Today’s Object of the Week is an invention designed by a schoolgirl which was inspired by the horrors of war.
A SUNDERLAND student’s invention has gone on display as part of a new exhibition at one of the UK’s most prestigious and important museums – The Victoria and Albert (V&A), the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance.
Five years ago Charlotte Scott submitted designs for two inventions for a project run by award-winning arts programme The Cultural Spring and Sunderland-born artist and inventor Dominic Wilcox.
The project, Inventors!, saw children’s drawings of ideas for inventions turned into prototypes or models by a team of manufacturers and craftspeople.
More than 600 drawings of inventions were submitted from Sunderland and South Tyneside children and included an umbrella for ladybirds, a self-watering pot, reverse binoculars and a high-five machine. Twenty-five inventions were then chosen to be developed by Dominic and his team of ‘makers’.
Among them was Charlotte’s Liftolator, or War Avoider.
She said: “At the time I was just learning that wars were still happening – I thought they were all in the past.
“It scared me that people were still being killed or hurt in wars so I wanted to invent something that could help people in war zones. My invention was to protect houses and people in them in times of war.”
Her invention was brought to life by South Shields born artist Erin Dickson.
“I met with Erin and we talked about my invention idea, what I thought it should look like and what was behind it,” said Charlotte, now 17, and studying sociology, history and English language at Whitburn Sixth Form.
“I met her at the National Glass Centre, but she made the model at University of Sunderland’s FabLab.
“I remember insisting that the chair that elevated up into the home had to be a red armchair. I’ve been to the V&A before, but never dreamt I’d be exhibiting there.”
The Cultural Spring Inventors! project sparked the global Little Inventors phenomenon, through which Dominic gives children around the world an opportunity to develop and showcase their creativity and problem-solving skills.
Little Inventors projects have been launched around the world – with Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques recently launching Little Inventors: Inventions for Space, led by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and open to all students in Canada from Grades one to nine.
But it started with the inventions from youngsters from Sunderland and South Tyneside – one of which now has a national profile.
Charlotte’s model is part of the new Design 1900 – Now Gallery, which features around 50 new acquisitions to the V&A collection, as well as objects from the existing collection.
Other pieces include iconic British road signage, a Kim Kardashian book of selfies and a redesigned flag for Europe.
The V&A acquired five inventions from the Inventors! project, but the Design 1900 – Now Gallery is only showing Charlotte’s piece. There has been interest from museums from around the world in showing the other pieces.
Charlotte, Dominic and Erin were reunited at the V&A last week when Charlotte traveled down to London with mum Lorraine to see War Avoider in the exhibition.
Dominic said: “Children are amazingly creative and inventive and it just shows how we should all take their ideas more seriously.
“It’s wonderful that Charlotte’s thought provoking idea, made beautifully by Erin, has been honoured by such a prestigious national museum.
“The V&A also collected four other inventions from the Inventors! project and I’m told there they will be shown in future exhibitions. It’s also fantastic that the inventive children of Sunderland and South Tyneside inspired the creation of my organisation Little Inventors and their ideas now inspire children all over the world.”
Emma Horsman, Project Director for The Cultural Spring, said: “We’re thrilled that Charlotte’s War Avoider is now on display at the V&A and will get national recognition.
“Inventors! was one of our favourite projects and led to the huge success of Dominic’s Little Inventors. It was great to see so many young people being creative and using their imaginations to design some brilliant inventions – but it was also so good to see craftspeople using their skills to make the ideas a reality.”
Find out more about Little Inventors at www.littleinventors.org
Dominic’s inventions include a pair of shoes with inbuilt GPS to guide the wearer home; a Binaudios device to listen to the sounds of a city and a stained glass driverless car of the future.
He completed a project with cereal giant Kelloggs on how to make breakfast-time more exciting which caught the attention of one of America’s most popular prime-time TV shows. Dominic was invited on to Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show to talk about his ‘self-serving cereal machine.’
The Cultural Spring is funded by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places project and has five partners: University of Sunderland; the Customs House, South Shields; Sunderland’s Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust; Sangini, a women’s health organisation, and The Cultural Spring Charity.
Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
You can also follow our dedicated County Durham Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.
For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.
Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here