Dynamite

Last year, North Ayrshire Council’s Creative Links programme commissioned visual artist Rachel Mimiec to work on an arts-meets-science project, of her own devising.  She has a community and public art focus to her work, and the idea was for her to work collaboratively with a group of marginalised young people.  Rachel’s project  - Dynamite – is inspired by the Alfred Nobel Foundation Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace.  Alfred Nobel had an explosives factory at Ardeer, only a mile or so south of Saltcoats.

Dynamite aimed to work with young people experiencing difficulties coping with every-day school life, and hoped to give them an incentive to turn up at school and take part in new, stimulating activities.  A group of 12 S3 were self selected for the project, from St. Andrews Academy, in Saltcoats.  These pupils were amongst a number who work with the Support Base staff. 

To support the project, Rachel brought in writer Gerry Cambridge, drama worker Elly Goodman and video and animation artist Iain Piercy. One of the outcomes of this team teaching was the Dynamite interactive DVD, an amusing and quirky look at the life of Alfred Nobel.

Forming part of the interactive DVD are the following four clips:

Clip 1 - Birth (24 sec)

[House is shown, inside are balloons and “it’s a boy” sign; sound – baby crying]

Girl: 'Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden... [animation – baby and parents]
 in 1833'

[baby’s cries get louder, animation changes to explosion and stars]

Boy: ' Alfred Nobel’s family was in the explosive industry and made landmines.'

[factory shown, sound – “boom”]

Clip 2 : Dynamite (36 sec)

[animated scientist in a lab]

Boy: 'Alfred Nobel was a chemist.  Over his lifetime he patented 355 different products.
 In 1867 he invented dynamite'
 [sound – explosion]

[Field/factory making and testing dynamite shown]

Boy 2: ' Alfred Nobel discovered if he mixed nitro-glycerine with a type of sand, it made  putty.  He shaped the putty into a rod. Dynamite got its name from the Greek  word “dynamos”, which mean powerful.'

Clip 3: Did you know (37 sec)

[Portrait of Nobel]

Boy: 'Alfred Nobel spoke five different languages'

[animation – man climbing ladder in library]

 After his death, he left a private library of 1,500 books

Boy 2: 'Alfred Nobel published 100 copies of his own play.
 After his death, his family destroyed all but three copies.'

Animated Nobel: All I really wanted to be was a writer!

Clip 4: Nobel Prize (32 sec)

[Nobel prizes falling from the top of the screen]

Boy: 'In 1901, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. Special medals were made for the prize winners.'

[Close up of medal]

'On the front of the medal, was a portrait of Nobel, and an inscription which read in  Latin, “he created and promoted”.'

Boy 2: 'One of the winners in the past for the Nobel Peace Prize was Nelson Mandela.'