Initial Research analysis

Visual Narratives - Studio Brief One. Seat One

The Visual Journalist

Find A Seat

First of my chosen places was Leeds Library, on the very top floor in the quiet study area.

Here are some of my pictures taken, I took way over the 30 photographs allowed, so I've edited them down on my blog here.

My view when looking straight ahead. 

The whole room was lined with these green books. 

The books on the table opposite me. The top one was about beating mental health illnesses. 

There were eight bits of chewing gum stuck to the underside of the table I was sat at. 

The ceiling reminded me of an aeroplane hanger. 

The door on the left led to the apparent bathroom that made very loud whirring noises periodically. 

This is the crest that was on the front cover of all the green book in this room, they were all practically identical. 

Round table leg, square chair leg. 

looking up from just below the table.

Haphazard surreptitious photography. 

The skylight in the hall just outside. 

in the corridor part outside of the study room on the top floor too, I discovered books that were the exact same thing as the green books from inside the study room, only these dated back to even earlier. They were all political recordings of some description, including debates and changes to the law. 

The corridor. I was quite amazingly decorated. 

view of the stairwell. 

20 Pieces of Ephemera:

It was really hard to come by ephemera in the room that I was sitting in, as it was simply furniture and books. But I did find some scrap lined paper in one of the green books, which appeared to have been at one point used as a bookmark. I also found a little strip of velcro lying on the ground.

20 written Questions:

1. Why is there mostly only men in here?
2. Why are all the books in here green?
3. What are they for?
4. Why are they so big?
5. Why are a third of the bookshelves empty?
6. Why really is it not sociably acceptable to sit at the same table as someone else when there are other free spaces more equally apart?
7. Why do so many of the people in here have/are wearing leather jackets?
8. What is the hissing room?
9. Why do I not seem to really notice when people enter the room?
10. What are these people doing here?
11. Are they related to or using the green books?
12. Why is the roof the way that it is?
13. (Discover book purpose at this point) Are there other places like this in the country that record and store all these political details. 
14. Will anyone ever really need to refer to every single little debate that is reccorded here?
15. Why do humans feel so strongly/have an attitude of great importance towards collecting and recording information about ourselves/what we have done?
16. What really is important?
17. Where do you draw the line?
18. What does, 'Dieu et mon drout' mean?
19. Why does this book smell very faintly of smoked salmon?
20. Could I actually get away with walking into the staff only section?

20 written observations:

1. This should be renamed 'very quiet study area'.
2. It feels like an exam hall.
3. My watch really is as noisy as everyone says.
4. The room to my left makes a very loud hissing sound. 
5. Everyone has occupied the room really very equally. 
6. You have to sit leaving a very reasonable amount of space between you and the people around you. 
7. The heater is old and rather noisy.
8. The walls and plaster looks dirty and unclean.
9. The bookshelves are wonky and some overlap windows.
10. Nearly all of the book covers in this room are green.
11. Lot of people in here have leather jackets.
12. The ceiling reminds me of an aeroplane hanger.
13. The hissing room must be a toilet a man just went in.
14. It is not signed as a toilet yet the man didn't falter when he went through so he must have been here before. 
15. Another man.
16. And another one.
17. A third one, sat opposite me. All the other tables have one person on them.
18. He's  typing on his phone quickly and smiling, not paying much attention to his books.
19. I'm not sure if he has always been there, but at one point a further man appeared at the back table. I think he was asleep on the desk and simply mistook him for a bag.
20. Most people are hunched or slumped at their desks.

20 facts:

1. I am in Leeds library.
2. There are 10 tables in here (It's difficult to count them from my seated angle however)
3. This room is on the very top floor.
4. Its not very big.
5. There is warning tape on the floor by the doors.
6. There (at the start) were only four other people in there with me.
7. A sixth man just entered. 
8. The Large Green books measure one hand and a half (up to my knuckles) length.
9. Sound is very apparent in here.
10. All of the green books have very similar information on their spines, with the exception of their dates. 
11. They all say, 'COMMONS' 'Parliamentary dates' 
12. and they also say e.g, 'Vol 514 part 1'
13. The date periods are not all at the same intervals.
14. All of the books appear to be documentations/recordings of parliamentary debates. 
15. There are eight bits of chewing gum stuck under this desk.
16. Each table has six legs.
17. One of the parliamentary debates mentions robin hood.
18. Its quite amusing to read them.
19. All of their language is so formal.
20. Humans seem to have to collect, store, record and preserve information (often things that we ourselves have created) It seems key that we shouldn't lose it. 

I have highlighted some of the key things that I have noticed and that I found the most interesting.

Seat Two

Leeds Magistrate Court 

For the second seat I went and sat in the back of Leeds magistrate court rooms, and observed. Of course it is forbidden to take pictures inside of the courts, so I took a selection of the building from the outside.

The first piece of ephemera I found, a shard of glass from a broken brown bottle. 

The lights inside the building seen through the windows.

Nature growing through the cracks of the structured bricks in the wall.  

Pieces of Ephemera 

1. Shard of glass
2. Shard of red brick
3. torn up letter/writing
4. pen found beside a form left in the waiting room

observations

1. There is a big difference between lawyers and their clients here. 
2. Lawyers appearance is quite different, they all look very formal and swish in their suits. 
3. They know what they are doing, they walk about with assurance. 
4. They feel very organised
5. whereas the clients did not appear to have dressed up at all in a lot of cases
6. they often looked like they had dressed down.
7. A lot wore tracksuits. 
8. They had  more of an air of uncertainty and worry about them. 
9. Both sides feel like they are saying exaggerated versions of the truth.
10. Its that logo above the main panel on the wall, its the same as the one on the green library books!
11. Details and the law are so important here. 

facts

1. The lawyers etc all refer to the judges as your worships
2. They use the same protocol for each case
3. e.g. "perhaps ... could be seated" "yes please sit down" for every single case
4. small details of a persons day can become so relevant and important here. 
5. Most got a fine
6. everything is taken very seriously

Questions

1. Who is being more accurate here?
2. Are you allowed to record sound in the courts?
3. why do some come from behind the box and others through the door?
4. Why don't they penalise them for drug use?
5. Why is that being used as an excuse?