Lecture
This was a great lecture looking into the world of publishing. It was interesting to hear that the two main things when trying to publish a book is a clear audience and a good hook, I really thought there was far more that went into it than that. I also didn't know much about ethnographic research before listening to this lecture and conducting my research this week.
Ethnographic Research
[1]Ethnographic research is the observation of real-life, finding out what is happening in the social and cultural groups and the wider community. It is a qualitative method of research that can be used to dig down deeper into a design problem in order to create a better solution. [2]
The best and most in depth pieces of ethnographic research involve the researcher living amongst the community for a year or more. Obviously we don't have time to do this for the Masters but I think ethnographic research will provide a brilliant and interesting basis for potential topics over the next few weeks. The research mainly includes participant observation, interviews and surveys giving a wide scope to collect valuable research.
It seems to me that a major part of ethnographic research is understanding the initial design question/problem/research area. Therefore, it will be most valuable at the start of the project.
Richard Mosse: Infra
I found Infra by Richard Mosse really interesting to hear about. The fact that he used the out of date infrared cameras to detect light the human eye cannot see makes for some beautiful images. The fact that this also relates to him telling stories people do not usually hear about or see in the newspapers adds a further layer of depth to the photographs.
This is definitely something I want to carry through my creative practice - having layers of depth that tell more of the story. I think this is a great way of communicating the story and also making people interested to find out more.
Workshop Challenge
This week we want you to explore how to research and define a topic that reveals a new insight and critical understanding of visual culture, myth or story in your area.
Please note, this is a key research phase for a longer, three-week project.
The findings of your research will inform the next stage of production and we expect you to utilise a variety of research methodologies (e.g. primary, secondary, ethnographic).
Please remember, it is imperative you gather enough initial material to develop your final 3,000-word article.
Research and identify two possible stories that reflect a viewpoint of your own town, city or locale.
Create one image to represent both initial story concepts, using a variety of methods, which must be original and not sourced from the Internet or a third party.
Write two short proposals with title, original image and a short 100-word synopsis (elevator pitch) about the concept of your article. Save as a PDF document and upload to your blog.
I want to explore ideas for 2 different places - where I am from (Sheringham, Norfolk) and where I live now (Wandsworth, London). I think this will give me the best scope to make my final choice the most interesting and successful piece I can.
Idea 1 - Wartime Wandsworth
In week 2 of this module I was looking into Wandsworth during World War II and I managed to find this story in the Wandsworth archives:
A group of housewives were chatting together in the shade, sheltering from the fierce sun beneath the railway bridge crossing Battersea High Street that very hot day in May 1940. We three twelve year old boys were approaching the bridge having come out of school an hour or so before. We had been enjoying the hustle of the shops and stalls of the High Street and were now making our ways home. We heard the noise of an approaching train.
This was the West London Extension line linking the south of England with the midlands and north, here crossing the Thames from Battersea to Chelsea. Normally there was little traffic and Battersea Station was closed for the duration, but for the last couple of days trains had been coming through regularly, but always from the south. People along the route stopped, watched them go by and waved if a soldier happened to lean from a carriage window. Yesterday a soldier threw some coins as we children waved. We scrambled for them in the gutter and I picked up the first foreign coin I had ever seen, a brass and shining 1 Franc piece. My pal found a coin with a hole drilled through it. He thought it had been shot, but at school our master said it was a way the French changed the value of coins.
There must have been a signal since the driver applied the brakes and in a flurry of dust and steam the train squealed to a halt. The engine now well over the bridge began panting and puffing as it paused in the sunshine reflecting the exertion of pulling a large number of carriages. The housewives came out from under the bridge and with us lads and a few more passers by together we looked up at the stationary train. The carriage windows were down obviously the passengers needed the cooler air, and to our surprise a soldier appeared. A head of unkempt hair, a grimey face and a scruffy army tunic. Eyes blinking from the sunshine he looked down on our silent group.
The youngest of the housewives called up to him, "Are you all right?" The soldier looked at us, at the houses and shops as if in a dream. He struggled to reply, then said, "I'm gasping for a fag."
"Cigarette? Yes I've got one." The young lady opened her handbag and extracted a packet. She lifted her arm as if to throw the packet up to the soldier but realised that it would be futile, the bridge perhaps 30-feet up, a lightweight packet could'nt be thrown that far. Thinking quickly she called, "I'll bring these up to you," and she walked over to the side of the bridge and tried to climb the steep embankment. A daunting task. She looked at us boys. "You lads, come over here and help me up." It was a command.We moved quickly but then I paused since nailed to the wall of the embankment was a notice.
