
Treasure on Arthur's Seat by Ronnie Mackintosh
On the wall above my desk is a copy of Kay‟s Plan of Edinburgh, 1836. Beneath it; a stack of print-outs, notes and copies of contemporaneous paintings. Researching my treasure, the mysterious Arthur‟s Seat miniature coffins and their unknowable origins, has become something of a mild obsession. I‟m a screenwriter, and with my allocated 62 words, I intend to create a scene as my 26Treasures...
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Collared - and another thing! by Vivien Jones
I’m eight years old again. Sat in the car with a butterfly stomach about to go to THE MUSEUM where I know wonderful things await me. I’m so pleased this excitement has stayed with me. I’m 63 and I’m going to Edinburgh 93 miles away to The National Museum of Scotland to see my treasure in the flesh - perhaps I should say in the metal. The drive amongst the Border Hills is...
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The Maiden Speaks by James Robertson
‘A beheading machine’ is an accurate definition of the Maiden, Scotland’s own guillotine. Introduced in 1564, it was similar to devices used elsewhere in Europe. Guillotining was more efficient, and more humane, than the previous Scottish practice of removing heads with a sword, which could and often did go grotesquely wrong if the victim moved, or if the executioner’s aim was off or his sword...
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Two million tides by Stephen Potts
Modern 26 treasures have a provenance. We know when, where, by whom, for whom, with what, (and, occasionally, at what cost) they were made. We know where they have been, since first they were created. We can trace their history. We can tell their story.
For my treasure – the Cramond Lioness – all these questions remain unanswered and are perhaps unanswerable: a mystery which heightens interest,...
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David Manderson: The ‘Instrument of Authority’
It would be me, somehow, that got the Instrument of Authority. Whatever that is. I’m the guy everyone thinks is a cop on holiday: the short hair, the ultra-straight look (though that’s not me at all).
But what is this ‘treasure’ exactly? Something dark, brutal and unpleasant no doubt … A truncheon? A hook on a dungeon wall?
But here’s a surprise. With my treasure comes a picture, and it’s none...
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Connecting with the past by Lee Randall
Last weekend I went to the museum to commune with my object, The Darien Chest. Stubbornly refusing to pick up a gallery map, I went the long way around, wandering through room after room of relics, worrying as I so often do at airports and crowded parties, whether I’d recognise my quarry, even though I had a much-referenced picture of the chest stashed in my handbag.
Eventually I found it,...
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On being sorry by Jamie Jauncey
Alone in a glass case in the Church section at the back of level three of the National Museum of Scotland stand two objects which, at first glance, seem quite unexceptional. One is a square wooden chair. The other, draped on a display dummy, is a dull-looking gown.
On closer inspection, the chair reveals nothing. It is simply dark and polished with use. The gown is odd, though. It is not made of...
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Northern Ireland. Funny place. Even funnier...
Not many of us like the usual associations. Say you’re from Northern Ireland and chances are, you’ll be met with one of the following responses. 1. Are you a protestant or a Catholic? (Variation, do you see yourself as Irish or British?) 2. Have you ever seen anyone shot? 3. Do you know my Granny? She’s from Cork. I realise that we’ve largely brought this on ourselves. Nations who appear to be...
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A lovely cuppa by Sarah Burnett
I have probably passed my golden teapot many times during the past decade, but never noticed it. Children choose my path through the Museum, and without the vital elements of taxidermy or moving parts, the teapot does not stand a chance.
Told that we are off to look at a golden teapot, they are mutinous. One rejects it in favour of craft activities; the other defiantly reads a book about...
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Lizziae's post by Aimee Chalmers
A wee bookie poems bi Marion Angus (1865 -1946) fell frae a library shelf, as if bi magic glamourie, at my feet. Her Scots tung heezed up ma hert. Her weirdfu, ghaistly verse, an her sparkie wit on the natur o time dirled ma heid.
A thoosand years o clood and flame
An a’ thing’s the same and aye the same
Whaun I read what some tattie scone had said aboot her: ‘no life could be less...
June 2011
5 posts
9 tags
A strangely theatrical mask for a minister on the...
My first reaction to the mask and wig of Alexander Peden is revulsion.
It’s not a pretty sight. The mask looks as though it’s made of vellum, with eyes gashed through the skin and horrorshow stitching around the sockets. It has a sharp elongated nose (the better to smell you with, my dear), wooden peg teeth and a thick red beard. The shoulder-length wig is peaty brown and matted.
My task now is to...
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Maths and the boy
On a morning of dense fog in November 1972, in a school playground, I saw a hand-held Casio calculator for the first time. Those glowing digits – the economy with which seven cells described them – the sublime speed of calculation – impressed me hugely. To mathematical dunces everywhere, Casios offered hope. They placed the space age in our palms. They seemed the ultimate shortcut. Perhaps ...
15 tags
Petticoat Tales: Bonnie Prince Charlie's...
