Beating a Sword into a Plowshare

circa 2014 Common Era

B. Welling Hall, Plowshares Professor of Peace Studies, Earlham College

Why?

From Then til Now: Nuclear Weapons

…. And Human Rights

The International Relations of 9/11

The Bomb

Forced Migration

Funny?

Beauty

From James Hillman, A Terrible Love of War

Q. How are we to recover from the horror of war, death, destruction?

A. Though intense aesthetic engagement that opens the heart to beauty.

Things of Beauty

From Art to Politics

“Art is the fountainhead from which political discourse, beliefs about politics, and consequent actions ultimately spring…

Art should be recognized as a major and integral part of the transaction that engenders political behavior.”

Murray Edelman

Recent Travels

Cambodia 2012

Arms Trade Treaty 2013

New Directions Collaboration

Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect It

We can enter into situations or spaces or knowledges that differ from our usual contexts for thinking about art or international relations and, instead of refusing their relevance to our area, engage with their differences creatively.

- Christine Sylvester

Rich Context

NATO Ammunition

Combat Knives

My First Casting from Melted Bullets

An Early Design?

A Design I Like Better

Returning to Inspiration

Design from Nature

Design Research

Continued Design Research

Second Project: One plus One equals = ?

Two Bullets Per Person ?!?!

Laser Cutting Silhouettes

Scenes from 2BpP work

Scenes from 2BpP work continued

2BpP demolded

Starting to Carve a Model in Wax

Grinding through Combat Knives

“Immediate” Results

Belt Sanding Cut End of Knife

Studying Metal working Techniques

Filing and Sanding, Filing and Sanding

Precision Work with File and Calipers

Filing to Very Thin Depth

Seating Knives in Milled Wax

Testing Components Together

They Work!

Melting Bullets for Casting

Preparing Mold for Lost Wax Casting

Removing Bubbles from Investment

Bullets Ready to be Melted

Melting Bullets

Molten Bullets in Mold

A Sign of Trouble

Disaster! (risk of working with mystery metal)

More Filing and Filing and Filing and…

On Not Gilding the Lily

Buffing

Engraving “Swords into Plowshares”

Finished!

From “Swords”

To “PlowShares” or Garden Shears

Two Bullets per Person (2BpP)

How Much Did These Shears Cost?

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

Materials (knives) Supplies Labor

A “Real Life” Swords into Plowshares Budget

0

200,000,000

400,000,000

600,000,000

800,000,000

1,000,000,000

1,200,000,000

Cost of making CW Cost of destroying CW

Cost of War for Indiana

•  Average Indiana Tax Receipt for 2013

•  Where does the money go?

Why Make Art?

•  Art is a way of breaking down established categories and values.

•  Art “works” when it entices the viewer to both feel and think about a theme that matters.

•  “Art expresses an ambiguity that provokes, not an explicitness that terminates wonder and analysis.”

Murray Edelman

Lessons for Teaching and Learning

•  The joy of demonstration and observation. Learning with concrete examples.

•  The reward of trial and error in a laboratory setting. •  First success does not mean that student fully grasps

process. •  I need to be able to make mistakes in order to learn:

developing expertise is developing a repertoire for recovering from mistakes.

•  Empowerment through transformation (I can make things that did not previously exist; I can change my material world.)

Questions for Contemplation and Action

•  How much does it cost to convert “swords” into “plowshares”?

•  What is required physically, spiritually, emotionally for this conversion?

Joy!