Food Miles: 2010

The Food Miles book developed out of a desire to more clearly engage with something of Hackney’s diversity and multi-cultural make-up. I identified the old Roman road, the A10, which stretches from Kingsland Road at the southern tip of Hackney, to Stamford Hill at the northern-most, as something of a ‘spine’ of the borough. It is a stretch of road that offers multi-sensory evidence of Hackney’s diverse population—from the pocket of Vietnamese restaurants at the bottom of Kingsland Road, through the Turkish community in Dalston and Stoke Newington, up to the Jewish shops at Stamford hill. Whilst mapping the street, and recording images of interest, I became acutely aware of just how many of the commercial premises are restaurants or grocery shops, with the majority quite clearly defined in the type of cuisine or products they sell. Food is clearly an importnat part of maintaining one’s identity, particularly amongst diasporic communities (Blunt & Dowling 2006: 212). The Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies (2009), suggest that, for some migrants, food and drink have a key role in maintaining kin, social and cultural ties brought from other places; to build new groups on shared cultural or social identity, but also to define and create divisions between immigrants themselves and other migrants or ‘host’ groups. In this way food becomes what we might call an identity marker.

Interspersed within the reasonably clearly demarcated Turkish, Vietnamese and Jewish gastronomic territories is the usual raft of Chinese takeaways, fried chicken joints, greasy spoons, curry houses, and the ubiquitous Irish pub. However, there are also other countries and cultures represented along this three mile stretch of road, for example, Ethiopian, Polish, West Indian, and Brazilian. Some of these communities have been established in the area for decades, sometimes arriving as refugees following political unrest in their own countries, or sometimes through labour migration due to economic downturns in their country of birth. During this time, to a greater or lesser degree, they have established communities within Hackney, of which, the food shops, cafés and restaurants provide not only a focal point in some cases, but also a visible reminder of the diversity of the borough.

However, if one is to really experience these establishments, one needs to get beyond the visual. To engage with a fuller experiential exploration of these three miles, one needs to eat and drink, and then eat and drink some more. In the three miles between the beginning of Kingsland Road and the junction at Stamford Hill, there are over 150 eating and drinking establishments, as well as countless grocery shops, so I sampled a range that included all the different communities that are represented. As some communities are more established than others, they have developed a larger infrastructure within Hackney, and therefore have a greater number of restaurants and shops. The Turkish cafés and restaurants, for example, numbered over thirty. I therefore chose to visit these larger communities more than once, both to experience a range of different dishes and types of establishment. The only other enforced constraint was my vegetarianism. This meant I was unable to eat some dishes that could be said to be traditional, like Caribbean jerk chicken or Turkish tripe soup, but I was always able to find something that I was able to eat or drink.

My method was essentially that of the ethnographer, visiting restaurants, notebook, pen and camera in hand, recording my experience of the surroundings, the food and drink, and my interaction with staff or fellow diners. As I undertook my journey I learnt about the diversity of Hackney, and about myself and my own culture, as it, and I, were often sharply reflected in difference—from race, religion and gender, through to music, strange tasting drinks and unusual breakfasts. The visual outcome of the book reflects this complex, global yet local reading of place by embedding related passages of text inspired by the experiences of eating. The design interventions used within the format of the book explore strategies of montage writing and offer the reader an interactive, spatial experience that, through the three types of numbering/navigational systems, allows both local and global readings of place.

Experimenting with geography: See, hear, make and do: Edinburgh University: May 2010

During the final year of my PhD I was offered an opportunity to participate in the week long ESRC funded Experimenting with Geography: See, hear, make and do workshop, held in May 2010 at Edinburgh University. Organised by Michael Gallagher, a social researcher who also has a creative practice as an experimental musician and sound recordist, the workshop was developed in order to explore his theory that social research could benefit from the adoption of some of the technique used within different types of creative practice. The two books I produced after the workshop—Old Town and A Haptic Journey—focus very much on the physical experience of walking in Edinburgh and my immediate sense of place. Literally being somewhere new enabled me to think again about a different type of response to place—one that wasn’t built up over months of exploration or the long term development of relationships with participants.

The Old Town book was inspired by my experience of wandering through the wynds, closes and alleyways of Edinburgh Old Town, and the design explores the physicality of the book in relation to the physicality of place. The book uses the graphic spaces of a facsimile edition of an engraved 1765 map of the Old Town to recreate the physical spaces of light and dark that I experienced as I wandered in and out of courtyards. Texts relating to characters, buildings and events from the 18^th and 19^th centuries are interspersed within the French folded pages, adding a sense of the past to the immediate present.

