Read stories from inside The Mine

Trigger warnings: The Mine contains content users may find sensitive or distressing, reflecting accounts of physical, emotional, systemic, and medical neglect and abuse towards disabled people. We encourage users to be aware of this when experiencing the artwork.

The Mine revolves around a selection of accounts detailing the historic and contemporary marginalisation and abuse of disabled people. For each story, Jay has created a symbolic artefact or set of objects, which can be interacted with inside the game to reveal their hidden histories. Alternatively, read on to discover what lies inside The Mine... 

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The Printing Press Printed Campaign Flyers
DWP Memorial Sir Winston Churchill
Altar-Dissection Table Adam Reynolds
Aktion T4 Campaign  Sterilisation
Mental Illness Faeries and Scapegoats
Covid-19 Pandemic Disability Rights
Eugenics Scroungers

Welcome to The Mine. 

The memorial that was never built, for the people no one remembers. 

Glimpse a history of living under tender feet.

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The Printing Press

In-game screenshot focusing on the old fashioned printing press in the centre of the lower half of The Mine. The room is dark, perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight. The little light there is picks out a large metal printing press, details obscure but form clearly identifiable. The printing press itself is further outlined with a neon green line, indicating to a user of the game that it is an interactive object.

“I’ve heard of underground printing presses, is that what this place is?”

The printing press is both a functional item of revolutionary potential and a symbol of hope. 

When platforms are not provided within society or the artworld for certain groups - when the world lets us down, when it is outdated or elitist – that is where printmaking steps in to inspire, with its revolutionary potential as both art form and political act. It’s lower cost, it’s reproducible, and it’s based on a history of mass dissemination, consumption, and bringing content to groups outside of the privileged elite. Underground printing press groups have fought oppression, challenged propaganda or the status-quo. It seems that when art has been revolutionary, the workings of that power are often overlooked. 

Art can change the world. But in addition we [disabled communities] need to build our own platforms to break down walls, building steps for one another. Dissemination is a method of survival without a privileged source of income or the platform of a gallery. The affordable and the free becomes an act of defiance against the system to save the system. It infiltrates and introduces voices that would otherwise be excluded, making art relatable and tangible to a wider group of people. 

Change is fought for and rarely freely given.

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Printed campaign flyers

In-game screenshot focusing on a collection of paper materials strewn across the floor. The space is poorly lit, perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight. The only discernible objects are 5 pieces of paper, some slightly crumpled, laying on the floor. Only some of the text is legible - ‘Vote for the Civil Rights Bill on Friday 11th March’ and ‘Direct Action Network’.

Real flyers, campaigns and protest material from disabled activists.

Material provided by the National Disability Arts Collection & Archive.

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DWP Memorial

In-game screenshot showing a messy area underneath the wooden staircase. Surrounded by cardboard packing boxes and a rusty stepladder is a wall-mounted metal plaque. Text on the plaque is not particularly legible, particularly given the perspective being limited by the reach of the torchlight. The one sentence discernible reads ‘In memoriam for those who died after being declared fit for work by the DWP.’ This sentence appears as dialogue, white on black, across the centre of the image.

“What’s that behind all these boxes and junk? Looks like a memorial wall…. I can just make out a few words… “in memoriam for those who died after being declared fit for work by the DWP”.

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Sir Winston Churchill

In-game screenshot in which an interactive object is discovered. The room is dark, perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight. Dialogue text across the centre of the image, white on black, reads ‘Oh, someone has dropped a fiver.’ Underneath this text, illuminated by the torch, lies a modern plastic £5 note in good condition, on the floor of the room.

“Oh, someone has dropped a fiver!”

The polymer £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill entered circulation in 2016. Churchill was the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He was the honorary vice president of the British Eugenics Society and believed that the “feeble-minded”, the “insane”, and different races posed a threat to society, and that eugenics would solve race deterioration and reduce crime and poverty. He was one of the early drafters for the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913, which defined grades of “Mental Defective” people (imbeciles, idiots, feeble-minded and moral imbeciles) who could be confined for life in institutions.

In a 2002 BBC poll Winston Churchill was voted the Greatest Briton by the British public. 

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Altar-Dissection Table

In-game screenshot focusing on an altar in an alcove within The Mine. Perspective limited by the reach of the torch light. Highlighted by the minimal lighting is an altar table, the base of which resembles a medical trolley or gurney, but it is draped across the middle with a heavy, maroon-rimmed linen cloth. At the end of the cloth is a crest, hanging down in front of the table.

“I’ve never seen an altar like this.”

From the master craftsperson: The top of the altar is inspired by the marble dissection table from the Kaufbeuren-Irsee psychiatric hospital that was used to conduct experiments on physically and mentally impaired children. The base of the altar is influenced by the trolleys that wheeled away the bodies of those who died during those experiments.

