As the unstable chemicals gathered across the room some of us felt compelled to rub our eyes, but this child would not shed one tear. And when one tearful boy did finally look into the camera I felt moved enough to look away. A tear rolled down another boy's cheek, and I observed his jaw twisting in agony as he too wiped away his tears.
There was something mildly disturbing about watching adults standing around an LCD screen poised on a young boy, waiting to see if he would cry. To be fairer, we were waiting to see if chopping onions would draw tears from these boy's eyes and within the context of the title of this blog ‘Boys don't cry', the aim of our collaboration was to question emotions and how they could be explored within art education. How could a framework as rigid as a school curriculum ‘shove over' and ‘mind the gap' for something as abject as emotion?
Assisted by our six, pupil volunteers, along with the generous input of camera and sound people Maverick and Jim; Faga, Cassius and I had set up studio within the ‘clay room' of a North London Boy's school. Having resigned myself to the idea that today's filming was for educational purposes only, and not for public domain (safeguarding children), I cultivated a healthy distance from the ‘creative' action around the LCD screen. I manoeuvred a role between organising students to fill in questionnaires ‘about crying' and issuing far off advice with regards to chopping speeds and tear inducement. Faga and Cassius located themselves with the technical team directing each individual boy to look into the camera the moment they felt their eyes fill up with tears. I don't know if these young boys knew how exceptionally generous they were being, or even valued their part in this. Everybody knows we're not talking real tears, but the focus and enthusiasm that I observed in these young people was touching and full of hope. They were all really eager to perform and whilst awaiting their moment of fame, sat huddled in the background fighting off a contagious attack of the giggles, watching volunteer number one, who would not shed one tear.
The school buzzer sounded the final alarm on a Friday afternoon and half term beckoned to the boys. Faga distributed compulsory chocolates of thanks, and Cassius declared it was a rap or a wrap? The ‘clay room' emptied of tearful boys and we did one final surface sound recording of the space to cover all the unwanted sounds that occurred during filming. Looking forward to seeing the edited version!
A quick glimpse at WikiAnswers.com and the following question pops up "Does putting bread up your nose stop the tears from chopping onions?" and the reply "Hello, my name is Sydnee. No, I don't think putting bread up your nose makes the tears stop".
