Lady Godiva is doing her bit to rebalance the economy

 

"Let's get back to a more balanced economy. Specialist engineering is where we should be going, get it made locally not mass produced in China!"

For years and years now I've been working in schools and colleges, utterly frustrated by the lack of manual skills which young people seem to have and which they seem to possess less and less of. I realise that I'm probably in grave danger of sounding very much like a tweedy old lady, a relic of a pre-word processor age... but I have seen with my own eyes over several years how the emphasis has moved away from practical task led learning. Go and look in any average primary school anywhere in the UK, you'll be lucky if you find an area larger than 3x3m which isn't carpeted.


It seems to me that for so long the political part of the education system has revered one kind of learner -one who can follow the rules, tick boxes and pass the SAT's tests! I've not got a bug to bear about tests or the so called 'acedemic subjects', I just think that we shouldn't be putting them on a pedestal -there are other more 'relevant to life' and 'inspiring' things which require just as much intelligence and which if allowed to happen in schools would help children and young people to see connections between what they are learning and their potential life beyond...  lighting fires, gardening, fixing engines, building shelters- not just learning how to make things but actually making things!! Hands on learning through trialing, testing, experimenting, playing and making mistakes with real materials and real tools! 

Why does there have to be a snobbery around people who use their heads to make useful or beautiful things in the world, as apposed to those who use their hands to prop up their brainy heads?
Anyway, I have a feeling that the tide maybe turning, initiatives have come and gone and failed but now the pressure is economic, it's more urgent and is coming from the creative industries and not the curriculum creators.

The cultural Olympiad is an excellent opportunity to show the rest of the UK, let alone the world, what the makers of this country can do and are already doing! There has been for some time a growing movement in the UK, the alternative 'source it and make it home made' philosophy that is spreading among our artistic communities in response to the bland, faceless, glass and concrete expanses which have become our shopping centres. 

 

Our centres are struggling to hold on to the traditional market places, to attract shoppers and keep units full, whilst consummers go on line in the search for something that isn't the same as everything else! -but that's a whole other story. And meanwhile the artists, craftsmen and makers are setting up art markets and vintage bazaars. They are buying old factories and warehouses and setting up cooperatives, performance spaces and antiques emporiums everywhere. I just hope that the true inventive underground spirit of the UK gets the show case it deserves through the Cultural Olympiad projects happening in the big year?

I was very lucky to have recently got a sneak preview of a very exciting Cultural Olympiad project being produced in Coventry by a theatre company, Imagineer Productions. They are working with NP Aerospace, Coventry University and now a puppetry company called Artem, on a creation which has the opportunity to inspire a whole generation of makers, designers, engineers and artists. 

The eight metre high figure of Lady Godiva will awake on 28th July next year from her special chamber in Cathederal square in the centre of Coventry, amid choral music and a great carnival celebration. Two days later she will embark on a journey to London with the help of 100 cyclists (25 at a time) and will be stopping at rest points on the way.

The cyclists have been training for a year now and will be mounted on a 'Cylepedia' which has been specially engineered to pull Godiva and to take corners safely! Just working out the height to wheel base and the stability factor is enough but they have to think about the mechanisms which will animate the enormous puppet, the braking systems, the events on route, the roundabouts, bridges and obstacles -the logistics of the route itself. Just imagine the hydraulics involved when Godiva encounters the bridges on the way!

The design, building and fabrication period of the project is complete. And the cyclists and puppeteers are now being brought on board for the next phase -the testing. The build up will start in January so I recomend that everyone befriends the facebook, twitter and other sites and follow the progress on the web page: www.imagineerproductions.co.uk



I was on a visit with a group of representatives from Milton Keynes and other reps from all the various stop off towns that will host welcome events as Godiva passes through on her way to London. After the sneak preview, we were given a presentation to help us plan events - all the facts and figures as they are known so far; she will weigh 3.6 tonnes, have 25cm ground clearance, have a 4-wheel braking system etc etc... and then we were introduced to one of the main engineering partners whose passion and enthusism was, for me, the real story...   "Let's get back to a more balanced economy. Specialist engineering is where we should be going, get it made locally not mass produced in China!"

There has been so much engineering involved in this project, challenges overcome and new solutions found, all out of the creative and manufactoring mix which still survives in the area. Godiva will awake from a rich Midlands heritage; clocks, bicycles, cars and now giant puppets. This is so encouraging, as this kind of large scale mechanical street puppetry has previously come from Europe, specifically France (we all think of La Machine and their giant spider).

It could only have come about through having an Olympic challenge before us.