A Haptic Journey reflects my fascination with the solidity and texture of the stone that Edinburgh is built on and with. My initial impressions of the city led me to unthinkingly run my hands across the stone of the buildings as I walked. When I noticed this I began to think about the textures of place and how Edinburgh seemed so solid. I then began to think about how I could translate this sensation in to print and began to collect rubbing of stone and other surfaces. The book contains reproductions of these rubbings and the cover is made with sandpaper, thus literally putting the reader in touch with my experiences as soon as they pick up the book.

Stuff: 2010

The Stuff project was inspired by several responses to a postcard in a cultural probe pack I sent to participants that asked ‘What makes you house a home?’ In The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self, Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1981) suggest that:

Few English words are filled with the emotional meaning of the word ‘home’. It brings to mind one’s childhood, the roots of one’s being, the security of a private enclave where one can be free and in control of one’s life (1981: 121).

Many of the answers to the question about home listed items that related to memories and to the process of one’s life unfolding over time. As Blunt & Dowling (2006: 114) have stated, many people’s homes are ‘sites of memory, filled with objects to remind them of family and events.’. Here, place is the intimate space of home—respondents talked about being able to ‘close the door and shut the world out’—this is place that is given personal meaning by these objects.

Things like photographs, travel souvenirs and childhood toys become autobiographical objects and form a spatial representation of identity—an autotopography, a ‘physical map of memory, history and belief’ (Gonzalez 1995: 133-4). Such objects can also be used to create a kind of ‘pause’ within the participants ongoing lives. A chipped blue mug from Berlin is more than that—it is a memory of a time and a place, of shared experience—it enables one to suspend the daily grind and transport oneself back to a particular moment. Integral to who we are is a sense of our past and such possessions act as mnemonic devices that can reconstruct the past within the present (Gonzalez 1995: 136) Each item has a very particular, and more importantly, personal code of signification—a tatty childhood suitcase redolent with memories and remembered images for its owner is another person’s rubbish.

The book contains four different texts; an academic essay written about ‘stuff’; a participant’s life story written in relation to their ‘stuff habit’; segments of conversation between myself and participants about their stuff; and, a range of memories and photographs of particular items referred to in participants’ probe pack answers. The graphic and typographic interventions within the pages and format engage with ideas of montage writing, temporality, multi-sensorality, and interactivity in such a way as to offer the reader a three-dimensional space that demands physical engagement with a multi-linear narrative.

Freecycle: 2010

This book was developed from an analysis of messages posted to the Hackney Freecycle group over a six month period from July to December 2009. The Hackney Freecycle group is very active, with up to 75 messages posted per day. I therefore sampled the data by extracting one week’s messages per month. Analysing the data over a six month period brings a temporal aspect to the project, one which shows something of the ongoing ‘process’ of Freecycle and the circulation of stuff within Hackney. The book captures the data and ‘pauses’ it, enabling it to be seen more clearly. The majority of copies of the book are either made from recycled A4 paper that has been used on one side. However, there is an art version that was produced using cropped A2 letterpress prints of the bold qualitative statements that feature throughout the book.

In this project, stuff is very much in circulation through Hackney, and rather than focusing on the enduring nature of home as the Stuff book does, Freecycle emphasises its transience. Hetherington (2004: 164) suggests that rather than using ‘the rubbish bin as the archetypal conduit for disposal’ the door is a better example, particularly as ‘doors allow traffic in both directions’. This is certainly an apt description when considering the nature of Freecycle. Gregson (2007: 160) describes this act of disposal as ‘ridding’, suggesting that, along with ‘acts of acquisition, holding, keeping and storing’ it is ‘critical to the practices of everyday life’ and ‘centrally implicated in the fabrication of homes’.

Hackney Conversations: 2009

This series of letterpress prints developed for the In/Flux exhibition in London in 2009 was inspired by Massey’s (1994, 2005) theories of place as ‘process’ and a site of spontaneous connections and disconnections. As I explored Hackney and recorded traces of human intervention in the environment, I became aware that within what I might term my own primary interactions, I was also experiencing, and moving in and out of, others’ interactions. This was most evident in the way that I would overhear fragments of conversations that were happening in passing on the street, or in coffee shops, for example. More often than not I would never know the whole context—how the people knew each other, to who or what they were referring—it was something of a simultaneous connection and disconnection which seemed to reflect Massey’s ideas of place particularly well.

