the display

I must apologise, as I have been rather remiss in updating this blog. There isn’t that much to say, but for the sake of closure it should be done (even if it is 18months late!)
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Sadly, the exhibition never did occur – but I did manage to get a photo when I had most of the materials together as a trial run..

As you can see the brainchild artefact makes up the centre piece, and is surrounded by various media. This method of transmedia storytelling allows us to weave the [fictitious] tale of The Brainchild from a variety of perspectives. Layered up and pieced together they reveal a much more elaborate truth lying behind the façade of a sideshow attraction.

The printed media included old photographs, medical documents and x-rays, a carnival poster, and close-up photographs of the exhibit itself.  The laptop displayed a digital timeline which showed the chronological history of item. There were also two large screens present, showing us the story from the perspective from the showman and his victim respectively.

Screenshot of the digital timeline:

First video:

Second video:

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a showman’s introduction

New Orleans, 1922.

The Blackwell Brothers touring carnival have announced they are leaving the state in one weeks time – but before they go there is a new attraction to see…

 

Ladies and gentlemen, come on in to the darkened canvas tent. Whereupon the showman and his beautiful assistant will tell you the tale of this fascinating new curiosity.

Prepare to hear the story of Rachel & Baby Rosie…

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framed

When the Brainchild goes on display, it will be accompanied by various printed media – documents, x-rays and photographs. These items provide a deeper history of the artefact than it is possible to know purely by viewing the head itself.

The photos also provide close up views of the artefact, which may otherwise be difficult to see when physically in it’s presence. All of these documents will have QR codes on the frames enabling digital download while at the exhibition

This is a shot of all the framed materials i have for display..

Also on show will be the Brainchild artefact itself, as well as two short videos, plus a digital timeline. Again, using all these other mediums allows me to flesh out the history of the artefact, as somebody viewing the exhibition can play detective – making connections and piecing together fragments of the story themselves.

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monsters…

“monsters don’t sleep under you bed – they live inside your head” 

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carnival poster

When i bought the Brainchild at auction back in 2010, i also managed to purchase an original poster that was used to promote the attraction back in the day.

However, a whole load of my gear got ruined due to water damage in floods last year  including this poster. It was pretty much destroyed but i held on to it anyway. I’m so pleased i did, because i have managed to get a reproduction made which uses the artwork from the original poster.

This is a copy of the proof  that has been sent to me..

It is a 3 colour design for screen print, the lightest of which would be the base colour of the paper or cloth. The second colour would be a midtone [used for shadowing in the image above]. And the third would be a keyline [a dark colour, usually black] which would have all the linework.

I am having a one printed up at it’s original size (50x80cm) which should be here in time for the exhibition!

exhibition photography

In preparation for the upcoming Brainchild exhibition, i have had a photo set done of the centre piece…

The photographer is a friend of mine, Rachel Brockley [who i have mentioned on this blog before]. As you can see these images are just fantastic.

I will be displaying these and some detail shots alongside the main attraction at the exhibition.

The Brainchild exhibition will only be on for a couple of day, but hopefully these images will whet your appetite sufficiently enought to come and see it in real life.

I will post a few more shots in the next few days

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crowdsourcing

I apologise in advance for my overuse of exclamation marks in this post, but it seems that the internet really does work!

I wrote a page on this blog to ask anybody who had some information regarding the history of this exhibit if they would contact me… [link]

Well, a lady called Emily Kane got in touch. She works as a librarian at the Smith Regional Public Library, in New Orleans, USA. One of my blog posts jogged her memory about Blackwell’s travelling carnival so she delved into the public records and found that it was passing through New Orleans in the spring of 1922.

It was at this time that the carnival owner Adam Blackwell announced his engagement… to a girl called Rachel Palmer! It was customary to make a public notification of this at the town hall, but ever the showman, Adam went one step further and put a notification in one of the local newspapers alongside a photograph of the happy couple.

Amazingly, Emily managed to track down the original photo amidst decades of stored records at the old newspapers offices! Not only has she emailed me a scan of the photograph, but managed to get the newspaper to donate it to this collection!

So a massive thank you to Emily Kane for her extensive and diligent work. And a thank you too, to the Jackson Daily News for being kind enough to donate this photograph to me to use as part of the exhibition.

I understand the photo is already in transit, so with any luck it will be present for the exhibition in May!

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It is with renewed enthusiasm I ask if anyone else has any interesting curiosities that may be linked to this story then please get in touch. It’s not just physical items I would like to hear about – do you have stories about the carnival or the people involved? Maybe you know where Rachel’s head was stored for all those years before it came up for auction a few years ago.

My email is chrisfairrie[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk and i would love to hear from you!

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stored data

i’m looking at how to connect a physical exhibition space with digitally stored information.

QR codes certainly seem like the simplest and most easily accessed method by which to do this. for instance, the code on the left links directly to this blog

https://cerebrumfilios.wordpress.com/

so, i could easily have a separate page for each piece of stored data. the QRcode could be fixed next to the exhibit, enabling to digital version to be accessed while in the presence of the original.

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roll up roll up

i’ve been working on some of the associated media that will go alongside the constructed head for the brainchild exhibit.

these are a couple of sketchbook pages for a carnival style poster…

which i worked into this design…

i refined the linework somewhat, adding a flower to balance the composition and maintain a feminine look. i also altered the baby a little, in an attempt to make it look less evil!

there are still issues – the eyes are a bit lopsided, the neck isn’t quite right, the earring doesn’t work, yadda yadda yadda… but overall i do quite like the piece.

inspirationally, i had hoped to use the art nouveau styling of alphonse mucha [link]. although in the end, this piece owes a lot more to an australian tattoo artist, known as shannon meow [link]. i have admired her artistic style for some time, and this is the first time i’ve ever tried to produce something in that vein. [it’s not a patch on her stuff, but definitely a style i would like to attempt again.]

anyway. i still need to fix the issues i mentioned, then i have to sort some suitable text to compliment it. and then see about getting it coloured and possibly printed!

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under the skin

now that i have my ‘face’, i must build a head for it to live on…

using the cast i have of rach’s face as reference, i made a clay sculpt [above] of the foundations that would be found underneath the skin [skull, tissue, muscle]. i then took a plaster mould from this, followed by a latex positive.

i then inserted a webcam in the eye socket [of the latex version], and have fashioned a eyeball cover to hide it – leaving a hole where the pupil is… so the camera can see out! below is a photo of the eye looking at me, and the subsequent output.

my intention is to have the eye working as a motion sensor. this would mean when something disturbs the field of vision, i can trigger digital events.

in the context of my exhibit, i would like a welcome or introduction video to be triggered when people first approach the head.

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