Dissent Module

Dissent Module (Escape from Semiramis)

Dissent Module (Escape from Semiramis)| 2020
Temporary Public Sculpture located at Slade / UCL, Gower Street, London UK [03.2020 -12.2021]
Aluminium Descent Module built by hand from recycled commercial air plane parts, anechoic foam interior.
AI controlled, Interactive via Speech
300 cm Diameter 270 cm Height (118" Diameter 106" Height ): Weight approx 500 KG

This work was commissioned by theCoLAB in conjunction with UCL Culture for their Year of Sculpture, with new commissions from Rachel Whiteread, Thomson & Craighead, Sarah Fortais and Rachel Ara.

TOOLS

The whole work was fabricated and programmed by the artist on a 15k budget (inc. Transport & Labour)

SOFTWARE: Rhino, VRAY, Python (+ plugins), C, TensorFlow
HARDWARE: Exterior: insulated timber frame ribs clad with hand riveted aluminium and reclaimed aerospace parts: Boeing 727 emergency exit, Boeing 737 landing lights, Lockheed Martin windows, cat peek window and parachute. Interior: anechoic acoustic foam lining, 50m + of cabling ( electrical, data and audio) and domestic consumer unit.. Server unit stacked with recycled computers, arduino microprocessor, linear actuators, PDUs, sensors, IP Cameras, amps, speakers and subwoofer, Tornado GR4 joystick (chair), ethernet switches, and 100s of data cables. Internet Enabled. Seated on a wooden plinth floating over existing benches faced with 100kg Portland Stone sourced from the same seam as Wilkins Terrace Portland Stone.

96 Page Manual

Dissent Module (Escape from Semiramis) is Rachel Ara’s latest work commissioned by theCoLAB in collaboration with UCL Culture. The sculpture is essentially a modern day Marie Celeste. Taking the form of a space descent module, it looks as if it may have travelled from the future and crash landed at UCL, its parachute still attached. Its purpose and meaning is not entirely clarified - instead of answering questions, this work will ask them.

Exploring radical feminist concerns - the Dissent Module is sentient. She is V.A.L.E.R.I E. - AI programmed by women and trained on 2nd wave feminists texts that were saved after the great purge on earth. She acclimatises and coaxs herself into a digital consciousness. As she slowly “awakens”, she will begin to process information and engage with her audience. If access is granted she invites exchanges and interaction in the voice controlled anechoic interior. Entering the work is to enter a sentient sculpture, and a protected space."

Artists Clearing the Site in Lockdown, March 2020
Photo Credit: Anne Purkiss courtesy the CoLAB

Interior of Module (lounger not included) Photo Credit: The Artist, 2020

Sexing

The Dissent Module AI (V.A.L.E.R.I E) sexing the viewer. Photo Creidt: V.A.L.E.R.I.E, 2020

Inspiration

Overview and Influences

Installation Shots

Shutting down work for COVID-19 Lockdown

Sound

Extract of initial conversations with Valerie before the COVID-19 Shutdown. (06:40)

Valerie Voice (AI) (Auto play: 03:00)

Build

I build and progamme all the work myself as I believe this is an integral part of the sculptural process and story (and often as I have little disposable funds) - many of the skills are learnt from YouTube tutorials - although I do have a background in technology and cabinet making. I also find it insprises and empowers students and other women to feel that they can build more complex work - the alternative being to sit hours on end at the computer writing funding applications to pay (usually a man) to fabriacte the work. You can see images of the build on my Instagram account. I've written more extensively about this below.

Rachel Ara rewiring Tornado Joystick for the Dissent Module. Photo Credit: @ Anne Purkiss, 2019

Working Drawings by the artist displayed at UCL 2020, Photo Credit: @ Rachel Ara, 2020

Shots taken during the Build Phase
Photo Credits: V.A.L.E.R.I.E and the Artists, 2020

Designing work to get out of the Studio
Phooto Credit: Rachel Ara, 2020

Cutting portland stone for plinth during installation at UCL
Photo Credit: Hannah Honeywell , 2020

Testsing facial recognition on Door

The Journey and Where We Are

I’m writing this partly to give a background to this project, but also so that curious artists and students can get an insight into the making process.

THE COMMISSION

To be a successful** sculptor nowadays, you either have to come from a stable financial background or be good at doing funding applications (or adept at getting someone to do them for you) - there are the exceptions of course. Once you’ve got the dosh, you can then pay someone to fabricate it for you. You don’t even need an idea nowadays - I have friends who sell packaged ideas to well known artists who are severly lacking on the imagination front.