Mention Bonnie Prince Charlie and I find my mind drifting towards shortbread: those iconic Walkers’ tins full of petticoat tails, with the vivid red tartan sides, and on top a highly romanticised painting of the Prince in full Highland rig, complete with lacy jabot and wig. How many of those tins must be sitting in houses about the world, containing sewing things or forgotten collections of...
9 tags
Gaelic Treasure
I was involved in organising a centenary celebration, Ainmeil Thar Cheudan, of the great Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean from the island of Raasay when I was invited to produce a piece of exactly 62 words in Gaelic for the 26Treasures exhibition. At the end of April I had spent a gloriously sunny Sunday, without as much as a midge or a tourist, re-reading his collected poems O Choille gu Bearradh/From...
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My Object and Me by Joan Lennon
26Treasures comes to The National Museum of Scotland
Let me come clean right away: I’m a prehistory groupie – an indiscriminately enthusiastic, dyed-in-the-woad fan of the really, really, seriously old. When I got the go-ahead from the 26Treasures people my little heart leapt and I saw in my mind some arcane, ancient object that would whisper to me through the veils of time sort of thing –...
March 2011
1 post
4 tags
February 2011
1 post
5 tags
Creating projects like 26 Treasures
Last week, I listened to John Simmons give a talk about creative collaboration at University College Falmouth. John talked the audience through some of the projects he’s been part of during his career. Organisations he’s worked with include Royal Mail, International PEN and Guinness. Some of this work was paid, some was voluntary. Over the last few months, I’ve been working on...
December 2010
3 posts
5 tags
31 treasures for January
One of the greatest lessons that I learnt from taking part in the 26 Treasures project was the power of noticing – of taking the time to notice an object, and letting free whatever associations it freed inside of you. A river of stones - www.ariverofstones.blogspot.com - is a project that invites you to take the time to notice one thing each day in January, your ‘small stone’, and write about it,...
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Stories at Christmas
How can you tell the story of a family through its treasures, in particular a special collection of treasures? That is the original premise of Edmund de Waal’s family memoir – ‘The hare with the amber eyes’. The author becomes intrigued by his great-uncle’s collection of 264 netsuke (small Japanese carvings), and when they are passed on to him after his great-uncle dies, he begins to trace their...
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Christmas and its treasures
This week, the 26 Treasures team met to discuss the future of the project. It was a very positive meeting. And it seems the project has a very positive future. So let’s celebrate with a blog post from our guest writer, the bestselling Scottish author Sara Sheridan. With Christmas only a few weeks away, Sara reflects on this winter celebration, and looks at the history of some of the...
October 2010
6 posts
2 tags
Today's treasures
Here’s one of our occasional guest posts, written by bestselling Scottish writer Sara Sheridan. Today, Sara thinks about what a ‘Treasure’ means to somebody living in the 21st century…
When I first walked through the British Galleries at the V&A I was bemused at the notion of tracing our cultural history through objects. Since being involved in the 26 Treasures...
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Flight of fancy
Butterflies
rustle fragile wings
in a feverish, kaleidoscopic rush to
belly, brain, lungs,
tingling nerve endings.
Yet, among this skittery-jittery fluttering,
a moment.
As when the key clicked open my future home and,
through my jangling hungover fug,
a melody of inevitability murmured
soothing strains.
Familiarity before its time.
So
could this
ridiculous, precarious,
glorious,...
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Wonder
I lay back, look up, gnaw nails and wonder if one time I’ll be good enough to gather all my thoughts and release...
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An invitation to a sestude
Here are the dimensions of the dance floor: The expanse of just sixty-two words. But the terrain, well, that’s up to you - Whether flashing coloured disco squares Or planks of wood softened by smooth-soled feet Or simply a stretch of wet pavement Breathing under orange street lights, Where you take my arm and my feet fly. You choose. We’re having a ball.
by Olivia Sprinkel Inspiration? A Tube...
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You still have time
Last week we received an email from Sophie at the V&A. She’s our friend at the Museum and one of the 26 Treasures writers. ‘I have just made the executive decision to de-install [26 Treasures] on 26 Oct,’ she said. ‘Incidentally, that will make it the longest-lived LDF@V&A display ever.’ So there you go. If you missed 26 Treasures during the London Design...
September 2010
8 posts
3 tags
Objects that inspire
Some writers enjoy writing about people. They love playing with character, dialogue, emotion. They like writing conflict and drama. They find it satisfying bringing a person to life on paper. Others like writing place and description. They write novels and short stories. They turn imaginary worlds real with words. Fewer people tend to write about objects. Which is one of the reasons 26 Treasures...
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A sestude of thanks
We’re asking everybody to send us sestudes. That’s 62-word reflections on treasures from the V&A. We’ll then publish them on the website. Sylvie Saunders sent us this. Not a sestude about an object at the V&A. Sylvie’s already written one of those about a vase. This one’s about 26 Treasures…
A sestude of thanks
These hallowed halls of marble have...
