Tuesday 14 December 2010

Holborn to Finsbury Park

Words from announcements join the travel sections.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Oval to Moorgate

First time ever using Oval station. "We're just waiting for an empty platform" was the announcement before Kennington.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Vauxhall to Finsbury Park

Writing a word, heard or seen, whenever the train stopped.

Friday 3 December 2010

Elsewhere

How good not to be travelling on the Tokyo underground, along with 8 million people a day.

"To the uninitiated, the striking thing about these images from photographer Michael Wolf's new book Tokyo Compression, aside from the lengths to which otherwise sane people will go to wedge themselves into an already bulging carriage, must be the looks of resignation among the victims. But it is the ability to tolerate an elbow in the back and a cheek unceremoniously pasted against a window that sets Tokyo's commuters apart. There are few arguments, and fights are almost unheard of; it's as if the powerless, massed ranks of the travelling public have entered into a non-aggression pact – and one that is observed, for the most part, in near silence.


"That doesn't mean Tokyoites are above misbehaving in transit. An epidemic of groping led to the introduction of women-only carriages. Frequent breakdowns in etiquette were the inspiration behind a monthly Do It At Home poster campaign to remind commuters of their manners. The list of transgressions ranges from the obvious (cranking up the volume on an iPod) to the more idiosyncratic (turning a wet umbrella into a makeshift nine-iron for a spot of golf swing practice). " (Guardian, 1 December)

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Finsbury Park to Pimlico

A collection of "found text" - from adverts in the carriage, headlines in newspapers being read, labels on clothing, wording on shopping bags, announcements, text on posters outside the train, conversations...

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Displayed

A folding book of journeys, displayed in a corner of my booth at the art foundation end-of-course show in March. The journeys were mostly between City Lit (Holborn) and Finsbury Park.

Vauxhall to Finsbury Park

Writing down as much of the announcements as possible - there seem to be more and more of them. Most disturbing is the automatic announcement when the train has been stopped in a tunnel for a certain amount of time: "London Underground apologises for the delay to your journey" - the driver no longer gets to tell the passengers the reason for the delay. The passengers are captives without any connection to the human who's driving the train.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Twickenham to Bracknell

Starting at Victoria, on the Reading train

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Victoria to Finsbury Park

Another necklace, with different loopy "beads" - the chain made up of "this is..." and "the next station is ..." announcements, and the occasional "please keep your luggage with you at all times".

Tuesday 16 November 2010

St Giles Church to Lancaster Place

Thrown off the bus early: "this bus terminates here".

Finsbury Park to St Giles Church

Clusters of loops, like beads on a necklace...

Monday 15 November 2010

Kensal Rise to Crouch Hill

At West Hampstead the woman who sat down beside me had a bag with a swirly pattern; she got off two stations later, at Hampstead Heath.

Saturday 13 November 2010

Finsbury Park to Holborn

This included the escalators out of Holborn station.

Friday 12 November 2010

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Finsbury Park to Lancaster Gate



Spiral journey lines written in a double-fold accordion book with cover printed with (raised) horizontal journey lines.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Southwark Town Hall to Trafalgar Square





Spiral journey lines, each between two bus stops, added to a book made with printed (raised) journey lines on the cover. Solid circles indicate that the bus stopped in traffic. This bus, meant to go to Oxford Circus, terminated early - the driver said "Listen folks, I just had a call, I'm going to transfer you - there's a 12 just behind".

New Cross to Southwark Town Hall

Highbury to New Cross

Tuesday 2 November 2010

King's Cross to Finsbury Park

This new format (trialled in my reflective journal, on happening to get a seat on the tube) arose after I read this by Louise Bourgeois:

"...to rewind is to make a spiral. And the action demonstrates that even though time is unlimited, there is a limit to how much you can put on it. As you are tightening the spiral you must take care.

"If you tighten too much you risk breaking it. It is the same with sewing.

"Sewing without a knot at the end of the thread is not sewing. In this sense the spiral is a metaphor of consistency. I am consistent in my spiral. For me there is no break. There is never an interruption in the spiral because I cannot stand interruptions."

(quoted in Louise Bourgeois, The Fabric Works, Skira, 2010, p140; from a conversation with Paulo Herkenhoff in Louise Bourgeois eds Robert Storr, Paulo Herkenhoff and Allan Schwartzman; Phaidon, 2003, p12)

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Holborn to St Giles Church, Camberwell

First page of "reflective journal" for the book arts course.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Interchange

Commercial / Broadway interchange of the Skytrain's Millenium and Expo lines, Vancouver.

Three journeys

Skytrain, Millennium line; bus 25 along King Edward; Skytrain to Lougheed Town Centre, 23 and 24 September. A $2.50 ticket allows 90 minutes of travel, including transfers.

Written on the road





Asphalting over the cracks. Ford Road, Pitt Meadows, BC.

Friday 10 September 2010

Train journey

East Coast line to Aberdeen, ScotRail to Huntly. Seat reservation tickets, each between two stations; pen, and pencil; Saturday 4 September and Monday 6 September.

Thursday 26 August 2010

Friday 30 July 2010



wolfsonian british poster train

"The Tube Train" by Cyril E. Power is a color linocut from 1934 that is one of a series in the show that deal with the London Underground. [It] gets at the kind abstracted humanity that riding public transport seems to engender."

One of the prints in the "Rhythms of Modern Life" exhibition in Miami.

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Tube map

There have been 12 different Tube map covers - see them all here.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Kensal Rise to Crouch Hill - via Barking



As it was a beautiful midsummer morning, after changing trains (6:57), I stayed on to the end of the line (always wanted to do that!), photographing (through a dirty window, often into the sunlight) at each station. As the route was new to me, and there were announcements, I wrote down the names of the stations:
Gospel Oak
Upper Holloway
Crouch Hill
Harringay Green Lanes
South Tottenham
Blackhorse Road
Walthamstow Queen's Road
Leyton Midland Road
Leytonstone High Road
Wanstead Park
Woodgrange Park
Barking
-- and back.
While transcribing the names, I fell into my own trap - starting reading each page from the top. It's not written starting from the top of each page - for the line to be continuous, it goes from side to side down the right-hand page, then at the outer edge it continues onto the bottom of the left-hand page, and then it travels up the left-hand page to continue onto the top of the right-hand page. (Easy when you know how... and obvious when you know where to look.)