Because the statements are fragments and their context and speaker remain unavailable to us for corroboration, it is the reader who ‘writes the text’ when they engage with the typographic interventions contained within the prints. They interpret them through their own experiences and understanding. Though, in a sense, the page is a kind of liminal space, as a threshold between the reader, and their engagement and understanding. Perec (1997: 13) has stated that ‘this is how space begins, with words only, signs traced on a blank page’. The page is not, in a traditional sense, a physical place, but it can act as a gateway to place in the mind, and it is the possibilities offered by a holistic approach to typography, content and form that can open up such a space.

Hackney Conversations: 2009

This series of letterpress prints developed for the In/Flux exhibition in London in 2009 was inspired by Massey’s (1994, 2005) theories of place as ‘process’ and a site of spontaneous connections and disconnections. As I explored Hackney and recorded traces of human intervention in the environment, I became aware that within what I might term my own primary interactions, I was also experiencing, and moving in and out of, others’ interactions. This was most evident in the way that I would overhear fragments of conversations that were happening in passing on the street, or in coffee shops, for example. More often than not I would never know the whole context—how the people knew each other, to who or what they were referring—it was something of a simultaneous connection and disconnection which seemed to reflect Massey’s ideas of place particularly well.

Because the statements are fragments and their context and speaker remain unavailable to us for corroboration, it is the reader who ‘writes the text’ when they engage with the typographic interventions contained within the prints. They interpret them through their own experiences and understanding. Though, in a sense, the page is a kind of liminal space, as a threshold between the reader, and their engagement and understanding. Perec (1997: 13) has stated that ‘this is how space begins, with words only, signs traced on a blank page’. The page is not, in a traditional sense, a physical place, but it can act as a gateway to place in the mind, and it is the possibilities offered by a holistic approach to typography, content and form that can open up such a space.

Death of the Author: 2009

This extension of the Type Cast I project draws on Barthes (1977) thinking and uses the same set of headlines to explore the active role the reader plays in constructing meaning from sentences that, if one applied traditional grammatical rules to them, would make no sense at all—for example, ‘GUN FRENZY PARK PANIC’. The most emotive words used to describe the consequence of the event being reported on were listed in alphabetical order. Within this list consecutive words appeared to construct believable headlines, for example CRITICAL DRAMA FRENZY or TERROR THREAT TRAGEDY. If seen on a newsstand the reader, being familiar with this type of language set in bold, capitalised typography, would recognise it as a headline and automatically read it in a way that makes sense, regardless of its unconventional grammatical form.

Through the act of viewing the typography and reading the words, the ‘sentences’ move from a passive, arbitrary, alphabetical context, to an active one, reacting with each other and generating a narrative informed by the reader’s own cultural experience. It is, therefore, the reader, through their interaction with the typographic intervention, that ‘writes’ this text. As Barthes says, ‘a text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination’ and ‘the birth of the reader must be at the death of the author’ (Barthes 1977: 148).

Type Cast II: 2009

This map and event were developed directly from the Type Cast newspaper project. I was interested to see whether the predominantly negative perception of Hackney generated by the media would be reflected in the opinions of people who had their own experiences of the borough. The map focuses on the use of language and typography, and interactive ways of engaging people with place in order to gather ‘data’. Visitors to the Pattern Making for Beginners event at Hackney Wicked Festival in August 2009 were invited to share their descriptions of Hackney generally, or of a specific place, on a small card. Their responses were then printed onto the map using large woodblock type.

I had originally intended the work to be a ‘data’ gathering exercise, to give me further descriptions to analyse in a similar way to that of the Type Cast newspaper project. However, after it was completed I felt it contained enough content of interest and enough visual interest not to be interpreted within the context of another project. It also included such a diverse array of responses—often very personal—that the spread of content would be almost impossible to analyse with a view to reaching some kind of conclusion.

Type Cast III: 2009

This map was developed directly from the Type Cast newspaper project. I was interested to see whether the predominantly negative perception of Hackney generated by the media would be reflected in the opinions of people who had their own experiences of the borough. The map focuses on the use of language and typography, and interactive ways of engaging people with place in order to gather ‘data’. Visitors to the In/flux exhibition in September 2009 were invited to share their descriptions of Hackney generally, or of a specific place, on an A0 sized map. Unlike the event at Pattern Making for Beginners, which used woodblock type, this map gave much more control to the participants as it simply offered them the use of a pencil. This led to a range of interactions with the map that subverted, subtly or otherwise, the instructions; statements appear out of the borders of Hackney; drawings have been added; conversations/disagreements have been undertaken in writing; and, paragraphs of text have been written rather than single word descriptions.

