Dr Black's book (and socks)

Rachael Marshall, Histories, Block D, Bletchley Park. Photograph printed on acoustically transparent speaker grille, 23.3 x 15.2 x 0.3 inches. 2010. [On speaker]

Caroline Devine, Carrier Waves right channel (dur 35'50") [Audio]

While installing Station X in Hut 8 during the blisteringly hot first week in September I spotted a familiar face being filmed outside Hut 3. With pillar-box-red hair and a black 'Enigma' t-shirt it could only be Dr. Sue Black. We haven't actually met yet but Sue is very well known at Bletchley Park and on Twitter for her Saving Bletchley Park campaign. 

Sue has written a book about how it all started with her first visit to the site back in 2008, her tweet to a certain Mr Fry, (who happened to be stuck in a lift when he received it) and all the people involved with raising awareness of, and raising funds for this unique and historic place. The book, also called Saving Bletchley Park is being crowdfunded on Unbound Books. Please take a look here to find out how to make a pledge, and to see the video that Sue was making in the sunshine while I was building things in the blacked-out Teleprinter Room of Hut 8. (I'm disappointed that the limited edition Enigma socks had already been snapped up by the time I saw the page). Ten per cent of all profits from the book will go to the Bletchley Park Trust.

Here's an extract of the pitch about the Saving Bletchley Park on Unbound Books: 

On more than one occasion Bletchley Park has been in the shadow of bulldozers, but it still stands as a testament to those who worked there during World War II, and those who have tirelessly campaigned to save it. During the many years that Bletchley Park’s future has hung in the balance, the campaign has been kept alive by the unerring belief that something so significant to our wartime victory in 1945 should be preserved for future generations. 

Selecting an image for this post was easy: it's called 'Histories'.

Six days left to see Ghost Station

Rachael Marshall, Documenting Blocks C and D II, Bletchley Park, Ten projected photographs, 2010-2012. 

The Ghost Station exhibition will be closing this Sunday, 30th September. However, Station X, which includes my photographs, will remain in Hut 8. 

Ghost Station features the work of 23 artists, all inspired by different aspects of Bletchley Park and its wartime work. 'Gustav', a film about a wartime pigeon by Dennis Da Silva, will be shown at 2pm on Sunday, as part of the closing party for the ArtHertz show. 

It was great to meet many of the artists on the opening night. Here's a list of them, with links where possible: 

Hannah Elizabeth Allan
Hannah Rae Alton 
Angelo Cerantola
Al Croseri
Dennis Da Silva
Elizabeth Dismorr
Bradley Hayman 
Birgitta Hosea
Lloyd Hughes
Hannah Hull
Esther Johnson 
Adrian Lee 
Gemma Marmalade
Fleur Melbourn 
Catrin Morgan 
Paul Matosic
Ingrid Plum 
Julia Roach 
Colin Turner 
Station X (that's Caroline Devine, Maya Ramsay, Luke Williams and me).

Station X in the Teleprinter Room at Bletchley Park

Rachael Marshall, Creep, Block C, Bletchley Park. Acrylic mounted photograph, 16 x 24 inches. 2011.

Station X is now installed in the Teleprinter Room in Hut 8, Alan Turing's hut. It's currently part of Ghost Station, the ArtHertz exhibition for Milton Keynes Heritage Open Days, but will remain in the room on a loan to the Bletchley Park Trust's collection. 

Thank you to everyone who attended the Private View last night, including Councillor Catriona Morris, Mayor of Milton Keynes. It was great to meet some of the other 20 artists who are showing work inspired by the unique history of Bletchley Park. Also huge thanks to all the staff and volunteers of Bletchley Park, ArtHertz and everyone who assisted us with the tricky installation; securing artworks and AV equipment in a listed building is not easy! Special thanks to Dad, whose first post-retirement project was plinth-making, Pete, for stepping in with various tools, Gary for loan of equipment (and a tutorial in using it) and Mussy for last-minute help with wiring and nerve-calming.

Also, huge thanks once again to our supporters PMC Speakers and the Milton Keynes Community Foundation: installing Station X at Bletchley Park could not have happened without your help.

We've already had some lovely comments from people who saw the show last night - a testament to what a strong team the four of us are. Me getting stuck inside one of the projector plinths was just one of many funny moments from this week. Luckily no-one took a photo of that.

Finally I have a chance to catch up with the rest of the country and watch The Bletchley Circle! 

Pigeons and an interview with the BBC

Rachael Marshall, Image from Documenting Station X, Blocks C and D I, Ten projected photographs, 2010-2012.

An interview with Caroline, Maya and me has just been published on BBC News Beds, Herts & Bucks.

"They have lifted rust-covered surfaces from walls, recorded the squawking of pigeons and other sounds from inside the decaying buildings, and those that come from outside like the rumble of trains from the nearby West Coast line."

The Pigeon Museum in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park celebrates the wartime contributions of carrier pigeons and displays pigeon boxes, official documents, photographs and a list of the 32 pigeons that received the Dickin Medal. Pigeons were often parachuted to locations in enemy territories with tiny messages in cylinders attached to their legs, and flew back to their lofts carrying a reply. 

World War II Parachute Container. These were used to supply European Resistance Groups with pigeon message carriers. Donated by Mrs Challis. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

The pigeons at Bletchley Park are such a  big part of the Station X project, so I went back to the Hut 8 for another look at the collection yesterday. This was after a quick look inside Block D, where I noticed that the bird that is on top of an old file in one of my photographs, 'Histories', in the exhibition is now on the floor where the sunlight doesn't reach its wings.

