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'.

100 year old aerial photographs taken by pigeons


An image by Julius Neubronner and one of his pigeons (1908)

Image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0


Julius Neubronner with pigeon and camera (1914)


Image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0
 
An unexpected outcome of working at Bletchley Park is my huge affection and admiration for the wartime pigeons and those who worked with them. Stephen Messenger has written this article for Treehugger about the aerial photographs he obtained using carrier pigeons, with several examples.

Meanwhile we're still waiting for news about when the Station X exhibition will be reopened.

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).