I had originally intended the work to be a ‘data’ gathering exercise, to give me further descriptions to analyse in a similar way to that of the Type Cast newspaper project. However, after it was completed I felt it contained enough content of interest and enough visual interest not to be interpreted within the context of another project. It also included such a diverse array of responses—often very personal—that the spread of content would be almost impossible to analyse with a view to reaching some kind of conclusion.

New Basford: A Typographic Terrain: 2006

Undertaken in conjunction with Joseph McCullagh, this research project, and associated paper, explored place via the design and use of a contextual font developed from the graffiti research undertaken in New Basford as part of the previous Geo/graphic Mapping work. This work investigates typography specifically through the creation of the ‘New Basford’ font family as a way of extending our understanding of text/writing in the urban landscape. It allows the reader/user to interact with the specific location and the typo/graphic data via the language of typography. We developed a ‘typographic experience’ that tells both sides of the story—allowing the reader/user to travel ‘within’ the space through their screen, offering a voice to the silent spaces of the territory and yielding new associations. We invited the reader/user to utilise the given narratives, but in doing so create new narratives—retelling stories and reading between the lines. The work offers a further reading of the graffiti writers through typographic intervention, referencing typographic and literary traditions such as concrete poetry and automatic writing, and engaging with some of the most contentious debates on the subject of typography.

To begin to create the typographic terrain of New Basford, the reader/user is presented with two elements: a book and a font family. The book content is traditionally set in justified ITC New Baskerville for continuous reading. It contains the first layer of diverse material sourced from many genres and media comprising of narratives, anecdotes, oral histories, and factual information drawn from newspapers, websites, and books. The New Basford font family allows you to de-construct the text to form further readings. It engages you to open up a dialogue with the physical space of New Basford in typographic terms. The interaction takes place through the utilisation of the font weights within the New Basford family. One is asked to re-set the original book text using a particular weight, or combination of weights. The font begins to reveal traces of an alternative narrative, left by the graffiti writers of the area. One explores the terrain virtually, with the font giving access to place. The blank screen becomes a street; the letter becomes a door. Like the street graffiti there is no official system or order to comprehend, therefore leading us to fragmented words on the screen. The contextual font is pre-text ready, to be cut-up in the manner of Tristan Tzara, all within a low-fi technological approach.

The project was disseminated at two conferences; the Friends of St Bride Annual Conference 2006—Fast Type, Slow Type—and the Writing Landscape symposium organised by Exeter University in 2007. This paper is available at http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/understandinglandscape/Symposium%20One%20Working%20Papers.html. The above photographs are from the Fast Type, Slow Type conference.

Geo/graphic Mapping: 2003

This project, undertaken on the MA Typo/Graphics course at LCC/UAL, established my interest in developing work of a geo/graphic nature.

New Basford is an area north of Nottingham city centre that was established through the burgeoning lace industry. It is an area that is predominantly filled with two up, two down terraces, some light industrial units (built following a ‘slum clearance’ programme) and a few remaining Victorian factory buildings. It is a place that one tends to pass through, rather than being a destination in itself—on face value it is a typical inner city area suffering from the usual problems of unemployment, graffiti and general deprivation.

I wanted to develop work that probed beneath the surface of New Basford, going beyond the seemingly identikit streets and houses, and attempting to represent a sense of place. My methodology was that of the anthropologist, seeking out signs and interventions of a low-tech, personal and vernacular nature. These were recorded and used to develop a series of maps charting non-traditional elements such as graffiti, decorative brick features and memories. The maps (approx 900mm square) were produced on translucent stock that enabled two different maps to be overlaid and further conclusions drawn.

This map focuses on the graffiti in the area. All readable instances (2094) of graffiti in the area were mapped, and have been transposed onto the map of the area exactly as written. The outline of the roads has been removed to let the graffiti visually define the space. Deductions can be made from this map about the frequency and type of graffiti and its position within the space. For example, tagging is more prevalent in areas that are less residential, and some roads that have houses that front directly onto the street have a disproportionately large amount of graffiti. Subtler things also reveal themselves, such as sunnier sides of the streets attracting more graffiti, and concentrations around street corners.

