BLAST, World War I, and Tonal Shifts
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| − | The word war increases in use by a massive amount between the two issues, going from very infrequent in the first issue to the most common word in the second. The frequency of the other top words stayed fairly consistent between the two issues | + | The word war increases in use by a massive amount between the two issues, going from very infrequent in the first issue to the most common word in the second. The frequency of the other top words stayed fairly consistent between the two issues. If you look at raw frequencies instead of relative, war is used over thirteen times as much in the second issue as it in the first, while all of the other words are used less often in the second, usually around two thirds of the amount that they are used in the first. This is because the second issue of ''BLAST'' significantly shorter than the first. |
===Frequency of the word War=== | ===Frequency of the word War=== | ||
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| − | The raw frequency of the word war increases by 1340% from the first to second issue of ''BLAST''. Also, in the second issue the most the word war was used most commonly in the beginning, and very infrequently in the middle of the magazine. This may be because the authors knew that the average reader would be worried about the war, so they wanted to draw people | + | The raw frequency of the word war increases by 1340% from the first to second issue of ''BLAST''. Also, in the second issue the most the word war was used most commonly in the beginning, and very infrequently in the middle of the magazine. This may be because the authors knew that the average reader would be worried about the war, so they wanted to draw people by putting the section about the war at the beginning before getting into more artsy, Vorticism focused material in the middle. For the most part, every time the circle size changes dramatically, it represents a new article that was more or less concerned with that one word in particular, and thus used the word a very different amount. |
===Frequency of the word Art=== | ===Frequency of the word Art=== | ||
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==='Life is the Important Thing!'/'Artists and the War'=== | ==='Life is the Important Thing!'/'Artists and the War'=== | ||
These articles were selected because they were both written by Wyndham Lewis who was the editor of both issues of the magazine ''BLAST''. Wyndham Lewis was also a co-founder of the Vorticist movement which makes him a very important writer in the magazines as he directed the message the magazines would convey for each issue of ''BLAST''. Lewis' article in the first issue of ''BLAST'', ''Life is the Important Thing!'', falls under a chapter in the magazine called "Vortices and Notes" in which Lewis reviews and critiques artists, art forms, movements and more. This section is omitted from the second issue, which is further evidence of its shift from an arts magazine to a politicized forum focused on WWI. In ''Life is the Important Thing'' Lewis critiques artists' desire to capture life and their request for more of it. Lewis argues that artist should not encourage this behavior as intellectuals to other people, but rather encourage them to actually go experience life. Lewis begins his article with powerful language such as "revolt", "revolutionaries", "coup", and "Tyrant". It is clear that incite passion and show his frustration with these artists, and, in this case, the impressionist movement. In this article, Lewis illustrates his motivations for starting the magazine and beginning the Vorticists movement by "blasting" artist idea of trying to capture life in their work. ''Artists and the War'' paints a very bleak picture of the current financial status of artists and how art may change after the war. It is very different in its language. In ''Life is the Important Thing'' Lewis is trying inspire people and artists, but in this article, he is merely reporting on the possibility of a grim future for artists after WWI. The article paints a bleak picture of artists and art movements during WWI further showing how significant the impact of this war was on all art including the second issue of ''BLAST''. | These articles were selected because they were both written by Wyndham Lewis who was the editor of both issues of the magazine ''BLAST''. Wyndham Lewis was also a co-founder of the Vorticist movement which makes him a very important writer in the magazines as he directed the message the magazines would convey for each issue of ''BLAST''. Lewis' article in the first issue of ''BLAST'', ''Life is the Important Thing!'', falls under a chapter in the magazine called "Vortices and Notes" in which Lewis reviews and critiques artists, art forms, movements and more. This section is omitted from the second issue, which is further evidence of its shift from an arts magazine to a politicized forum focused on WWI. In ''Life is the Important Thing'' Lewis critiques artists' desire to capture life and their request for more of it. Lewis argues that artist should not encourage this behavior as intellectuals to other people, but rather encourage them to actually go experience life. Lewis begins his article with powerful language such as "revolt", "revolutionaries", "coup", and "Tyrant". It is clear that incite passion and show his frustration with these artists, and, in this case, the impressionist movement. In this article, Lewis illustrates his motivations for starting the magazine and beginning the Vorticists movement by "blasting" artist idea of trying to capture life in their work. ''Artists and the War'' paints a very bleak picture of the current financial status of artists and how art may change after the war. It is very different in its language. In ''Life is the Important Thing'' Lewis is trying inspire people and artists, but in this article, he is merely reporting on the possibility of a grim future for artists after WWI. The article paints a bleak picture of artists and art movements during WWI further showing how significant the impact of this war was on all art including the second issue of ''BLAST''. | ||