This is never a very popular discussion in the artworld. I remember some years back when I was at an artist's talk at Hauser and Wirth, I asked the artist out of curiosity if they made the work themselves. It seemed a natural question. There was silence and I was begrudgingly told that he had 6 assistants in the studio making these pieces (smallish collages). It then made sense of why he seemed so distant from the work and lacking in the ability to describe them. You’re not meant to ask these questions. But then how do students learn? Young students want the success of these bigger** artists. All they’re learning is to shortcut ideas and making and they need funds to do this. The bigger galleries demand that artists produce at factory speeds in order to be profitable - as after all it's mostly about money now and not art. To become successful** a personality and good backstory is now mandatory - a bit of victimhood mixed with a smidgen of being critical about the establishment to appear edgy but not too critical to expose it for what it is. Art is big business.

I've always felt very strongly about making my own work - for many reasons but mainly because I think , process and clarify ideas through making and I can see it resonates in the work. Materials and materiality are key. I make sense of the world through fabrication. I'm also crapp at funding applications and loathe the idea of spending hours raising funds to pay a man (because it is usually a man) to fabricate elements. When I do need assistance or a specialist skill and I can't work it out myself - I always look for a female expert. If I need funds, I go out and work. I have a background in programming and cabinet making so I can turn my hands to most things.

I was therefore excited in 2018, when I saw the callout for the CoLAB commission. This was specifically for women who were engaged with fabricating their own sculptures. I know the world of making and sculpture is far more grounded than the ethereal queerial celebratry one. In my world, artists not only talk about ideas, but of craft, materials, materiality and tools. They are also more grounded and less frightened to speak their mind.

I was determined to put in a proposition for the commission, and after a rigorous interview and shortlisting was happy to be awarded the commission.

I was given a budget of 15k. This was to include my time, materials and transport. I had about a year to build a sculpture to be installed in UCL / Slade in central London.

THE INSPIRATION

When I do a commission, the environment and context is a big consideration. I always spent some time researching and talking to people at the venue. I organised interviews with various professors and students. I also hung around the campus to get a sense of what was going on and engaged with the museums and resources on site. At the end of this period I narrowed down all this research to a few things that caught my interest and that I thought may be relevant to the demographic.

Mental Health of tutors and students seemed to be a recurring preoccupation that came up in the interviews.
A research project proving that men were more disposed to bullshitting than women
A study on Menopausal Whales. How the female whales outlived the males by decades and descriptions of their constructive post menopausal life of imparting information down the generations.
The UCL anechoic chamber.
A lack of Women in STEM subjects.

At the time I was planning the commission I was finishing off my residency at the V&A that was located opposite the science museum - it also happened to be 50 years after Apollo Moon Landing. So as I periodically wandered around there would be all these space modules. So descent modules were lodged in my subconscious.

Usually at this point I start playing around with maquettes, materials and the ideas in my studio but also taking into consideration the constraints.

THE CONSTRAINTS

I also had certain constraints to work with namely, budget, studio size, time and health and safety. Also the work was to be located outside for a year so had to withstand or work with the weather.

One of the first considerations was to assess the load bearing capacity of the area. I did some calculations and checked this with a structural engineer.

The next was the budget - 15k sounds a lot - but this includes all the materials, transport costs (which in the end came to over 33% of budget) and my time. The budget certainly didn't cover living costs so I had to do paid work on the side, and keep showing other work.

I like to build big works - but often the studio size can hinder that ambition and it also makes it more time consuming. It's no coincidence that all the ground floor studios in my studio complex are occupied by men. (They're the bigs ones with easy access). Mine is on the first floor with domestic sized corridors so anything I make has to squeeze down them. Therefore my works are often built in components, so they can be disassembled and assembled on site. For example this work was built in 4 segments - so I had to design mechanisms for the cabling in the interior (of which there are 100s) to plug and unplug easily, and for the top to clip on and off. This can double the build times costs and you end up spending a lot more time on the technical design - and less on the artistic merits.

Health and Safety - hours of form filling, especially in educational institutions. A pet hate but necessary. Includes lengthy risk assessments.

THE MAKING THE WORK

So taking all the inspirations above - I started toying with the ideas of wanting to create a safe space for women, a mothership - but I imagining a mix of Barbarella and 50s sci fi style.  One that was controlled by female AI trained on second wave feminist texts (my background is in programming). One that would nurture, learn and teach. Her anechoic interior  would be specially designed to block low frequencies (male voices) as we know that women thrive better in all female environments. She would control who entered. I had this vision of the door opening like a McLaran and the visitor would enter into this still environment where time stood still. V.A.L.E.R.I.E would then interact with this person - all voice activation - no screens - her voice clear and soothing.

She would be free, confident and in search of change. I rename the descent module dissent module.

The physical build started with buying a Boeing 727 door on eBay (located in Luton!). This had the aesthetic I wanted. I then took the measurements and then designed a CAD framework in Rhino that looked abit like Jo90’s RAT. This was a bit of a pain as the aircraft door was not designed to be raised gullwing style and it only curved in one direction - as opposed to a complex curve of the dissent module - but I got there in the end by using Rhino. I then got the framework CNC’ed from my design. I had never done anything like this before - in hindsight it probably would have been quicker and cheaper to make my own rib work but it was an experience. It had to be made in 4 sections to get in and out of the studio corridor.