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Sestude
We needed a name. Sestude became the name. This was as we approached the launch of 26 Treasures at the V&A in London, where our pieces are now telling stories beside their treasures. So, as I often do, I took the brief out with me for my Sunday morning run. The brief, in my head, was to come up with a word for this new literary form. I defined it as: “a reflective study in poetry or prose...
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26 Treasures has arrived
After many months in the making, the day has arrived. The V&A team and Pentagram are putting the finishing touches to the installation of the 62 words alongside their related treasures. The film of writers reading their pieces is being prepared for showing in the cinema room in the British Galleries. The bold identity created by Pearlfisher is ready to make its mark. The pamphlet has been...
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On the trail of the London Design Festival (18-26...
You’ve visited the 26 Treasures exhibition at the V&A. But what to do next? The London Design Festival is so packed this year that it can all seem a bit overwhelming. So here’s the 26 Treasures guide to a few highlights of the festival. Share your suggestions and favourites on the comments. At the V&A Whilst you are at the V&A, take a look at some of the other events going on. Two at...
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How times change
The comment in the title is not brought on by excessive nostalgia or by recent contact with, say, eighteenth century lighting systems – otherwise known as the Rococo candle stand. Beloved as that has now become – you can read my 62 words about it in just over a week now – the now-defunct candle stand is just one sign of the way times have changed.
Technology accelerates change. Partly because of...
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The joy of 26
What cheers me most about 26 Treasures is the evident joy that people get from writing. Oh, I know there can be agonies along the way as you struggle to find the right idea or the right word. Sometimes, as John Fountain describes in his ‘creation story’, it wakes you in the middle of the night, taking you by surprise. Sometimes, as Andy Hayes describes, it’s literally part of a journey, you carry...
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What's the big idea?
At the beginning of this year, I was very lucky. I had about ten creative ideas. About five of these ideas were quite good. About three of these quite good ideas turned into things. Pitches and proposals, websites, portfolio pieces. One of these things became 26 Treasures. In January, when I pitched 26 Treasures to John Simmons in the National Gallery’s café, overlooking Trafalgar Square, we...
August 2010
12 posts
5 tags
Two's a pair
On 24th September, 26 Treasures will spend an evening at the V&A. Some of the 26 writers will invite visitors to take a stroll around our exhibition. The V&A calls these little treats ‘Lates’. Every Friday, they encourage people to come along after work and spend some time in history. They’ve called the Late we’re getting involved in ‘Two’s a Pair’. Which got me thinking. 26 Treasures is...
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Random thoughts
It’s been a wonderful experience to work with the V&A. Here’s a museum that attracts people from all parts of the country and the world. There’s so much there, literally millions of objects, too many even to go on permanent display. So by focusing on just 26 out of the millions, we have to be conscious that we are giving only the most fleeting glimpse into the collection. Pure chance too....
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WatchThe promo video for 26 Treasures.
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"The play's the thing"
Collaboration’s a wonderful thing. You can’t really work as a writer in the business world without coming to terms with the need for collaboration. The partnership can be with a client, a designer, a strategist, another writer, but the objective (naturally) is to come up with the best result. That’s the tricky bit. I’ve been reading James Shapiro’s new book Contested Will about ‘who wrote...
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The Tea Ceremony
The idea was simple. 26 writers, 26 objects, 62 words each. But with only 26 writers getting the opportunity to appear at the V&A, a new challenge surfaced. How to get more writers involved. The ones outside the chosen 26 who said they wanted to join in. Through 26 Treasures and Beyond we’ve involved more writers. And from Wednesday, their writing’s been appearing on the homepage...
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26 Treasures and Beyond - online exhibition
“How would you choose?” I ask myself. “From thousands of objects, how could you possibly choose which one to write about?” I was grateful that I didn’t have to choose, that my treasure was allocated to me. I didn’t have to go and seek it out. However, phrasing it like that, ‘seek it out’, I think that this perhaps was one of the fun elements of the ‘26 Treasures And Beyond’ project....
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What makes one thing a treasure and another simply...
Working in a design environment I think about this a lot. A treasure is something that has value. Not necessarily monetary value but value in the sense that it adds something to people’s lives. It has been created with care and consideration and in turn is cared for and cherished. All of our 26 Treasures in the V&A are priceless. Some because of the rarity and refinement of their materials,...
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A short story of identity
So where did this logo come from? The 26 on the plinth? The colours? Today, our special guest writer reveals all…
It began as an offer of help to John Simmons from me. It led to an email asking for Pearlfisher’s help with the website for 26 Treasures. It extended into a proposal to design the identity. It progressed to a meeting where Rob and Dan from the 26 Treasures team shared their...
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Phone home, tell friends
Two days ago, we realised something. That by clicking around the website, it’s pretty easy to learn what 26 Treasures is all about. There’s a teaser here, a blog post there, a press release under, a headline over. If you know a little, you can learn a lot. But then one of us asked a question. Would a visitor who’s just come from the moon and has never heard of 26 Treasures...