War and the Mind

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

When you wake up on a lazy Saturday the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t ‘ooh I think I’ll pop out for a quick exhibit about psychological warfare’. So we might need to deploy a rather cunning sales job to convince you see the latest offering at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Imperial War Museum.

We unfortunately live in a time of polarising political opinions where people constantly feel as if they have a moral high ground. Convincing a majority to engage in war therefore requires the use psychology in order to achieve a consensus. War and the Mind begins with what is referred to as ‘the fallacy of the righteous cause’ which can delude people into believing that war is something virtuous. This also works the other way, which brings to mind protests against the Iraq war in 2003.

The exhibit gets more personal as it progresses and delves into how psychological warfare is used to frighten and therefore weaken a population. This can be achieved by drones (more on that later), propaganda, rumours, gassing people, spying and cutting of essential services. And not to forget the psychological warfare perpetrated against soldiers in the field to demoralise them in the midst of terrifying situations.

On a lighter note, in a war zone danger and disorientation can confound the brain. So near the end of the exhibit theres a rather hilarious illustration of how mind altering drugs such as LSD are used as a means to determine how soldiers remain focused when they are, frankly, off their face. Don’t miss the film where soldiers are laughing so hard they can’t pick up their rifles. Now there’s a way to end armed conflict!

While this exhibit might not possess the unbridled fun of as scarfing down a pizza by the seaside, War and the Mind is on now until 25 April and is totally free. And (nerd alert!) for those of you who can’t get enough of the topic, from 7 November IWM will have en exhibit about the psychology of drone warfare.

Tim Hetherington at IWM

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

Feeling cultured for the first time in 2024, we recently paid a visit to our very own world class museum-we-bet-you’ve-never-been-to, the Imperial War Museum. What drew our attention was an exhibit of the work of photographer Tim Hetherington, who was technically a war photographer but much more interested in the personalities and back stories of the people in front of him.

As an independent journalist, Hetherington joined rebel convoys in west Africa, bunked up with GI’s in Afghanistan in 2007, chronicled droughts and harvests, and captured the early days of the Arab spring in Libya (which cost him his life). And while he was at it, managed to win four World Press Photo Awards and nab an Oscar nomination. As you do…

What this show is not about, consistent with the ethos of the War Museum itself, is a glorification of warfare. Hetherington’s concept was more sociological and, as the title indicates, about storytelling. In the videos that augment the exhibit, Hetherington and his colleagues discuss his photography and the unique way in which he obtained his images. Unlike other photographers, he never asked his subjects to pose in front of a silent lens, preferring instead to interact with the subject, even if they didn’t share a language.

Especially if you are a militant pacifist, this kind of journalism is of crucial importance as it exposes the trials and injustices of society to a rich, safe first world who would rather just ignore them. But ignore this show at your peril, as it will keep you thinking. Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington is on now until 29 September and, like all wonderful things in life, is totally free.

The New Gallery at IWM

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Kennington Runoff

Last week we attended the gala opening* of the spanking new Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, our very own Imperial War Museum. This permanent gallery is a valued addition to the Greater Kennington cultural landscape (it’s a thing, trust us) and includes works by Henry Moore, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert, Cecil Beaton, and Wyndham Lewis to name but a few.

The galleries are laid out by themes and are chronological, from WW1 to 21^st century conflicts. As with the other display areas at IWM, these new galleries don’t seek to glorify war but rather to explain it and how it can be avoided. This is achieved by a captivating mix of propaganda posters, photographs (the gallery own 12 million), armaments, film clips, cameras, and first hand accounts. But the great achievement here are the paintings, with the highlight being the recently restored work ‘Gassed’ by Sargent (below). We could have probably spent several days in the gallery’s two screening rooms but the Runoff overlords would have none of it. The reel of clips range from footage of the D-day landings to advice about how to make a wartime compost heap.

Rather than being a historical record, the galleries include current work showcasing the conspicuous talent of artists such as Steve McQueen (the Oscar winning artist, not the formerly living action hero). He’s represented here by his artwork ‘Queen and Country’. Also in the mix are descriptions of anti war protests, marches, and attempts to avoid war. This is interesting in its own right, but especially when considering the complex dynamics of what is transpiring in Gaza and Israel at the moment. But a celebration of war artists and photographers is the beating heart of these expansive and well thought out galleries.