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Adam Reynolds

In-game screenshot depicting a plaque mounted on a dark brick wall. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight. In front of the user, on the wall, a golden metal plaque is highlighted by both the torch and a thin neon green outline, indicating it is an interactive object. On the plaque, within a circle, is the side profile of a man. Beneath is text reading ‘Adam Reynolds. Sculptor, Creator, and Teacher.’

“This person must be important to have a plaque like this about them….”

Adam Reynolds was an artist, an academic, a gallerist, a teacher, a father, a husband, and an enabler of other artists, including disabled artists. Reynolds’ artwork was bold, daring and mischievous, and the subject matter never shied away from huge concepts. Many of the sculptural projects he made were designed to be experienced by people regardless of physical, sensory or intellectual impairment, and often included input from other disabled individuals. Reynolds spoke and led workshops in museums and galleries around the country addressing issues regarding disability, pushing forward change and creating opportunities. He ran his own gallery, supporting artists to extend their creative potential.

Sisyphus, was to be a performance by Adam Reynolds in front of the Tate Modern on August 13 2005. 120 debris bricks from the Thames shoreline were to be assembled in the form of Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII (a sculpture known as the ‘Tate Bricks’, that was controversial for its commentary of the nature of art and the labour of artists). As the tide came in the bricks would have been repossessed and removed by the water. The task was to be performed by Reynolds himself, 45-years-old with a severe form of muscular dystrophy. As such the task became that of Sisyphus; an overwhelming and self-defeating labour. Adam died unexpectedly but peacefully 2 days before the performance was due to take place.

"I am clear that my greatest strengths stem from the fact of being born with muscular dystrophy, apparently my greatest weakness" - Adam Reynolds

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    Aktion T4 Campaign - Extermination

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window through which beams of light stream, assumedly from a car outside. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window is discernible, but the exterior light source illuminates the design of the stained glass. Pictured are two small children, one on either end of the long, landscape window. They are being kept apart, despite outstretched arms, by two adult figures in white medical coats. Between them is a grassy, hilly area. Sun beams stream down onto the two adult figures.

    "I miss my big brother, he was the only one here who was kind to me. He slept on the other ward with the bigger children and the nurses say he left on the buses last week to our new home. Our parents sent us here as they said something wasn’t right with us, but they didn’t make our sisters come. It’s quiet as there aren’t many of us left. I like the quiet, but my stomach is being noisy as we haven’t had a meal in days. I have to go now, we have to wash and shower before we can travel to our new home and I can see my brother again."

    The Aktion T4 campaign was a secret operation in 1939 implemented by the Nazi Party for the ‘involuntary euthenasia’ of disabled children. Many children were kept in homes and dedicated hospitals when their families did not want or could not care for them. The children were transported to their murder in unmarked buses with curtains covering the windows. They were overdosed with drugs and lethal injections, starved, and gassed in chambers disguised as showers, among other methods. 

    Doctors and nurses committed the murders, even religious asylums allowed their young inmates to be taken to extermination centres set up in six psychiatric hospitals. Parents were not consulted and were usually told lies about how their children died. Eye witnesses describe this “worst kept secret,” and how many knew the purpose of the ‘death buses,’ as passing children would joke outside. 

    The buses were eventually painted grey to make them less obvious.

    There were public protests which led to the programme's apparent suspension for a time in 1941. However the killings continued until the end of WWII in 1945. This campaign was the only time Hitler personally signed documents linking him to mass murder. After successful beginnings, they extended the campaign to disabled adults.

    The lessons learnt killing disabled children directly fed into the constructions of concentration camps of Jews, Roma, Sinti, homosexuals, black people, and those whose religious or politcial opinions conflicted with Nazi ideology. 

    We are, as always, the canaries in the mine.

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    Sterilisation

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window through which beams of light stream, assumedly from a car outside. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window is discernible, but the exterior light source illuminates the design of the stained glass. A naked female figure lies flat on an operating table while a second figure, clad in surgical attire, appears to operate on her.

    "If I’m honest I’ve always wanted a little girl. We’ll play make-believe and have picnics in the park with her teddy bear. I’ll work hard to provide for her, protect her and I will love her ever so much. I’ll tell her every day she is worth more than other people know, that she is perfect just as she is, and I’ll guide her to become a kind and considerate person. I can’t wait to be a mummy."

    The compulsory sterilisation of disabled people has taken place across the globe throughout history. To name just three modern examples:

    In the US, 1907 - 1960s, disabled people were forcibly sterilised. The social and legal acceptance of this compulsory sterilisation led to minority and poor communities being pressured into “voluntary” sterilisation using threats of support and welfare removal should they refuse, as late as the mid 1970s.

