Pop Up - Festival of Stories - Pop Up Stories

Pop Up Stories > Who's Watching You?

This visual arts project took place at City of London Academy Islington throughout February and March 2011. It involved artists Ilya and Catherine Anyango from independent graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero. Ilya and Catherine worked with groups of year 9 students to create photographs and a political pamphlet that reflected ideas from George Orwell's novel '1984', such as Room 101 and Big Brother. Funded by Free Word & English PEN, it was Pop Up's first ever schools project.
View the PDF booklet

Graphic novels for Key Stage 3: The 1984 Project
Big Mother Is Watching!

This challenging graphic booklet reproduces the students' exploratory writings and drawings. Styled to look like a retro-future ID card, the pages fold-out to reveal the inner workings of a nightmare, all-new reality, 21st Century life under the watchful eye of Big Mother and her secret police force, The Sisterhood.
James Clark's Room 101

I am taken into a room and strapped to a chair. The room slowly starts filling with water. When the room is full, they release a huge man o’ war jellyfish into the water. What will happen next, will I drown or be stung?
Liam Tims's Room 101

I’m in a room which is really dark. There is a tiny bit of light, and because of this, I can see things coming towards me. All sorts of things... funnily shaped things.. some are walking, some are crawling, some have no legs at all. Some are just objects, but somehow they are moving... are they on wheels? The floor is bumpy so they can’t go too fast.
Nurcan Gunebakan and Melissa Polat's Room 101

As I walk into the room it is pitch black, my heart is racing, then I feel something on my neck and I hear a scratching noise on the floor. The door opens to allow me to escape but this is just my mind playing tricks and I find the door is firmly locked. I am surrounded my spiders, rats and butterflies and all I want to do is curl up into a ball.
Deborah Martin's Room 101

Trapped in a room with snakes, I can feel leaves and grass and trees. I can smell the scent of rain and the grass. I can hear birds singing, animals and the wind whooshing . I can see snakes everywhere, everywhere is green. I’m in a place full of grass and palm trees, like a rainforest. There are forest sounds and it is hot. Somewhere, I know, a snake is being released and slithering towards me..... To some people this image may look beautiful and inviting but being in this forest would be my worst fear. Everyone has a different ‘Room 101’ and that’s why it is so terrifying in the novel ‘1984’
Tony Torn's Room 101

I’m sitting on a chair in the middle of a room. Half my body is under the water, half is out. It’s very cold under the water. Above the water, the room is full of huge spiders, sitting on their webs. Underneath the water... there are sharks...
Alice Sena in James Clark’s Room 101

My greatest fear is being locked in a room with moths fluttering around. There are two light bulbs that switch on and off, and this means I catch glimpses of the moths but never actually know where they are, and I can feel them brushing against my face!

Alice Sena