'Guns into goods' at Manchester Science Festival

The project has already made many items from melted guns

Manchester Science Festival includes few more striking workshops than one called 'Transforming Guns into Goods'.

Run by University of Salford and Community Alliance for Renewal, Inner South Manchester Area (CARISMA), it converts illegal weapons into items like badges and ink.

Organiser Sam Ingleson said the idea was to "take guns off the street and turn them into more positive symbols".

The process uses Salford scientist James Joule's law of thermodynamics.

The workshop - which demonstrates the change of metal from one state to another - is being run as part of a wider project run by Mrs Ingleson called Wearpeace.

This project - which is part of the University's Knowledge Transfer Fellowship - grew out of a request made by Greater Manchester Police and CARISMA to produce "some kind of public art sculpture made out of the melted down guns."

The basic idea of taking something that has been used in a negative way and turning it into a positive is what we stand for and something we are trying to do Paul Keeble, CARISMA

She explained that "after discussions, it was decided that it would be better if, rather than just doing it once and getting a piece of art, we made lots of different products out of the gun metal.

"That way, it keeps the message going, it has more continuity and hopefully it reaches a lot more people."

"The idea is to take guns off the street and turn them into more positive symbols.

"So we're turning them into badges and developing a clothing brand which can be sown onto your own clothes.

"We've also been looking at taking the metal from the guns, grinding it down and turning it into printing ink.

"That way, we can spread the positive message without using gun imagery and without doing anything really obvious, like just saying 'don't use guns'."

'Turning negatives into positives'

The ultimate aim of the project is for groups like CARISMA to work with businesses to market and sell the 'guns into goods' items and bring money back into the communities.

The guns are remoulded into 'more positive symbols'

CARISMA co-founder, Paul Keeble, welcomed the idea, saying that what he "would like to do is to scale the whole thing up."

Adding: "If we can get a company involved to produce items of clothing or accessories containing gun metal which has been transformed in this way, that we can make it more viable.

"The basic idea of taking something that has been used in a negative way on our streets, such as a gun, and turning it into a positive, is what we stand for and something we are trying to do: turning negatives into positives."

Joule's law

The 'Guns to Goods' workshop is taking place as part of the Manchester Science Festival and Mrs Ingleson was eager to show the science involved in making the items.

"I was interested in making more explicit that transformation of the metal from one state to another.

"We're going to kids and saying 'here's a badge that's been made out of gun metal', which is good, but it's a long way from a gun.

"So I wanted to show how metal does melt at high temperatures and how it can be remoulded into other things.

"Obviously, we're not bringing guns into the school - we're using copper wire to show vaporising.

"The people [attending the workshop] will have a chance to see that process.

"What happens is a mirroring effect - it's the same process that you use to mirror a piece of glass or make the foil inside a crisp packet."

The process uses the laws of thermodynamics as set down by Salford scientist James Joule in the Victorian era.

Mrs Ingleson said that it was great to see "Manchester's scientific past being used to help Manchester's future in such a positive way."

'Transforming Guns to Goods - using Joule's Law' is at Stretford High School on Sat 23 Oct (10:00 to 13:00 BST). Entry is free but places must be booked

CARISMA will also be launching its 2011 Peace Week (which runs Sat 5 - Sat 12 Mar) at the event