You might be reading this and thinking that the IWM is nationalistic and not your cup of chai. We get that, but we are duly challenging you to get your Guardian reading, tofu buying selves over to the IWM when you have a spare hour of two. And as you’ll be in the neighbourhood anyway, why not check out the fascinating exhibit about spies and deception that we wrote about a few weeks ago? Did we mention that they have a stonking café with pretty cakes and sarnies?

*We coincidently pitched up the day it opened

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Spies at The Imperial War Museum

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Kennington Runoff

We recently visited the spanking new exhibit ‘Spies, Lies and Deception’ at our very own world class museum-that-you-probably-don’t-go-to, the Imperial War Museum. The exhibit covers the vast period from WW1 to deepfakes and AI, and like all good things in life is totally free.

In this sprawling exhibit we initially learn that the fundamental goal of spying is to control a narrative to in order get the outcome you want. And what is on offer is the manifold ways in which this achieved, from pens that shoot teargas to ghetto blasters with hidden mics and fake airfields created by Shepperton Studios. The exhibit is broken down into smaller sections handily laid out as ‘Power of Persuasion’ (or the ability to control one’s mind), ‘Hiding Something’ (an Enigma machine features) and ‘Surprising the Enemy’ (eg camouflaged to look like a scary straw man). Now if only we could harness these skills to keep another estate agent from opening up in Kennington.

At its heart this is an exhibit about personal stories. These range from superspy Kim Philby to an unassuming middle aged couple who transformed their modest bungalow in Ruislip into a Russian spy HQ. And these stories continue to our present day, with a description of the Salisbury poisonings a few years ago. There are also stories on the home front about wireless operators and people sent covertly overseas and having to conceal this to their families. But our favourite display is the footprint overshoes used to create the illusion that the soldier was a local walking in the opposite direction.

If over the years you’ve given the IWM a wide berth because you think it promotes or celebrates war, we can assure you that this is not the case. It’s much more about the consequences of conflict, how to avoid it, and human resilience in the face of it. For those reluctant a good starting are the galleries about women during wartime, who kept the country moving as the men folk were fighting.

‘Spies, Lies and Deception is on now until 24 April so you have no excuse to not see it….Or just lie about seeing it to make you look clever and cultured.

War Games at IWM

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Kennington Runoff

We usually like to review the new exhibits at the Imperial War Museum, but had some understandable reluctance to check out their newest show. As it’s about war related video games as we didn’t think it exactly fit, lets just say, the sensitive demographic that we cater to. However, we found it fascinating and it dispelled, among other things, the dated myth that online gaming is a domain for spotty teenage boys.

War Games: Real Conflicts, Virtual Worlds, Extreme Entertainment is a show displayed in 10 parts, or levels, starting with the psychology of why people have a long history of gravitating to games involving tactic and strategy. We are then shown a live action game, Wolfenstein 3D (1992) next to Sniper Elite 5 (2022) to see how profoundly gaming has changed over the years. This is where we encounter two enormous screens showing war games and developers telling us in laymen’s terms (it has to be very laymen for us) how they are based on real environments, and they show us how users can play for a few minutes or plan a campaign that takes years to complete. The mind boggles.

The largest room touches on some of the inevitable ethical complexities involved in developing products based on crushing people’s heads and then running them over. Apparently one of the largest growth areas are games which involve saving people affected by war, which is a relief. And increasingly developers are creating figures which can be succinctly personalised to give gamers a feeling that they have agency with that figure. Video games often reflect the anxieties we face at the time they were created and can be seen as mirrors of the age. For example, imagine a videogame fronted by a resurrected Liz Truss with Covid, running around cutting off everyone’s heating.

The most enjoyable element of this exhibit can be found on Level 10 (this room is only open until the end of January) which has dozens of retro video consoles from 1980 up until the current day which you can play for free. We saw Sega, Atari, Commodore 24, X Box, Nintendo 64 and others. We won’t tell you which era we played as you’ll then be one step closer to knowing who we are. But suffice it to say that War Games is a sophisticated spread of immersive installations about a culture that many of us know little about.

For those of you who’ve given IWM a wide berth over the years for moral reasons, we understand your reluctance. However, it is not a temple of jingoistic celebration, and if anything it is dedicated to the human spirit and survival. Galleries dedicated to the Holocaust and women on the home front are very poignant and reminders of the profound impact that conflict has on the innocent.

War Games: Real Conflict, Virtual Worlds, Extreme Entertainment is on now until 28 May and is totally free.