Geo/graphic Mapping: 2003

This project, undertaken on the MA Typo/Graphics course at LCC/UAL, established my interest in developing work of a geo/graphic nature.

New Basford is an area north of Nottingham city centre that was established through the burgeoning lace industry. It is an area that is predominantly filled with two up, two down terraces, some light industrial units (built following a ‘slum clearance’ programme) and a few remaining Victorian factory buildings. It is a place that one tends to pass through, rather than being a destination in itself—on face value it is a typical inner city area suffering from the usual problems of unemployment, graffiti and general deprivation.

I wanted to develop work that probed beneath the surface of New Basford, going beyond the seemingly identikit streets and houses, and attempting to represent a sense of place. My methodology was that of the anthropologist, seeking out signs and interventions of a low-tech, personal and vernacular nature. These were recorded and used to develop a series of maps charting non-traditional elements such as graffiti, decorative brick features and memories. The maps (approx 900mm square) were produced on translucent stock that enabled two different maps to be overlaid and further conclusions drawn.

The graffiti territory map reveals patterns of movement across the area. Some authors remain very local, perhaps only spreading across one or two roads; others travel further within the area. Through charting the graffiti, this map reveals the spatial activity of groups of friends; a bully targeting specific individuals; a foot fetishist; and, a politically motivated, left wing author.

Geo/graphic Mapping: 2003

This project, undertaken on the MA Typo/Graphics course at LCC/UAL, established my interest in developing work of a geo/graphic nature.

New Basford is an area north of Nottingham city centre that was established through the burgeoning lace industry. It is an area that is predominantly filled with two up, two down terraces, some light industrial units (built following a ‘slum clearance’ programme) and a few remaining Victorian factory buildings. It is a place that one tends to pass through, rather than being a destination in itself—on face value it is a typical inner city area suffering from the usual problems of unemployment, graffiti and general deprivation.

I wanted to develop work that probed beneath the surface of New Basford, going beyond the seemingly identikit streets and houses, and attempting to represent a sense of place. My methodology was that of the anthropologist, seeking out signs and interventions of a low-tech, personal and vernacular nature. These were recorded and used to develop a series of maps charting non-traditional elements such as graffiti, decorative brick features and memories. The maps (approx 900mm square) were produced on translucent stock that enabled two different maps to be overlaid and further conclusions drawn.

This map puts the residents at the centre of the work, and the oral history research was gained over the course of four interviews with older residents who had either lived in the area all their lives, or as a child. I endeavoured not to lead the conversation, simply explaining the project and outlining what I wanted them to talk about—particular places, buildings or people they remembered. All participants had a wealth of evocative memories, both personal and general. It became apparent that some places and characters appeared in several of the participants’ stories, which suggests that the notion that stories can become a part of a place’s very fabric is a very real one.

The interviews and map reveal Eland Street as one of the main focal points of the area, and highlight the fact that there used to be a wide range of small shops and businesses throughout the streets; something that seems unimaginable now. The brewery, the baths and the gas works were also consistently remembered by participants.

Geo/graphic Mapping: 2003

This project, undertaken on the MA Typo/Graphics course at LCC/UAL, established my interest in developing work of a geo/graphic nature.

New Basford is an area north of Nottingham city centre that was established through the burgeoning lace industry. It is an area that is predominantly filled with two up, two down terraces, some light industrial units (built following a ‘slum clearance’ programme) and a few remaining Victorian factory buildings. It is a place that one tends to pass through, rather than being a destination in itself—on face value it is a typical inner city area suffering from the usual problems of unemployment, graffiti and general deprivation.

I wanted to develop work that probed beneath the surface of New Basford, going beyond the seemingly identikit streets and houses, and attempting to represent a sense of place. My methodology was that of the anthropologist, seeking out signs and interventions of a low-tech, personal and vernacular nature. These were recorded and used to develop a series of maps charting non-traditional elements such as graffiti, decorative brick features and memories. The maps (approx 900mm square) were produced on translucent stock that enabled two different maps to be overlaid and further conclusions drawn.

This map charts all instances of brick and tile decoration throughout New Basford. At first glance the area can seem to be somewhat featureless, with row upon row of red brick terraced houses. However, this map reveals a huge range of subtle architectural detail. The decoration is so prevalent within residential areas that it delineates the roads. Areas with no decoration are predominantly commercial. The type of decoration rarely seemed to correlate to the size of house, though there is a prevalence of colourful ceramic tiles in the south west corner.