Mass-Observation 101

Whenever I’m in Mass-Observation mode, I become a bit of an observer myself…particularly when I’ve got my camera out and I’m recording everyday events or things (rather, things that are “everyday” to those around me).  This trip, I started taking photos of signs about the city.  I haven’t come to any conclusions about what larger meanings they might hold…

And how might one describe a dishonest sausage?

Hmmm.... (Window of a music shop)

Not a culture inclined to euphemism...

Very sensible! Hourly, daily, and season rates available for lounging in Regent's Park...

The humble hired loo...

Completely disavowing its bashful cousin the Loohire, the much more cosmopolitan and indeed stylish Cityloo stakes its claim in the City of Westminster.

single lens medium format camera = efficiency in 21st century surveillance

Coming to and end…

For the last two days I have been finishing up at the archive and madly running around London to cover many the museums and galleries associated with the work of William Coldstream.  I have been (obviously) to the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery (much of Coldstream’s work after his GPO period was based in portraiture), and then to Imperial War Museum (which holds many of Coldstream’s works and papers from the wartime period because he was an official war artist).  Making contacts and figuring out which resources exist where and how one gets access to it seems like taxing legwork, but it does pay off…particularly if you can introduce yourself to curators and archivists in person.   This is to say, if you don’t research in the country where you actually live making friends, colleagues, or even casual connections abroad is WELL worth the effort.

I also took a couple of side trips, including to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I wanted to see if I could find any ephemera in the V&A collections (much like the chaotic interests of Mass-Observation, so also is the collection at the V&A — ceramics, books, furniture, fashion, glass, jewellery, metalwork, photographs, sculpture, textiles and paintings, amongst almost every other object you might care to consider) that might indicate relevance to the project (most of the museums in the UK are free, so going in and looking around costs absolutely nothing…and may prove rewarding).  I’m not sure how well my searching paid off in terms of research potential, but it was certainly rewarding to see THIS (below) in the early 20th Century collection…

Mass-Observation's second publication "Britain by Mass-Observation" in the collection at the V&A

Very, very early on Friday morning (7am), prior to gallery and archive openings, I ventured out on a pilgrimage of a more personal nature.  My grandmother was born in London and lived in a house — before emigrating to Canada when she was 6 years old — only about 2 miles from where I am staying.  I wanted to see the house where she lived with her family and so I drew myself a map for myself and set out walking.  It was MUCH longer than I suspected (but I did pass a commemorative statue of Sigmund Freud and the entrance to his street enroute), but very rewarding once I arrived (albeit with sore feet…) at my grandmother’s little Victorian row house.

52 Maygrove Road, West Hampstead, London NW6

Cheerio for now…