Queens Jubilee at IWM

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Kennington Runoff

The Queens Platinum Jubilee is getting nearer, and if your state of mind is along the lines of ‘well this is all very exciting but I can’t be bothered to leave Greater Kennington’ then we have something you might enjoy. The Imperial War Museum has just opened a compelling exhibit of the Queen in wartime and it is set out over three sections.

The first gallery is a selection of 18 large format photographs outlining the Queen’s journey through conflict, from growing up in WW2 and more modern conflicts, to sticking decorative pins on people. The Royals in Wartime section is more of a dedicated route around the IWM exploring the Royal Family’s long connection to the armed services and the key role they’ve played in terms or morale and logistics over the years. The Royal Family in Wartime is the third exhibit and it features 53 photos outlining out the Royals commitment to the armed services over the decades, from directly serving in the army, to Elizabeth serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in spite of being told not to. Well done..

The exhibit has mostly been pulled together from the millions of items the IWN have in storage, and this is what they always do very well. This vast resource enables curators to carefully select items that even predate the Queen (if that’s even possible).

‘The Queens Platinum Jubilee at IWM London’ is open from today until 9 June. Entry is free but nabbing a timed ticket is recommended. However, if you’ve forgotten to book, or you’re just lazy, turning up is usually fine as they haven’t checked our tickets recently.

The Three Stags Sunday Roast

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

Last weekend the Runoff visited celebrated Lambeth North pub The Three Stags for a long overdue visit to check out their Sunday roast. As part of our contract with management we work on only limited hours at weekends so we arrived at a venue not yet full of patrons, but when full is a good mix of locals, groups, and confused tourists who were led to believe that the pub is actually in Waterloo. The atmosphere is kind of punky with a huge range of music and, on our visit, loads of Halloween decorations and very spookily attired yet well informed bar staff. On that subject, the slightly morbid Chaplin corner is where Charlie last saw his dad alive.

My colleague had the free range pork belly which was a generous, fat and meaty balanced slab with loads of gravy. The roast hit all the main points well and was a very solid effort. All roasts come with a Yorkshire pudding, which gets a big tick. The roast potatoes were flavourful with a soft middle and some crisp edges, similar to how our bodies have evolved since the pandemic. The star veg was some cabbage, with just enough bite and surprinsingly very peppery.

We’ve said it before, but
taking pictures of food isn’t easy!

Your scribe had the chicken which was a mighty leg and thigh. The stuffing was a bit on the mean side, but was nice and flavourful. The honey glazed carrots and parsnips weren’t too strong in the honey notes and were so plentiful that we had to leave some on the plate, and cooked just this side of firm. And the roasts were topped with, um, watercress. Everything seemed very much home cooked, and that is what you want from a Sunday roast at a good price. And no to mention, they have a good selection of ales.

Although we were certainly carnivorous on this visit, The Stags takes pride in ‘ethical food with an emphasis on more veg and better meat’. And apparently they are South London’s most sustainable pub. In fact, the menu indicates that in order to protect the rainforest they no longer serve beef. If you’re a true Sunday roast purist, we suggest the Jolly Gardeners in Vauxhall or the very ‘cheffy’ 24 The Oval. But if you live in Lambeth North and want a well priced, dependable, sturdy and fun roast you could do a lot worse than The Stags. And if your tastes extend to listening to Lionel Ritchie while sitting under a picture of Sid Vicious you’ll fit right in.

The IWM Gets a Big Facelift

Posted on October 28, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

Today we visited the brand new £30 million Holocaust/World War 2 Galleries at our very own world class Imperial War Museum. The IWM has always dedicated galleries to these events, but when the museum was closed they worked tirelessly to transform the areas into a much larger (over 3000sq. metres) space with much more interactive content. What they have done well here is what the IWM has always excelled at. Namely, focussing on the lives of people impacted by an event as opposed to the event itself.

The Holocaust galleries commence with an overview of Jewish life in central Europe in the 1920/30s. Brightly light rooms tell the stories of families and workers getting on with school, commuting and bar mitzvahs in the face of increasing discrimination. A transition room explains with frightening logic how Hitler became chancellor in 1933 and how life for Jews became incrementally more impossible as Germany grew closer to global conflict. The fate of Jews from 1939 to post war Europe is subsequently not presented in the graphic and grainy black and white images of death we have all seen before. Rather, we see photos of living green fields which thrive in places like Sobibor and Treblinka in Poland. Interwoven is the lived experience of survivors whose collective memories will soon become extinct, but have been persevered by the IWM.

