BLAST, World War I, and Tonal Shifts

The raw frequency of the word war increases by 1340% from the first to second edition 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 in with articles mentioning the war 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.

The usage of the word art in the second edition is less concentrated than it was in the first edition. Compared to the concentration of the usage of the word war in the second edition it appears as if the magazine shifted from being a purely artistic statement to a political statement accompanied by an art movement. Also, in the second issue, many of the uses of the art overlapped with the usage of the word war. This is because there are many articles that refer to to WW1 as war on art or which talk about the war's implications on art. It is also interesting to note that in the first issue of ''BLAST'', the word art is used very frequently in the first and last bits of the magazine, and is very rarely used in the middle.

The magazine, ''BLAST'', had two issues published on June 20, 1914, and July 15, 1915. Occurring between the release of these issues was the beginning of WWI.  This essay will illustrate the events unfolding between the release of the two issues and analyze how it affected the subject matter in ''BLAST''. BY the time of the release of the second issue of ''BLAST'' Germany, Russia, France and Great Britain were all at war, and many other countries were significantly impacted by the war such as Belgium. With the superpowers of Europe warring with each other, it imposed a split of ideologies. The shift in the subject matter of ''BLAST'' from an art movement to a political movement is evidenced by the influence the beginning of WWI had on the second edition of the Magazine. Most notably are the titles listed on the "Contents." page of the magazine. Of the first five titles, three can be easily tied to the war, "War Notes", "Artists and War", and "The Exploitation of Blood". Of the three titles, two use the word "war" in the title. As we saw in the text mining section the word war increased drastically whereas the other words most commonly found in the two issues remained constant.

Firstly, the titles of both the magazine and the first article each edition change drastically after WWI. The first edition is simply called ''BLAST'', but the second edition adds the phrase ''War Number'' to the title. For the first article, the second edition's ''Editorial'' sounds much more serious and straightforward than ''Long Live the Vortex.'' Both articles focus on art and the vorticist movement, but the surrounding tones and issues change. ''Long Live the Vortex'' focuses on the purpose of ''BLAST'' and the ideas of the vorticist movement. ''Editorial'', however, focuses on the war and the threat that official Germany poses to art in Europe. Unlike ''Long Live the Vortex'', ''Editorial'' remains serious and focused on the war rather than ending in a ramble of unrelated topics.

These articles were selected because they were both written by Wyndham Lewis who was the editor of both editions 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 edition of ''BLAST''. Lewis' article in the first edition 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 edition, 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 edition of ''BLAST''.

The cover of ''Blast'' changes drastically after the outbreak of WWI. The first edition of ''Blast'' featured a bright magenta cover with word "BLAST" in large bold letters positioned horizontally across the cover. This first cover not only caught people's attention easily, but also displayed the novelty of the magazine. However, after WWI began, the cover of ''Blast'' changed to become much more serious and relevant. The cover of the second edition of ''Blast'' was colored dark beige, and the title's importance had been significantly reduced. Instead of using the title to fill the cover, the second cover featured artwork depicting soldiers in trenches. Although the tone of the cover had changed drastically, the artwork maintained the vorticist style.

The artwork in both editions of BLAST look largely similar with regards to geometry and emphasis on the vorticism. Some noticeable differences between the drawings in BLAST 1 and BLAST 2 is the use of shading. A lot of the drawings in BLAST 1 use shading to contrast lighting. The themes of the drawings are also different in both editions. The subject and themes of the drawings in the first edition are quite diverse and rather peaceful. The drawings in the second edition of BLAST depict similar things but they also depict war machinery, combat and soldiery while trying to lay emphasis on the vorticist movement but also showing awareness of the war.

One interesting find in the magazines is that the first issue includes two pieces of art titled ''Plan of War'' and ''Slow Attack''. Both were created by Wyndham Lewis, suggesting he may have thought war would break out. These findings in the first issue prompt more research into the artwork and possibly Wyndham Lewis's biography.

Our exploration of the tone of the two editions 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 edition of ''BLAST'' to being the most frequent in the 1915 edition. 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 edition'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 edition is also much more defensive in that it often times references the WWI as a war on art. The second edition also lost some of the satire found in the beginning of the first edition with its comical blasts of different countries followed by praise. Overall, the onset of WWI drastically changed the tone between the two editions.