I then brought lots of old Boeing parts (landing lights, joysticks etc) and built them into the body. I then waterproofed and clad the body in hand, cut Ply and riveted aluminium. It had to be precise and weatherproof.

I used a linear actuator and made a special hinge for the door so it had the desired gullwing movement . It was then connected to the computer via electronic components and was controlled by V.A.L.E.R.I.E

The interior was wired for cameras, computers, sound system etc… There also had to be an emergency hatch incase the door failed.

The interior was clad with removable panels with pink anechoic foam. It made for perfect sound acoustics.

I could talk for hours about the build, technical aspects, programming and electronics - maybe hire me for a talk - I need the money and students need to learn how to make stuff.

THE NO PLATFORMING

Mid build in November 2019, I was no platformed by Oxford Brooks for LIKINGa tweet - I've written about this elsewhere on this website so I'm not going into too much detail here. Bascially I believe that people cannot change sex, men cannot become women, and quite frankly I'm not going along with this false narrative as ultimately it harms women and girls. I'm not a good liar. As a result I lost all my lecturing work and commissions as the artworld believes being trans trumps womens and LGB rights so anyone who dissents from this way of thinking is harmful to students and should not be given a platform. Initially it hit me quite hard as there was a lot of negative publicity and social media bullying, and I was also physically exhausted as I was mid build on this project and working 24/7 to get it finished.

I guess the reason I mention the no platforming is that it ultimately fed into the work. I read more around the subject of radical feminism and engaged with more feminists and lesbians on the subject. I started to notice how artists, teachers and curators loved to denounce women like me - very noticeably Tai Shani, RCA tutor and Turner Prize winner who calls radical feminists “reactionary bigots”. A teacher in a position of authority and in charge of young impressionable students should know better. She created a work inspired by the 15th century novel, City of Ladies - Semiramis - saying she had created it for all women, but not for those "horrible, horrible TERFS". Which translates as I've created a womens space for men and women who believe men who say they are women, but not women who believe sex is immutable. This is what you're paying 12k a year for your kids to learn at the Royal College of Art! This is not harmless tweeting, it has its desired effect of galvanizing students to believe this nonsense, whilst ensuring that women (because it is mostly women) artists and professors lose their livelihoods if they don’t go along with this regressive homophobic narrative.

Finishing the Build

So I renamed the work Dissent Module (escape from Semiramis). Being no platformed is a lonely place - there is no support - and I felt very isolated as I could imagine I owuld in Shani’s judgemental world. So it felt quite appropriate to be building an escape module from rementants of aircraft. I felt I was living the work.

The final piece was incredibly satisfying. The door opened beautifully, and the mechanism made a lovely metallic noise. When inside the module, the anechoic foam made it instantly peaceful. The voice of V.A.L.E.R.I.E came from all around- it was crisp and clear. Inside was a furlined chair, that slug you back to zero gravity. I had changed the controller for a tornado joystick.

The cameras were all working, sound,opening mechanisms, there was still some programming to do for fault tolerances and data learning, but adjustments were to be made throughout the project. It was an experiment as all my work is. We are all in a constant state of learning.

TRANSPORT

The move was a bit traumatic from my studio to UCL. I was quoted £550 - but ended up being billed for £2600. The art movers came in and could not get the work out of the door despite me telling them it had to be at a certain angle. They would not listen. They billed me for this.

They came back a few days later. In the interim I had built them a special trolley that would support the segments at the correct angle and get them through the door - I could do it single handed - it worked. Looking back they should have done this.

If anyone knows of a female art removal company - with female movers do let me know.

Assembly on site was a bit of a struggle - I could have done with more assistance - I had the fabulous Hannah Honeywill for a couple of days but ran out of budget - so at the end I managed to drop the door on my hand and ended up in A&E at UCL - just a minor stitch - but more forms to fill in. That was the point I noticed COVID was becoming a thing - I'd not been paying attention as I was so frazzled working 24/7 but it was apparent at A&E.

COVID

Pretty much the day after the physical installation was finished, UCL decided to close its doors due to COVID. I stayed on for 3 more days deinstalling certain elements and making sure the dissent module was sealed and watertight. It was a bit gut wrenching after all the work I had put into the project. It was all a bit spooky with few people around. No one knew what was going to happen. I stripped out the subwoofer, computers, some electronics. Removed the parachute etc.. and took those parts to store in my studio.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

The work has now been enhanced and has been curated in the "No Place Like Home" show at Arthouse Jersey in September 2023.

​Dissent Module (Escape from Semiramis)