Live Writing Activity – The National History Museum
As i stood outside the beautiful old museum, all i could imagine was ‘the end of the world’. I don’t know why, but through all the mass of school groups and tourists i could only see the opposite. A derelict building. I imagined shattered stain glass windows, dust all over the place and the centre dinosaurs broken bones in a heap. As i walked inside i could imagine finding a baby’s stroller, old museum maps and children’s school rucksacks, as if they had to leave in a hurry. Soot from bombs would cover the walls, making the place appear gray and black. Light would shine through the smashed skylight windows. It would feel like breathing in thick clogged air, full of dust and death. The stairs would be unsteady, a danger to walk on. Air would rush through all the gaps in the building, creating an air of dread. There would be shadows in hidden corners and silence that slices the insides of your ears.
From this vision, i try to imagine who and why someone would be walking inside here, what caused this disaster and when has this happened?
Live Writing
Bright lights blind my vision. My body feels light, weightless as i travel through time. The air around me becomes thicker; it’s harder to breath as my molecules come back together. My body becomes whole as i open my eyes to see a dark deserted grand entrance hall, covered in soot and dust showing the many years it’s sat frozen in time. Light shines through the shattered stain glass windows, highlighting the heap of bones in the centre of the hall. Chunks of the marble staircase have eroded over time, making them weak and unstable. I can imagine it in its former glory, daylight shinning through the beautifully crafted stain glass windows. The bright colours filling the crowded hall of tourists and school groups. The sounds of life surrounding you, childhood cries of excitement, the clicking sound of cameras and the load sound of feet hitting the floor. The bones in the centre of the hall once being a large monstrous figure of its former self, the mighty T-Rex. Every little boy’s best friend and favourite dinosaur. As i walk through the grand hall my feet leave footprints in the thick layers of dust, i look around and see them as the only sign of life being here in a long time, maybe twenty years or even a hundred. I’m not sure what year this is, or how far in the future it is but let’s hope this doesn’t happen anytime soon. If this is the future it sure isn’t pretty. I walk up the marble staircase, being careful of the weak crumbling steps. As i reach the top i step on to glass from the windows above, the crunching sound fills the silence. A circle of light lies in front of me, i look up to the windows and walk into the light. The heat from the sun warms my face; it’s hot almost too hot. My skin starts to burn. Global warming? Is that what’s coursed this? I step out of the light quickly and carefully walk back down the steps. As i stand at the bottom of the stairs i feel the present calling me back. Bright lights fill the side of my vision, just as i become weightless a small breeze flouts through the open space, blowing dust back over my footprints as if i was never there. Everything is going back where it belongs.
