Field Report film, a participatory school project, 2015
Between September and December 2015, Françoise Dupré and Rebecca Snow visited JFS, the Jewish mixed comprehensive school in North London. They work with a group of Year 9 students on the project Field Report. The project aimed to visually engage young people with the role of scientists in war and ethics in science. Opening up debates and understanding about science that combines a sense of wonder, towards scientific discoveries and achievement, with that of horror, when science is applied and used in crime against humanity.
The project consisted of 10 sessions including school-based workshops and field visits to Imperial War Museum , Science Museum, Peckham Platform and SPACE Haymerle Road studios.
The final artwork was a short film made by JFS students, edited by Rebecca Snow https://youtu.be/9FCQ0RkJSS8. It includes student thoughtful discussions and refection on the theme of the project and its various activities.
Field Report film was part of DORA PROJECT Exhibition at Peckham Platform, 2016.
Field report was developed using a wide range of archival materials to create an installation using still and moving images, texts and drawings.
The project introduced students to the artists’ personal family histories, archival and historical research including V2 technical drawings and contemporary artwork relevant to the project’s theme. Students used drawing and collage to create a temporary collaborative wall installation that was then filmed by students.
Workshops at Dupré’s studio and at JFS, 2024. © Françoise Dupré and Rebecca Snow.
For Field Report, DORA PROJECT was successful in getting support from Imperial War Museum Education Department who facilitated a session in the Research Room where students were able to look at original archives and documents that Dupré had used for her research. A visit to the Holocaust Exhibition further contextualised the visit.
The Science Museum, also offered a guided the group through the Exploring Space and Making the Modern World Galleries.
The project’s starting point was the use of V2 technology and employment of Nazi engineers by the USA for its space programme. The capture and use of advanced technology developed in Germany during WW2, by the Allies was a large yet discreet organised enterprise.
Altogether it can be estimated than more than 2,000 reports on German technology, engineering, and industries, were written at the end of WW2. The main agencies involved were allied forces agencies such as the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee (C.I.O.S), the Field Information Agency, Technical (F.I.A.T) and the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee (B.I.O.S).
One of such report was co-authored by industrial chemist, James Anderson, Rebecca Snow’s grand-father, who was one of many British scientists recruited by FIAT and BIOS.
Dora Project 