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| + | ===Vortex by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska=== | ||
| + | Henri Gaudier-Brzeska wrote a short article in both issues of ''BLAST'' entitled Vortex. Gaudier-Brzeska was a sculptor primarily, and the article in the first issue was about the history of sculpture. It feels very hopeful, optimistic about humanity in many aspects. He goes over the sculptures of many different civilizations, including Egypt, Greece, and Ming China. In his description of the sculpture of each of these place, he mentions a vortex which inspired their accomplishments. It sounds as if he is saying that, while sculptures have taken many different forms in many different places throughout human history, all of it was inspired by a vortex that has been maturing and becoming more complete over time. Though he talks about sculpture primarily, he is also implying that this vortex has influenced many other forms of art in history. He ends the article with "will and consciousness are our VORTEX." The article seems to be celebrating human accomplishment in sculpture, saying that it has been great but that there are even greater things ahead. | ||
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| + | His article in the second edition of ''BLAST'' was very different. Gaudier-Brzeska was in the French army when he wrote the article, and in fact titled it "Vortex (Written from the Trenches)". Instead of a history of sculpture and descriptions of a mysterious thing called a vortex, he starts off by simply describing his time in the war as a soldier. He says that two months of war have taught him the value of life. He says, essentially that through all the destruction in the world nothing ever changes. He then says that artistic emotions are pointless and that the war is actually a good thing, since it "takes away from the masses number upon numbers of unimportant units." He then briefly mentions that he still agrees with his view in the previous ''BLAST'' about sculpture, and goes on to talk about an experiment he performed by stealing an enemy's rifle. | ||
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| + | There is a massive difference between the two articles. It is very easy to tell that Gaudier-Brzeska's time in the war very much changed his views of the world. He became much more cynical and sounds almost as if he just does not care about anything anymore. This is likely because he experienced so much fighting in the war; he was stationed in a very dangerous part of the war zone and in fact, he actually died in battle around a month before ''BLAST'' 2 was published. One of the most defining differences between the two articles are the intros. The first one starts with "Sculptural energy is the mountain. Sculptural feeling is the appreciation of masses in retaliation. Sculptural ability is the defining of these masses by planes." He starts off with his theory of what powers sculpture. In the second article, he starts off with "The sculptor writes from the French trenches, having been in the firing line since the early in the war. In September he was one of a patrolling party of twelve, seven of his companions fell in the fight over a roadway. In November he was nominated for sergeancy and has been since slightly wounded, but expects to return to the trenches." There is a very obvious difference between the starts of the two articles, and it highlights the difference in the rest of the content as well. | ||
==Stylistic Changes== | ==Stylistic Changes== | ||
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==Conclusion== | ==Conclusion== | ||
| − | Our exploration of the tone of the two issues of ''BLAST'' made us realize the strong impact the war had on the magazine. Our text mining on voyant tools indicates a change in 'war' being very infrequent in the 1914 issue of ''BLAST'' to being the most frequent in the 1915 issue. We sensed that the tone in the earlier version of the magazine was more humanist and individualistic, echoing the merits of the Vorticism art movement. Comparatively, the second issue's tone gained a more political stance. No doubt the on set of WWI is the cause of such a shift in the tone. The second issue is also much more defensive in that it often times references the WWI as a war on art. The second issue also lost some of the satire found in the beginning of the first issue with its comical blasts of different countries followed by praise. Overall, the onset of WWI drastically changed the tone between the two issues. | + | Our exploration of the tone of the two issues of ''BLAST'' made us realize the strong impact the war had on the magazine. Our text mining on voyant tools indicates a change in 'war' being very infrequent in the 1914 issue of ''BLAST'' to being the most frequent in the 1915 issue. We sensed that the tone in the earlier version of the magazine was more humanist and individualistic, echoing the merits of the Vorticism art movement. Comparatively, the second issue's tone gained a more political stance. No doubt the on set of WWI is the cause of such a shift in the tone. The second issue is also much more defensive in that it often times references the WWI as a war on art. The second issue also lost some of the satire found in the beginning of the first issue with its comical blasts of different countries followed by praise. Overall, the onset of WWI drastically changed the tone between the two issues, going from somewhat comical and focused on art to being darker and more political. |
== Sources == | == Sources == | ||