The WW 2 galleries are a bit more of a task to take in, as they cover everything from action in the Africa to the Philippines. A whole museum could be dedicated to this, but IWM do their best to distil this into smaller elements focussed on human experiences on the front line and also people impacted on the home front. Various campaigns and victories are outlined and poignant detail is given to the efforts of troops and civilians on D Day. The huge scope of these galleries are made more accessible by the integration of devices such as a mock up of an early 40’s British home, clothing, music, air raid shelters, and the effect of the war on children who were evacuated from London. The final rooms are cogently dedicated to something usually overlooked by war memorials. Namely, how the world repaired itself after the event.

For those of you who are reluctant to visit the IMW out of a concern that it celebrates conflict and warfare, let us assure you that it doesn’t. As the galleries above indicate, it is more of a museum dedicated to collective survival in times of crisis and individual resilience in times of oppression. As conflict and warfare very much exist on this planet as we speak, it also introduces concepts of how we can help war ravaged people in the present.

The two galleries are permanent and free but are ticketed. You can get tickets on the day but to avoid waiting around it might be a good idea to book. If you are wondering about taking kids please not that these galleries are partially designed for children, but for under 11’s it might be a good idea to speak to them about what they are about to see.

While you’re swishing around the museum building brain cells you can also check out a small photographic exhibit from Oscar nominated photographer/filmmaker Wim Winders taken at ground zero in the weeks after the atrocity. The photos are large format and quite powerful. Afterwards we fully approve going to a Greater Kennington pub to obliterate all of those brain cells you just obtained.

Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors at IWM

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

The other day we visited our very own world class institution the Imperial War Museum to check out the thought provoking and quite moving show ‘Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors’. We discovered this show by seeing an interview with Kate Middleton , and as an amateur photographer she was involved in photographing two of the families.

In partnership with the Royal Photographic society, what the IWM has created is an exhibit of people who experienced unbelievable trauma at various stages of their life. Some people in the exhibit came to the UK as infants to escape the Nazis, some as child refugees via Kindertransport and a few have direct experience of surviving life in a concentration or slave labour camps. What the exhibit focusses on is not so much their lives in occupied Europe, but instead about how they built families and careers in the UK. The most riveting takeaway from the show is how these larger families have incorporated what happened to their older family member into their daily lives.

This show is not as depressing as it might appears, as what it leaves you with is a sense of how resilient we are as humans and our ability to put our lives back together in times of horrific adversity. It is also a celebration of the lives they have lived and the legacy that their younger family members will carry into the future. Generations runs at the Imperial War Museum until 9 January. It’s totally free and you don’t need to sign up online before you go.

Refugees and Al Weiwei at the Imperial War Museum

Posted on May 28, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

Last week we visited our very own Imperial War Museum to see the extremely evocative and until recently long closed exhibit ‘Refugees: Forced to Flee’ and its related exhibit ‘A History of Bombs’. The latter was created by Chinese conceptual artist and dissident Al Weiwei, who himself was forced to flee China. A History of Bombs is a site specific illustration of the power of bombs and their impact on human lives. On the floor in the main gallery are illustrations and descriptions of bombs so small they can fit in your hand, and others so life shatteringly huge the snake up a staircase. It is a moving reminder of how the human race built up a mind boggling arsenal in the 20^th century just to obliterate ourselves. The parallel between bombs and something else that has obliterated ourselves over the past 18 months can’t be overlooked.

The brutal reality of bombs is one reason why people become refugees in the first place, and the intriguing Refugees exhibition delves into different global conflicts such as the German invasion of Belgium during WW1, ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War and the treacherous Mediterranean crossings of the present day. The exhibit begins by the societies that people departed from and often the brutal choices involved in leaving your culture behind for a place of safety where you may or may not be welcomed.

The main section of this exhibit is dedicated to the journey that refugees take, both physically and mentally, and efforts of organisations like UNHCR which are there to help them. This includes camps where people set up a vibrant temporary community in a sometimes harsh and unforgiving surrounding. The final section explores the somewhat ambivalent attitudes of countries who accept refugees, and their efforts to help them assimilate and to preserve their culture.

Included in the exhibit is a 360 degree immersive film installation created by CNN depicting life in a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece.

While this exhibit might not be the most cheery way to spend a Bank Holiday, it certainly gets the grey matter jiggling after 16 months of watching ‘Homes Under the Hammer’. And it is open all next week during half term. Both shows are free but you must book in advance. Refugees runs until 13 June so get crackin’.

Kennington Runoff

Surreptitiously exploring Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012

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