HOME CULTURE: THE MANTELPIECE PROJECT DAY SURVEY / A MIXED-MEDIA ONE DAY DIARY INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND TO TODAY’S TASKS Set up in 1937 by poet Charles Madge, anthropologist Tom Harrisson and painter/documentary film-maker Humphrey Jennings, following a chance juxtaposition of their articles in the New Statesman, Mass Observation (MO) was to be ‘anthropology of ourselves’ to counter government ignorance about the feelings and attitudes of the British ‘masses’ (see Mass Observation 2012). A principal aim was to collaborate in making ‘museums of … domestic objects’ (Madge and Harrisson 1937: 35), and this perhaps prompted the Mantelpiece Directive as the first task for new volunteers, writing down ‘in order from left to right’ what was on their own mantelpieces and those of friends, relatives and acquaintances, stating, if possible, what was at the centre (MO 1937). Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organisation which aimed to document everyday life in 1930s Britain. Mass Observation was the birth of Sociology. The Mass Observation Archive is made up of various types of material collected both in the early period (1937 - mid 1950s) and the current project (1981 onwards) – personal writing directives (including questionnaires and longer-form tasks), diary writing (about 500 men and women submitted diaries to the project between 1937 and 1965) and day surveys to catalogue information such as the June 1937 survey of mantelpieces and survey of Key Gardens. These produced ‘one day diaries’. The Mantelpiece Directive, was Mass Observation’s first project and it tasked its national panel of volunteers with sharing what was on their mantelpieces. The results demonstrated how the seemingly insignificant objects in our homes are in fact full of meaning and led the organisation to conclude that we are what we live with.
TASKS: MANTLEPIECE DIRECTIVE, FRIDAY 29TH JANUARY 2021 1. INVENTORY: Write down, in order from left to right, the items that are on a mantelpiece in your home. Note which item is central. If you do not have a mantelpiece, select a shelf or similar surface that is used to display items in your home. Include incidental items that have been placed on the surface temporarily too. 2. PHOTOGRAPHY: Take a picture of the mantlepiece in the context of the room. 3. PHOTOGRAPHY: Take a photograph of each item. Still life photography approaches: https://bit.ly/3sHDKO7 4. ORAL AND WRITTEN REFLECTIONS: Create a reflection for each item. Mix and match your approaches using this list: (a) WRITE about the item’s importance to you, a member of your family or your family in general. This might be drawn from past family conversations or from general observations you have made. (b) WRITE about what the item symbolises. (c) WRITE about whether you like or dislike the item. (d) INTERVIEW a family member about the provenance of the item and what it means to them. You could take a voice note, film or write the information down. (e) ART / STILL LIFE: Select an item to draw or paint. Still life drawing and painting approaches: https://bit.ly/3qBSIDq 5. ARCHIVE: Store the results of your one-day-diary keeping in the Mantelpiece Project Showbie assignment.
PERSONAL WRITING ABOUT AN OBJECT – IDEAS PAGE My Mother’s Clock (from the Museum of the Home’s archive)
‘Catherine Breheny's parents received this clock on their wedding day in 1969. Although it eventually stopped ticking, it never lost its significance to her mother who was too attached to it to ever throw it away.’ The information here is brief but still powerful due to use of key facts from the family’s history. Fuller object writing is a writing exercise that focuses on describing an object and any related experiences, using all of your senses. Here are some prompts to help you to enrich your object-focused writing: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-FictionalAutobiographies-of-Inanimate-Objects. EXTRA CHALLENGE: •
Use your object-focused writing to produce creative writing, https://blog.pshares.org/the-magic-of-objects/.
Acknowledging the ‘power of objects’ in writing, and taking the focus of the clock, here are examples of ten clocks used as resonant metaphors in literature: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/06/ten-of-the-best-clocks. •
Use your object-focused writing to create a photo-essay. How might you tell a story through a short sequence of images? Examples from Shaun Tan’s The Arrival to help you:
FURTHER READING Mass Observation: Recording Everyday Life in Britain http://www.massobs.org.uk/about/history-of-mo Mantelpiece Stories: An Exhibition at Bolton Art Gallery • • • •
Bolton Mantelpieces art show trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjK56VZrFD4&feature=emb_logo https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/mantelpiece-stories/ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/sep/09/mantelpiece-stories-treasured-objects-of-boltonresidents-a-photo-essay-madeline-walker https://www.artrabbit.com/events/the-mantelpiece-project
Museum of the Home / Stories of Home: https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/explore/stories-of-home/ Front Rooms of Afro-Caribbean immigrants to the UK (installation exhibition): https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/sep/16/african-caribbean-immigration-front-rooms-book The Front Room: https://www.thefrontroom.cc/ - exploring the changing face of comfortable, shared space
GLOSSARY Anthropology: the study of human societies and cultures and their development. Archive: a place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are preserved. Documentary photography: a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage. Inventory: a complete list of items such as property, goods in stock, or the contents of a building. Oral history: the collection and study of historical information using tape recordings of interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events. Personal writing: Reflective writing, also known as personal writing, requires you to reflect on. the topic on a personal level. Reflective writing is not based on research on the topic, but instead centres on your opinions, thoughts, and experiences. Photo essay: A photo-essay is a set or series of photographs. Photo essays range from simply photographic works to photographs with captions or small comments to full text. Sociology: the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. Still life: a painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects.