Barrow Blitz
The Barrow Dock Museum commissioned Artfly to create a series of permanent installations to enhance its World War II display.
The museum holds a rich archive of interviews with Barrovians recalling the terrifying time in 1941 when German bombers targeted the town, out to inflict damage on the shipyard and steelworks.
These were edited to present the most-compelling snippets that described how it felt to be in the firing line of those raids at locations across Barrow.
Cumbria Archives (Barrow) permitted us to reproduce a section of a historic map created at the Town Hall with ink spots marking where the bombs hit.
Onto this fabric reproduction we stitched laser-etched leather markers with special thread connected to a Bare Conductive Touch Board, so visitors can now tap a bomb location and hear stories from the Barrovians who were there.
Tracks include dramatised extracts from the diary of Nella Last, whose writings for the social history project Mass Observation were memorably dramatised by Victoria Wood for the ITV drama Housewife, 49.
The original Blitz display includes the set of a bombed-out house complete with mannequins. We added some digital enhancements here with the Museum's collection of Blitz photos subtly colorised and presented in a scrolling display. Projection-mapping software was adapted to make these appear in a gap in the wall, as if showing the damaged street beyond (pleasingly the young lad mannequin who was already gazing at the wall, now has something new to look at). The Artfly laser cutter was also put to good use cutting a street sign prop, so the location of each photo is simultaneously projected onto this, now dynamic sign.
We also devised a 'listening box' for the Museum using RFID tags. The tags were coded-up and placed onto character pieces, which when placed in the specially-made box, trigger audio & video. The sound emanates from within a WW2-era radio from the museum's collection and the screen is nested into this vintage picture frame to fit the domestic setting.
Visitors can now use the pieces to find out about WW2 characters like Nella Last or Jimmy Freel - the Barrovian honoured with the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal after riding a chariot – or human torpedo – into enemy shipping in Italy.
There are also more snippets from the Museum's oral history collection with stories about siren suits and evacuation to Shap plus a classic recording for children explaining how to wear a gas mask. Finally a miniature mask salvaged from an old Action Man is seeing active service!
