Author: Elle Laforge

Prompt: Select one reading from the course reading list and ‘re-present’ its main arguments and ideas using the structure, form, or method of another reading on the list.

PROMPT: Select any text—or an excerpt of any text—from the course reading list and apply one of the following
methods of cataloguing in order to analyse its purpose,
value, or meaning: 1. Inventory or 2. Metadata

Metadata- The Medium is the Message

This catalogue entry uses McLuhan’s “The Medium Is The Message” to demonstrate, in practice, that form is not secondary to content but actively structures meaning (McLuhan, 1964).

The text is treated as an archival object and described through controlled fields (scope and content, subject formation, power / control note, etc.) on an object card, rather than through conventional argumentative prose. By doing so, the record shows how different media produce specific kinds of subjects, reorganise perception and attention, and redistribute control, which is precisely what McLuhan identifies as the “message” of a medium.

The point is that the catalogue itself performs the argument; the way the object is catalogued becomes evidence of how medium determines interpretation. In that sense, the method (metadata) and the content (McLuhan’s claim) are aligned.

Reference: M. McLuhan, Q. Fiore (1967),The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, Berkeley: Gingko Press

From week 1’s conversations…

• From last week’s discussion…
• How many of these murders are actually femicides ? 
• Can I organise them in crime type to show underlaying themes ? 
• What role does language play in the “common” perception of women both at legal and societal levels ?

Back track…

Select 10 random broadsides in the collection. Discard one if it is the same story as another. Classify them in 3 potential sections:

1. Femicides
2. Infanticides / Pedicides 
3. Man-on-man murder 

Out of the 10 selected, in 8 cases the crimes were femicides, 1 was a pedicide, and the last one was a man-on-man murder. All were committed by men. 

Interesting. 

Contextualisation: 

• What are the crime rate statistics of late 18th century / early 19th century England ? 
  • The percentage of recorded crime was ciritcally low compared to its actual occurence.
  • This is partly due the periods of Industrial and Agricultural revolutions (lack of police). 
  • The period between 1810 and 1820 saw the most dramatic rise in crime. This was a time of rising food prices, poverty and unemployment after the end of a series of wars with France.
  • Most convictions were committed by men. 
• What are the legislations regarding crime ? 
  • Homicide was not a common crime in the late 18th century but it grew in popularity as the new century began. Broadsides had that effect, people attended public executions. 
  • English homicide law was governed by the “Bloody Code,” which enforced capital punishment for a vast number of crimes.
  • The convictions at the Old Bailey were overwhelmingly male, and still are today. 
• What are modern statistics with regards to homicide ? 
  • Males accounted for approximately 93% of convicted murder suspects in the year ending March 2022 (England and Wales only).
  • With regards to general crime, over 80%, is committed by men.
• Most proceedings took place at the Old Bailey, where is that?
  • Central Criminal Court ! EC4M 7EH
  • Access to the online database of historic proceedings.  

Ok. What now?

This made me think of the Guerrilla Girls.

I decided to continue this patriarchal exploration with the colour scheme of the Guerrilla Girls in mind; black, yellow, and pink.

Below are a few examples…

These broadsides now re-told the story differently, changing the narrative where women were often referred to as “someone’s wife” to a person with a name and agency. Pursuing this idea of dual existence between past and present, I thought it would be interesting to denounce the perpetuation of femicides in a publication which itself listed as a dialogue between past and present. I therefore decided to explore screen-printing techniques for the cover of the publication.

Putting it all together, I decided to create a small “flyer holder” publication, with detachable pages to extend this dialogue into public space by raising awareness around the persistence of femicide today.

Here’s what it looked like for the end of the week.

I intended to use letterpress in order to keep the aesthetic of the cover consistent, but due to time constraints, I ended up having to take letters from the initial broadsides in order to make the title “W(H)O MEN” and print them. I think, looking back, this further mix of past and present adds to the value of this little publication.

That’s it for week 2.

Chosen set: English Crime and Execution Broadsides 

Available at:

https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/crime-broadsides?utm_source=library.harvard

WEEK 1: EXPLORATIONS

1. Execution, execution, execution

Looking at all the execution broadsides (only a small collection here), I was very intrigued to see the word “execution” over and over again, and therefore decided to take them apart from their context. I made sure to only select occurrences where the typographic style of each “execution” was different from other ones previously selected.

I realised that in this context, the word “execution” sort of became meaningless. This lead me to an exploration of the etymology of the word.

The word execution comes from French, my native language, meaning “passer à l’accomplissement de quelque chose”, which literally translates to “to proceed to accomplish something”. To do. To make. To execute, some-thing.

See at the link below, nine different definitions of the word execution:

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/execution_n?tab=meaning_and_use&tl=true

Execution has many different meanings in itself, yet this collection of “executions” serves as a typographic exploration and cataloguing of England’s 18th Century printmaking techniques.

2. Alt-text and braille

On their respective information page, each broadside has a set of notes, including a vivid ‘alt-text’ like description of the engraving, each specially crafted.

Alt-text has for purpose to make digital content accessible for people using screen readers.