SOUTHERN RAILWAY
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
"Don't just stand there. Come on." She was very determined and I obeyed. But others had also moved over to the young lady. They were offering packets of cigarettes. "Take these." A packet of Players thrust into her bag. "And these." Woodbines, Craven A, Park Drive, a dozen packets for the soldiers.
So we heaved, pulled and tugged and to the cheers and encouragement of many soldiers now leaning from windows we got up onto the track. That lady didn't stop, she moved onto the bridge with us lads in close pursuit, to where our first soldier was leaning from the carriage window. Taking a packet from her bag she reached up, he opened the carriage door and greatfully took the cigarettes. The remaining packets were distributed in a flash. A sergeant had jumped down onto the trackside and told us in no uncertain terms to go back down. He emphasised that it was dangerous and we began to edge away. However the lady stood her ground and we heard her ask if there were any Air Force men on the train. "My husband was over there, I've not heard from him...." "RAF," the sergeant snarled, "they flew home days ago."
Suddenly she looked helpless, miserable. I felt somebody tugging my sleeve. My pal was pointing down the line of carriages. Through the dust I could see he was pointing to a blue clad figure leaning from a carriage window. "Look missus, RAF!" Together we ran. Through the murk of the dust and steam, up off the track, on to the wooden platform of Battersea Station, past several carriages, and then.... this was blue but not RAF blue, it was the blue of the French Army uniform. The lady moved over on to a platform seat and I think she began to weep. I decided it was time to go home.
A chain of people now climbed the embankment from street level, passing the contents of shopping bags, cigarettes, drinks, food, for the benefit of the waiting troops. A policeman seemed to be supervising the distribution and as I passed he winked and said, "Well done, lad."
Mum asked me where I had been when I got home. I told her. She put on her hat. Checked her bag for cigarettes. "Where are you going mum?" I asked. "Down the High Street." [3]
I love this story because it really shows the community spirit in Wandsworth. Although it's a borough in London you get the feel that is is more of a small town, this is one of the things I love about living here. The thing I am struggling with with this idea is a personal point of view and original angle for the story. I have a personal connection to Wandsworth because I have made my life here and my home is here now, I think the personal angle could be that sense of community I love so much. Wandsworth feels like a town rather than a small part of a big city and for that reason the community feels tighter and this is evident in the story.
A problem I foresee with this is not being able to get any first hand accounts as the war was a long time ago now. It is unlikely I will be able to trace the man who submitted this to the Wandsworth archive as all I have to go on is a screen name. It would be really great to be able to explore this story more and maybe focus on the route people took to delver the cigarettes, looking at what the streets would have been like then vs now and all the things that changed in the story, even down to the social acceptability of cigarettes.
I could tell this story from three different perspectives - the young boy, the soldier and the mum. The soldier knows the reality of war, the boy idolises war heroes and the mum thinks war is pointless and people die for no reason. I think this would be an interesting way to tell it and I could conduct research into a variety of different people's perspectives to give the characters depth and meaning. In a way it would be these three schools of thought told from three fictional people's perspectives but they're based on real opinions from real people.
Research
The stories we tell about wars, like the wars themselves, are products of human actions. We should pay attention to how people tell their stories — and not solely what they have to say. [5]
In this blog post, Steege says that in order to tell effective war stories they need to have a very human element to them. It puts the reader in the place of the people rather than the politics and having a personal connection is one of the most important things when you want someone to empathise with a story that would otherwise be lost to them.
If I am going to tell this story in my 3000 word essay this is definitely something I want to keep in mind. I think it would be interesting to tell the same story from three different perspectives - one of the soldier who has seen the horrors of war and is traumatised, one of the little boy who looks up to the war heroes on the train and thinks it is noble and the other of the mother who fundamentally disagrees with rich men sending off other people's sons to fight. I think this would add a personal perspective and I could conduct a lot of secondary research into war poetry, stories of people at home etc. However, primary research would be harder to conduct as there is not too many people still alive who were in the war.
