Grey Description -> Text works
"Images are more precise and richer than literature" p.10, Ways Of Seeing, John Berger
- Write what you see, what's there?
- Thinking about presenting the text without the photo- would it work? Should I include the image?
- The more detail the better
- Use a standard size and style font.
- Emotion?
From this I wrote a grey description, using this photo as the subject.
"Throughout the carriage canary parrots, radiating from ten
vertical poles, which allow anonymous primates to hang and balance, as the mobile
flooring jolts and sways beneath them. To the left, behind one stanchion,
reaching half the height of the car, an unidentified figure can be seen in a
mustard coat. Thin black bugs connect longitudinal waves to an electrical
device, linked via a thin black cable, tangled amongst a burnt sienna scarf.
Knotted pink fingers grip the gadget close to an average frame. A corrugated
plastic hexagon couples two sections together, dancing in time with the deck. At
the highest point a honeycomb of metal guards a fluorescent tube, illuminating
the foreground. Beyond this, cuboid light-emitting diodes brighten silhouettes.
Reflecting against two visible surfaces, yellow and white combine to fuse
cream, contrasting against a section of ultraviolet light within the corrugated
sector. Incandescent words in the upper- centre read ‘The next Station...’, and
although out of focus, this is repeated approximately six meters ahead. Above
this the same text is flipped into the ceiling, mirrored, and illegible.
Vertical and horizontal lines cross, creating an ongoing grid,
broken by bodies. Further ahead the coach seems to get busier, with thirteen
visible, yet unknown individuals. Warmth from the chaos of the intertwined is
juxtaposed by cold blue light, leaked by the emptiness of the forepart.
However, this matches one, two, three blue notices, which nobody seems to be
paying attention to. The signs are white, with cobalt blue rectangles and small
black writing, that cannot be read unless up close. They are all obstructed by
the shapes and forms of the carriage, blocking information, and hiding tidings.
It is quiet, which is unusual, given the situation of thirteen strangers in a
pod. Not one appears interested or to be engaged with anyone else. They are
separate forms, brought together only by yellow poles. Three of them; one sat,
head down, one holding a horizontal bar and staring ahead, and one engaged with
a mobile, wear hats. They all wear black coats. In the centre, there is a
child. They wear a venetian red coat with a faux fur stripe around the hood.
They stand with their small arm laced around a post, which due to the lighting
appears to extend past and into the ceiling. This same shade of red is repeated
as the details of a polka dot bag, which is navy, and the mobile phone of a
seated woman. Her eyes are focused on the screen, that is held up above a blurred
newspaper, resting upon on her knee. The newspaper is the evening standard,
blue capital text against dirty white paper. It features a face that’s
reminiscent of an orange Sainsbury’s carrier bag."
- Text or sound? - Sound could be more engaging, people may be more willing to listen than read
- Could use a white/blank screen- what are they seeing? Removes context. Only words.
- Speakers or headphones?
- What tone of voice? Monotonous: even less context/emotional impact, less connected, more like a script? Enthusiastic?
If speech- do I want the speaker to have seen the photo before recording, or should it be blind? Could try doing both myself, although other people would change the relationship, adding another layer to the work.