In this context, my aim was to enhance the accessibility of this broadside collection by developing a catalogue based on detailed alt-text descriptions, which could then be translated into braille.

I collected the below:

• Wood engraving (13 x 10 cm.) : Scene of man strangling a woman with a rope.
• Wood engraving (8.5 x 10.5 cm.) : Prison cell scene of cleric exhorting defendant, with official.
• Wood engraving (8.5 x 17.5 cm.) : Male figure, hanging above prison walls, with guards in attendance.
• Wood engraving (14 x 23 cm.) : Defendant in court before judge and jury.
• Wood engraving (13.5 x 17 cm.) : Hanging scene before prison walls, with spectators.
• Wood engraving (9 x 19 cm.) : Defendant, with priest and official, walking to a gallows set before a crowd.
• Wood engraving (8.3 x 7 cm.) : Male figure, manicled at arms and legs, in a cell. With three rows of type ornament.
• Wood engraving (6 x 16 cm.) : Half-figure male, hanging before prison walls with spectators. With rule borders.

Which in braille would be simply translated as;

I wanted to explore this idea further, in the form of a physical collection of broadside alt-texts, printed on plastic sheets to ensure readability.

3. Hijacking

I experienced with taking apart bits of text, uncovering underlying patriarchal themes.

That’s it for week 1.

Written Response

Contextualisation: Investigating Maida Vale, and its Bakerloo line

• Baker Street & Waterloo Railway = Baker Loo (TfL Museum)
• MV opened in 1915, as first Underground station to have an all female workforce (TfL.gov) 
• Maintained its original architecture by Leslie Green (terracotta tiles, mosaic, etc.) (TfL Museum)
• Sounds of MV as a direct result of its architecture (original tunnel material; rail beds etc.) (TfL.gov; TfL Museum) 
• Money as a factor for loudness (Sadiq Khan) 

Links to sources

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/reducing-noise-and-vibration#:~:text=Noise%20coming%20from%20our%20tracks,it%20is%20safe%20and%20reliable.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-underground-reason-behind-tubes-24708142

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2015/june/maida-vale-tube-station-celebrates-100th-anniversary

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/transport/bakerloo-line

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs/item/1998-60368

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs/item/1998-86699

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs/item/1998-55000

Final video to be uploaded below.

Reflecting on W1’s discussion;

• Perception is different to each individual, even in the most mundane, obvious things; this makes research intricate and inherently biased. 
  • Which led me to;
  • Why not use my bias to inform others of a different way of knowing? 

From the initial reading The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan: 

• “Have we become deaf, blind and unable to perceive our original ideas?”
• “We are so visually biased that we call our wisest men visionaries” 
  • What does it mean to “see” or “experience” a place ? 

In my investigation, I realised that the sounds and rhythm of Maida Vale are essential constituents in my understanding of the site. 

• MV exists as both a physical visual site, and a sonic one. 
• Commuters block sounds out but they choreograph how we move, wait or pass through.

Further Research this week:

• Further notetaking
• Attempted interviewing
• Videography
• Photography

I found, through my interviews that people did not really pay attention to the station and if they did it was solely the visual aspect of it.

Further inspiration:

I struggled to find a way in which to superpose my text with the sound and videos/ photos I had taken until I got inspiration from the sweaty betty store in KX I got the idea to explore sound waves and put them on top as such.  

As I was working on this project the song Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles was stuck in my head. Vision killed sound? 

That’s all for week 2.

Week 1: Choosing a site to explore and engaging with three methods of investigation

After years of living in East London, I finally moved West.

Striking stillness in the ever changing London, MV station sets itself apart. MV caught my eye the first time I went there, for the red tiles and old typeface reminded me of other stations like Covent Garden (or the old Aldwych station on Strand), which almost look out of character for the city we know today.

I wanted to capture what felt like a synergy of movement and stillness, so I started shooting it on my camera. Working and attending university means that I’m in central London 5 days a week, always leaving for the intended 9 o ’clock somewhere. Between 8:15 and 8:35, for three consecutive days, I took pictures of the same people, who were probably taking the same route as me but I had never really noticed.

Simultaneously, I started writing every time I walked to MV station, what I noticed. What it would tell me about the place but also its constituents, the people that make it and keep it the way it is. The little details which take so much space in our environment but go un-noticed.

MV despite its physical stillness felt like a never ending loop when I was there, where sounds dictated our commute. The beep of my card at the gates, the sounds of people’s heels tapping the ceramic tiles, my music in my headphones overlaid on the screeching of the train, it all felt like a buzzing place.

I am in fact incapable of taking the tube without my noise canceling headphones, for I find an accumulation of sounds deeply overwhelming. I was really surprised, when I took my headphones off and started to notice, that people (even without headphones) did not seem to pay attention to the sounds. This was deeply intriguing to me, as I could not separate Maida Vale’s visual identity, from its sonic one. I started recording MV and Bakerloo sounds.

I then superposed the music I would be listening to, on top of the tube sounds; showcasing the “sonic world of the commuter”.

It was also interesting to be in my own sonic bubble, paying attention. I took this initial video on my commute, which I thought looked like a dance of commuters.

That's all for week 1.