100 Word Synopsis
My article would look at the borough of Wandsworth during the war. It will focus on the sense of community brought about by devastation and coming together during a crisis. It will tell the story of a young boy spotting a soldier in the window of a train stopped on Putney Bridge. The boy asks if he can get the soldier anything and all he wants is a cigarette. The community form a human chain up to the bridge to deliver water and cigarettes. It will be told from three different perspectives, the boy who idolises war heroes, the soldier who is traumatised from the reality of war and the mum who disagrees with war entirely.
Image
I decided to do a charcoal drawing of a soldier lighting the cigarette given to him in the story. Charcoal was often one of the only things people had to draw with in both the world wars so it is representative of materials available at the time. I also think it is a nod to the ashes left behind during WW2 in Wandsworth, the borough was heavily bombed leaving a lot of the area as piles of debris and dust.
Idea 2 - The Sheringham Mermaid
The 15th century pews in the 900-year-old church of All Saints in Upper Sheringham tell the fishy tale of an unusual visitor to the village who has left her mark on this corner of north Norfolk for all to see.
There, on the bench end of the pew closest to the north door is a not-so-little mermaid, a formidable-looking siren of the sea immortalised in carved wood. Legend has it that the mermaid was drawn to the church from more than a mile away by the sound of heavenly singing and, despite the encumbrance of a tail, dragged herself laboriously from beach to churchyard.
With the service still in full swing, the church Beadle unceremoniously slammed the door in the face of the sea princess, leaving her floundering outside.
'Git yew arn out, we carn't have noo marmeards in 'are,' the Beadle hissed.
But mermaids are made of stern stuff and a mile and a half is too far to slither without a sit-down - as soon as she was able, she crept into the back of the church and can still be found there today. [4]
Research
If Anything Happens I Love You
In 2020 Netflix released a 12 minute animation called If Anything Happens, I Love You. [6] It is a silent movie about two parents who lose their little girl in a school shooting. This is one of the best ways I have seen a message being relayed purely through images with no speech. From looks between characters, to the drama of a school shooting right through to the depiction of feelings in picture, this short film gets across complex emotions and messages in a seamless and beautiful way. Grief is understandable all over the globe and this movie speaks louder than any words can.
Obviously this project is about the 3000 words I am going to write, however, I think a lot can be learnt from getting across the emotions in images as well as in words. This film depicts grief perfectly and this is a similar theme as I am going for in this piece. I love the black and white imagery and the way the characters interact with each other. This is something I will think about when coming up with the final design.
100 Word Synopsis
Grief is one of the most difficult things a person can go through, places they used to go become seeped in sadness. But what if we could change that? Would one last conversation change the way you feel about a place? I want to show this journey through the legend of the Sheringham mermaid, who leaves the comfort of the sea because she hears some beautiful singing at the nearby church. She drags herself to the church and listens to the music for so long she turns to wood. Through a final conversation script with my Nan I will show how me, her and the mermaid will all be better off for making that difficult journey.
Image
I went for a black and white line drawing with pops of watercolour for this original image. It shows me, my nan and the mermaid walking down Sheringham High Street and the only colour being in the three of us. I think this represents my theory that places do not have meaning by themselves, instead meaning is inferred by the people that inhabit this space. In this image, I wanted to make the three characters seem very much alive and the reason for this place being so special.
References
[1] Newbold, C. (2018). HOW TO DO ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH. Available: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2018/01/30/how-to-do-ethnography-research/. Last accessed 2/3/22.
[2] Logan, B. (2011). When and How to Use Ethnographic Research. Available: https://www.spotless.co.uk/insights/ethnography-when-and-how/#:~:text=Ethnographic%20research%20is%20a%20qualitative,in%20their%20real%2Dlife%20environment.&text=The%20aim%20of%20an%20ethnographic,and. Last accessed 2/3/22.
[3] Childs, L R. (2005). A Cigarette for a Soldier. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/53/a4194353.shtml. Last accessed 4/2/22.
[4] Briggs, S. (2020). Weird Norfolk: The mysterious mermaid of Sheringham. Available: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/weird-norfolk-the-mysterious-mermaid-of-sheringham-1004988. Last accessed 2/3/22.
[5] Steege, P. (2017). TELLING WAR STORIES. Available: https://medium.com/hindsights/telling-war-stories-47eabd2444c9. Last accessed 6/3/22.
[6] If Anything Happens, I Love You. (2020). [Online]. Directed by Will McCormack. USA: Netflix [Viewed 09/02/21]. Available from Netflix.
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