Pigeon fancier

German Camera Pigeon, WWI, licensed under Creative Commons.

 

Poorly pigeon in Block D, yesterday. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

We've got to know the pigeons of Blocks C and D quite well while working at Bletchley Park. There's a group of three, one brown, one white and one grey, that is always in the room next to the 'rat room' in C, on a ledge in a corner that gets a chink of sunlight through gaps in the window hoardings. You get used to them flying around and scurrying unseen in ceiling voids above your head and I like to to think they're used to our visits. 

Inevitably some floors in both blocks are pigeon toilets and graveyards. We really have to watch where we're putting our feet and tripod legs. Tiny eggs, mostly broken, are scattered around too. The deterioration of the dead birds is fascinating once you're over any squeamishness. Yesterday I found a near-perfect skeleton in a corridor, arranged as if it was in flight. The beautiful full-feathered wings of a white bird looked like they'd been left behind by an angel. 

Caroline told me about the little chap in the photo above when I arrived yesterday. He'd been in the same spot for a few hours, barely moving, just blinking and panting. Later on in the day a shaft of sunlight came through the skylight and this seemed to revive him (or her?) a bit. He moved around a bit and reacted more to my presence. I doubt he'll live long and it was awful to see him suffering.

Pigeons were crucial to intelligence operations on both sides during the first and second World Wars. Bletchley Park has an exhibition about them in Hut 8 and you can read more and see some photographs inside Hut 8 here, on Alan and Pat Machin's site. Perhaps the pigeons of Blocks C and D are descendants of the wartime birds? 

(Bletchley Park staff are aware of the poorly bird - seemed a bit daft to tell them when the place is littered with bodies, but horrid to see an animal struggle).

Caroline at work in Block D

Caroline listening to Block D. Photograph by Rachael Marshall. 

A rather vocal pigeon was skittering along some trunking near the ceiling, its calls echoing around the room and occasionally being answered by another bird. 

Tuesday at Bletchley Park was blessed with bright sunshine and lots of visitors. Have you visited yet? Did you know that the Alan Turing exhibition is on the shortlist for an Art Fund Award? Cast your vote and see the other nominations here: Art Fund Prize.

Feeling chilly?

Cottage near Basingstoke, covered in snow. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

This post is the only one so far without an image of Bletchley Park, but please read on and it will make sense.

Caroline, Maya and I are delighted to have the support of the Milton Keynes Community Foundation, which has just celebrated its 25th year. The current campaign is called Surviving Winter and is making a positive difference to homeless and older people in the Milton Keynes area.

The weather is milder now than it has been recently but please pay a visit to older friends or family to check they've got warm clothes, adequate heating and hot meals, and to make sure that they know that help is available. Half an hour or so of your time could make a world of difference to someone who lives alone, and it could mean the difference between life and death.

The MK Community Foundation is an independent charity working for and at the heart of Milton Keynes. 

Age UK is one of the best places to go for advice for older people and Shelter for housing and homelessness issues.

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Station X - a collaboration

Rachael, Caroline and Maya in Block D, Bletchley Park. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

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• The Station X exhibition is no longer at Bletchley Park.

• Interviews with the artists and reviews of the exhibition

Station X is a collaboration between an installation artist, a photographer, a sound artist and a film maker that documents Blocks C and D at Bletchley Park prior to their renovation.

Bletchley Park is also known as Station X, ‘home of the code-breakers’. Eleven thousand people worked there during World War Two and were sworn to secrecy about their activities for the following 30 years. It is also the birthplace of modern information technology.

The artists documented some of the derelict Grade II listed buildings in which the code-breakers worked, which have always been inaccessible to the public due to their dangerous state of disrepair. Conditions are harsh in rooms that have been unventilated and occupied only by pigeons and rats for years. Some of the buildings give the impression that the workers have just downed tools and left; a rusty old coat hanger swings on a hook with a name scrawled on it and a file of technical information disintegrates on a window sill. Others provide fascinating insights into what happens when nature is left to its own devices for years.

After decades of decay and a successful fundraising campaign the buildings are now being renovated.

Station X provides a sensory insight into the disused buildings and the remnants of their secret past. It offers a contemporary interpretation of what is arguably one of Britain’s most important 20^th century historical sites. The exhibition documents the visual and aural histories imbued in the buildings before their renovation. 

Caroline Devine is a sound artist who captured the sounds produced by and within the decaying huts. Caroline is interested in voices that may be obscured, silenced or absent such as the employees at Bletchley who were sworn to secrecy for 30 years after the war. 

Rachael Marshall is a photographer who is particularly interested in the reasons why we value and preserve certain buildings. 

Maya Ramsay is an installation artist who makes works using a process to lift pigment, debris and texture from surfaces in the built environment, in particular from buildings that are due to be demolished or restored. Maya specialises in making works that reference war through the associations that abstract marks can create.

The work of Luke Williams involves film, carving, construction and installation practices. Luke produces devices which co-exist with the space in which they are placed. He is interested in the narratives and reinterpretation of science.

Exhibitions
November 7th 2012 – September 2013 – Hut 8 at Bletchley Park
September 6th to October 6th 2012 – Ghost Station at Bletchley Park
May 3rd to June 1st, 2012 – Milton Keynes Gallery Project Space

Article about Maya's work on Jotta

Maya, Rachael and Caroline sitting on stairs inside Block D, Bletchely Park. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.

There are now three of us working to document the disused buildings of Bletchley Park. Read an interview on jotta.com with installation artist Maya Ramsay (left) here. More about Caroline Devine's work with sound and music is on her site, Liner Notes. Watch this space for news of the results of our work.