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Sorting by Age.

For my Methods of Cataloguing project I have chosen 100 portraits taken from the Harrison D. Horblit Collection of Early Photography, accessed via Harvard’s Digital Collections. The images are mostly old daguerrotypes, and were taken between 1840 and 1860. They are presented below organized by the age of each subject.

The First Response to my brief.

A method for exploring the Burdett–Coutts, developed from (and continent on) my prior investigative process.

The brief is available to download at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gkZthEeiPWSx8rW6inNzYbXqhSCWDlYb/view?usp=sharing

Writing about global corporate entities, design studio Methaven (2010) speak of the “elusiveness of networked organizations” and the insufficiency of identity systems in representing them. Applying such thinking to the manner in which we conceive of a given site, neither static image nor indeed the semiotics of its own architecture can be said to truly capture it as experienced. This is particularly true in the case of monuments, whose cultural significance may shift in the public conscious over time.

In comparing the results of the above method both with one another and the physical site itself, light might be shed on each participant’s situated experience of the fountain. When gathered together the results will (hopefully) represent a counter-perspective on the fountain as an intangible networked space, that is merely and inadequately represented physically by the site itself. The likely chaotic and stylized nature of the resulting image database will, I’m sure, underline this further.

Metahaven. (2010, p.7-8) Uncorporate Identity. Edited by Metahaven. and M. Vishmidt. Baden: Lars Muller Publishers. 

My collated findings represent a networked understanding of space that can be understood in a similar vein to Nils Braun’s Contemporary Fragmented Vision (2016). In lieu of a fragmented collation of visual data, my projects ask what can be gleaned from other modes of seeing when employed in a comparable manner. Gathered together, the audio exerts lay bare the subjective nature of my chosen site as it is experienced by each interviewee. A suggestion of the site in physical terms is communicated via the commonalities of each description, yet the situated interaction of person and place takes prominence. By employing an active medium in my investigative process as opposed to the static quality of photography (as understood via McLuhan’s conceptions of audio versus visual space), this situatedness is brought further to the fore.

One might be tempted to ask whether the above recording focuses on the site of the fountain or on those interviewed for the project? In doing so, light is shed on how we choose to define place as a concept – and whether a place exists on equal terms in our shared collective consciousness, as made evermore visible by the internet. This consciousness cannot help but be unobjective, and raises further questions as to the validity of empirical, qualitative thinking when describing any site of prominence.

The site of my investigation can therefore be said to have shifted entering in to the interrogative stage of the project, away from the physical location itself. From here, I hope to lay out the contradiction between a fixed objective ideal of place and the lived experience therefore. Creating a brief, I am inviting participants to interpret the above recording, converting it back into a visual format as might be understood by an image-based online media platform and its users. The results will hopefully make for a more interesting version of Google image search, with the artist playing the role of search engine utilising a limited dataset.

Braun, Nils. (2016) Contemporary Fragmented Vision [3D Printed Statue]. Available at: https://nilsbraun.ch/Projects/Contemporary-Fragmented-Vision (Accessed: 18/10/21).

McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (1967) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Corte Madera, CA: Ginko Press Ltd. 

Using participants’ keywords to generate search terms.

A colour palette generated using said search terms (inspired by Devon McGowan’s approach to her Methods of Investigation Project).

Experimenting with Redaction.

Creating Haikus from interviews.

These were then used to generate google image searches, however the results produced little of interest. Furthermore, such an approach both feels forced and doesn’t yield any new knowledge about the site, my research, and how both can be interpreted or understood. The same can be said for analysing the text for commonly occurring words/distinctive turns of phrase.

I feel Abbie provided valuable feedback regarding staying on target and not losing sight of the goal of my investigation project. As a results-orientated person, I often slip into thinking in absolutes and I have sometimes struggled to resist chasing outcomes and instead focus on the process itself. Moving forward, I plan to reflect on the recordings I have gathered and how they can be interpreted / reconfigured / recontextualized into something that speaks to the inherent subjectivity of both interview as a process and the knowledge it produces. Reflecting further on my chosen method, I can also see that each interview (and indeed my choice of interview as a method of investigation) is informed by my own personality.

I find the practicalities of presenting a method as an outcome (in the context of this assignment) challenging, and my tutorial group presented interesting ideas on how I might achieve this. I plan to spend time transcribing the audio I have gathered, experimenting with redaction (at the suggestion of Aishwarya) and examining the volume for patterns and keywords. I was also particularly drawn to Yihan’s suggestion of creating images based on words from each interview, and I will give further thought on how I might pursue this route without once more falling into the trap of being overly outcome-orientated. 

I do feel that my method of investigation thus far may lack the thorough depth to be considered exhaustive. This being said, I feel such a shortcoming is inherent when focusing on the subjectivity that underlies a person’s lived experience of place. Can a project ever truly be exhaustive when investigating the myriad variations of situated experience?

“On the death of her grandfather’s second wife, Harriet; Angela, at 23 years of age inherited almost the entire estate in a trust. Harriet wished the fortune to remain in the Coutts family and her will contained certain caveats, notably that she was to take the Coutts name, and that she must never marry a foreign national.”

“Baroness Burdett-Coutts shocked polite society when she finally got married in 1881 at the age of 67. Her husband William Ashmead-Barlett, who took her surname, was less than half her age at 29: he had been her protégé and secretary, and would later become the MP for Westminster. William was American by birth, which meant that under the conditions of her legacy Burdett-Coutts forfeited much of her inheritance. They remained happily married until Angel’s death.”

Text quoted from the information sign at the Angela Burdett-Coutts Memorial Fountain Gardens.

Participants were also asked to respond to the following topics using one word.