    In Sweden, 1906–1975, compulsory sterilisations were carried out on disabled people on eugenic, medical and social grounds. This was a slippery slope and began being coercively applied to other groups. Until 2012 it was mandatory to undergo sterilisation before sex change treatment.

    In 1933, the German government passed the ‘Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases’. This law mandated the forced sterilisation of certain individuals with any of these conditions: hereditary feeble-mindedness, schizophrenia, manic-depressive (or bi-polar) disorder, genetic blindness, deafness, severe hereditary physical deformity, Huntington’s chorea (fatal form of dementia), epilepsy, and alcoholism. This eventually led to the involuntary ‘euthenasia’ of disabled people, and methods used were perfected against other groups in the Holocaust.

    …An unnervingly easy step to go from forced sterilisation, segregation, and confinement of disabled people to their killing for the good of society. Each step removes empathy, each campaign alters what is and isn’t acceptable. 

    Small steps. Dangerous paths. Destructive destinations.

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    Mental Illness

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window, the crumbling brick wall it is embedded in, and the wooden floorboards overhead is discernible. The window depicts, in landscape format and bright colours, a scene in which a male figure, head surrounded by golden halo, is pulling an old fashion plough through dark brown fields. On his left stands a horse, the pair separated by a large sun with emerging beams.

    "I wish I’d never told them about the voices. I was living, I was working, I had loved ones around me, no one even noticed. I just wanted a bit of help and support. Not this. Now I’m chained, I’m beaten, and I think I’m going to die here. I’m scared to die. I wish I had never told anyone."

    Mental illness has been treated like a plague in many societies throughout history, with people being segregated or even killed. Treatments have included inducing vomiting and diarrhoea, burning skin with caustic substances, electric shock therapies, exorcisms, bloodletting, ‘rotational therapy’, beatings, and medications with drastic and life-altering side-effects, among many, many others. 

    In the mid-18th Century, insanity was considered a return to animality. Philippe Pinel wrote of a farmer in North Scotland who claimed he had found a cure for madness: “His method consisted in forcing the insane to perform the most difficult tasks of farming, in using them as beasts of burden, as servants, in reducing them to an ultimate obedience with a barrage of blows at the least act of revolt.” Proposing that in pure bestial nature they would find their truth and cure.

    In Europe those presenting with mental illness symptoms were often arrested, however prisons soon overflowed. Asylums were created. Bethlem Hospital in London became notorious - called ‘Bedlam’ by many, the hospital allowed people to pay admission to tour the wards and see the patients for as little as a penny, becoming a top tourist attraction. 

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    Faeries and Scapegoats

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window, the crumbling brick wall it is embedded in, and the wooden floorboards overhead is discernible. The window depicts, in landscape format and bright colours, a scene in which a small, childlike figure, with a circular golden halo around their head, being subjected to some kind of treatment by two headless adult figures. They hold an object aloft, to the child’s face, while they appear to protect themselves with their forearms.

    "It’s so cold out here. My toes are hurting from the snow soaking into my socks, but daddy says I have to stay outside until I’m cured. My legs are aching but I daren’t sit down again as last time mother beat me with a stick and it stung mighty worse than normal on my cold skin. I must stay standing for another two days and two nights. I don’t know what I did wrong."

    Excuses have been found throughout history in order to justify the deaths of disabled offspring, and these children have often been considered portents or punishments on their parents or communities. Children with visible defects were valued in emergencies for sacrifices to deities. Disabled children were signs of sexual encounters with animals or supernatural beings. Children with degenerative diseases had been touched by the devil and were demonic and soulless. Excuses are easy to find when you are looking for them.

    As a superstition, fairies were useful to justify these murders. Fairies had a tendency to steal good, hardworking, moral people’s children, replacing them with their own - a changeling - hoping it would be raised and cared for by the humans. But these observant parents would notice the swaps by a withered hand, a deformed foot, or their child being despondent or suffering fits. There were many ways you could spot the theft of your child, yet no definitive list that had to be followed. Often, the only way to get your own child back was to torture the fairy’s offspring for days. This included beatings, standing them on hot coals, immersing them in water for long periods, making them spend days in the snow without rest or warm clothing. The loving parents would hope that the fairy would hear of these horrific actions and not be able to bear witnessing their fairy child hurt, and as such reverse the swap. If the fairy was callous enough not to care, then at least the changeling would die of the ordeal.

    Beware scapegoats in any form. Trace back the blame.

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    Covid-19 Pandemic

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window, the crumbling brick wall it is embedded in, and the wooden floorboards overhead is discernible. The window depicts, in landscape format and bright colours, a scene in which a patient lies on a gurney, aside from a huddle of figures wearing blue surgical attire, apparently in conversation. The central figure of this group is holding a piece of paper, on which the letters ‘DNR’ appear.

    "My beautiful boy, his hand is so cold but I can’t let it go. They said his heart stopped beating, but why didn’t they try to save him? He was so happy, he had an infectious laugh, he loved cars, and there was nothing he didn’t know about engines. He was building a kit car with his dad. My husband is waiting out in the car park as they would only let one of us in. How am I going to tell him?"

    The Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated clearly the value placed on disabled people’s lives in present day society, and how acceptable that treatment is considered by most of the public.

    Anti-mask and anti-vax movements imprisoned those with certain high-risk conditions in their homes, the recurring comment circulated that those who were dying were only those with pre-existing conditions and the elderly, and DNACPR (Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) notices were applied to disabled people in hospitals without their or their families’ consent. Blanket Do Not Resuscitate orders were placed on the records of people with learning disabilities in both the first and second waves of the pandemic in the United Kingdom. The Care Quality Commission in December 2020 stated that it had caused potentially avoidable deaths, yet the practice was reported as continuing the following year.

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    Disability Rights

    In-game screenshot focusing on a stained glass window. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, so little beyond the window, the crumbling brick wall it is embedded in, and the wooden floorboards overhead is discernible. The window depicts, in landscape format and bright colours, a diverse line up of figures, some using mobility aids, some holding placards above their heads.

    "They may ignore our lone voices, but when we stand together, when we are joined by allies, when we support other discriminated groups in comradery, THEN we are a force to be reckoned with."

    To break down  bias against disabled people, the disabled community needs to be seen and heard, and to become a part of non-disabled people’s lives, jobs and communities. But it's a big ask for people who are ignored, treated as invisible and discriminated against to achieve this.

    Disability rights activists around the world are fighting for life-changing societal developments: for equal opportunities in independent living and education; employment equality; accessibility and safety in architecture; transportation and physical infrastructure; and for freedom from prejudice, bias, abuse, discrimination, neglect and a heavy barrage of other rights violations.

    “We are not disabled. We live with impairments in a disabling world” - Tony Heaton.

    Equity to reach equality.

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    Eugenics

    In-game screenshot. Perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight. The torch is being shone directly at a crumbling brick wall, highlighting a round space of visible graffiti. In black, scrawled text, ‘Human Ballast’ is written. The text is then further outlined in neon green, indicating it is an interactive object.

    ‘Ballastexistenz’ was a popular concept in Germany from 1920 coined by Alfred Hoche. It refers to the burdensome existence of disabled and sick people on society and their relations.

    Ballastexistenz was not an outlier or a revolutionary concept. Eugenics has been prevalent throughout humanities history: whether it’s 400BC and Plato’s principles of selective breeding, touring health exhibits in the 1900s advocating eugenics or race hygiene campaigns, or respected philosophers like Friederich Nietzsche concluding that an ill or disabled person is a “social parasite” who through voluntarily giving up their life does the most respectable thing they could do for society, so much so that they “almost” deserve to live for doing it.

    Ballast is an interesting term however. Ballast is what is used to weigh down a ship or vessel, it in essence drags the vessel down - a metaphor to show people they deemed as inferior weighing down society and the economy. But ballast is essential to keep a ship afloat. Without it the ship would bob on the water and capsize – sinking the entire crew. Everyone is essential in society, different types of people and lives offer new perspectives, new experiences and allow us to empathise and be the best type of life we can be – if we are all the same then any deviance from the norm would be an outcast.

    Beware words. It is easy to dehumanise a group of people simply with language. Your empathy will be attacked, then eradicated, so that no injustice is perceived. But who will it be next? Will anyone fight for you?

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    Scroungers

    In-game screenshot. Perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight. The torch is being shone directly at a crumbling brick wall, highlighting a round space of visible graffiti. In black, scrawled text, ‘Scroungers’ is written. The text is then further outlined in neon green, indicating it is an interactive object.

    People perceive disabled people in limited ways.

    Saints, scroungers or victims.

    We are not here to be simply pitied, hated or eulogised.

    Like any other person we can be kind, cruel, generous, unpleasant, intelligent, biggoted and every other personality trait mixed in a complicated web. We are not the two dimensional people you see in films, we are not the scapegoats you read about in the media. We are as wonderful and faulted as everyone else. 

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    Tell us what you thought of The Mine

    Banner image description: In-game screenshot. Perspective is limited by the reach of the torchlight, meaning beyond the circle of light being directed by the character, little is visible in the dark. The torch picks out a statue built into the arch of a brick wall. The statue appears at first similar to a gargoyle or angel you might find in a church or cathedral, but upon closer inspection it is clearly a cherub throttling a duck.

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