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The Lost Farset: An Architecture of Lore

Jack Ingham Stage 06 - 2020

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t (Cover)

Industrial Palimpsest Map: The River Farset Passing through The Falls. (Digital Drawing)

Abstract: The thesis exposes the industrial lore of the erased streets that once joined the Falls to the Shankhill Road. Through the excavation of oral and census records, a plural approach to history offers an alternate lens on a place which is entrenched in its recent violent past. The deindustrialisation of the 1970’s, coupled with the spatial devices of the troubles, has transformed the urban landscape of a cross community interface into post-industrial wasteland. This hollowing out of working-class culture results in the erasure of vessels, both domestic and institutional, which once enabled the fragile exchanges required for the continuation of lore and industrial rituals.

‘Heritage interpretation assumes the horizon of Euclidean space, a horizon that fixes things in their place. … The horizon is, and represents, a type of perceptual grid and conceptual apparatus where flux and dynamism is dampened or ignored so that space, time and phenomena are positioned in a relationship that is stable. Once ‘tied down’, as it were, interpretation can begin; objects and categories and entities reinforce each other as something fixed, fixed in themselves, fixed in their past rather than the present or future, fixed in their meaning and significance, fixed in systems of representation and fixed for viewing and photographing. The horizon holds things together and makes possible a logical conception of things.’ 1

Staiff (2014)

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Russell Staiff author, Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the Past-Future (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

Representing the informalities of oral history, requires the acknowledgement of the relationship between the teller, the listener and the knowledge that is formed between them.

Axonometric representation enables multiple readings, with the acknowledgement of the predisposition of the viewer in the interpretation of its polymorphic nature. The duality of measured precision and ambiguity within axonometry exposes the challenges of plural history and place. The axonometric is imminent and tangible, allowing everything to be seen, yet it requires the engagement of the viewers memory and imagination in order to navigate the hidden and ambiguous. This reflects the presence of the self when internalising lore, by visually manifesting the oral within site, presenting an alternate lens in which to consider the material.

As an architect, this research does not respond directly to the physical site, it engages with a residual culture, where the spoken word becomes the driving force in recreating a sense of the material. Pointing towards how oral histories can be re-voiced, retold and brought into current view again to expose the erasure of place. In the process of eking out something material from the oral, the architect becomes hyper aware of the influence of their own experiences and memories. At times exposing the Architect to an unexplored awareness of their own predisposition when translating knowledge into narrative and representation.

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The Farset Region: 1930 (Photograph)

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The Farset Region: Current Conditions (Photograph)

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The River Farset

Previous Industrial Buildings Peace Wall Routes Industrial Palimpsest Map: The River Farset Passing through Springfield Road. (Digital Drawing)

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The River Farset: Industrial and Urban Development.

The River Farset is a tributary to the River Lagan, the name Farset originates from the Irish ‘Feirset’ a word for the sand bank at the mouth of the tributary. At low tide this sandbar formed the lowest crossing point of the Lagan, defining the location of the earliest settlement at Belfast.

The city’s name originates from the Irish ‘Beal Feirset’, which translates as ‘the approach to the sandbank’.

Beyond the city’s namesake, the fast-flowing nature of River Farset has played an instrumental role in Belfast’s cultural and social history.

In the latter 19th century, the river was harnessed to generate power for linen and cotton mills. Throughout the industrial revolution urban expansion followed the route of the Farset and the river defined the industrial urbanisation West Belfast.

Historic Reservoirs

Industrial Palimpsest Map: The River Farset Passing through Crumlin Road.

(Digital Drawing)

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‘Many people moved to West Belfast to seek employment in the linen mills which had sprung up by the 20th century and these people formed tight knit communities and a way of life. This was all because of the course that the River Farset flows.’ 2 O’Reilly (2015)

As a result of the mechanisation and urbanisation of the linen cottage industry, West Belfast drew in a migrant population from rural Ireland. The mills were one of the few employers of Catholic workers within the city and subsequently Southwest of the Farset (The Falls) became a predominantly Catholic area. To the North of the Farset is a predominantly protestant area (The Shankhill), with the concentrated industrial area acting as an interface between the two communities.

Feldman (1991) identifies these communities as sanctuaries, where beliefs, cultures and histories develop independently.

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Historic OS Map: (1846)

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Historic OS Map: (1900)

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Feldman further elaborates, that during the troubles, the interface between the two sanctuaries became a postindustrial wasteland and consequently a performative space for the acts of violence.3 As reaction to violence, the interface zone has become the location of a Peace Wall, the peace wall follows the River Farset’s historic route.

Buried in a culvert the river Farset still displays social and urban implications; in spite of its lack of physical presence.

Des O’Reilly, History of River Farset, 2015, http://www.belfastheritagetours.com/history-of-river-farset/.

Allen Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, 2nd ed. edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

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‘Because of the consistently high level of male unemployment (a permanent feature in West Belfast) women, with regular work in the mills, became breadwinners.’ 4 Adams (1982)

Women In industry: An Oral History.

The shipyards and foundries in Belfast employed predominantly male Protestant workers, leaving working class Catholic men with few job opportunities.

The linen mills of West Belfast were the primary employers of Catholics. Due to fewer worker’s rights and a lack of unionisation the mills favored employing women and children, this resulted in the women of West Belfast becoming the main household earners – an atypical scenario within the industrial 19th century working class.

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The history of West Belfast is well documented through a series of oral history collections: ‘Picking up The Linen Threads’ by (Messenger 1980), ‘Falls Memories’ (Adams 1982), ‘The Farset Project’ (Belfast heritage Tours 2016), and ‘The Rise and Fall of West Belfast Mills’ (Miguire).

These records of oral histories offer a unique insight into the experiences of the Farset region, offering a personal recount of the culture of the Mills and the lore the Farset.

Gerry Adams, Falls Memories: A Belfast Life, New Ed edition (Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1993).

Picking Up the Linen Threads: A Study in Industrial Folklore.

(Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980).

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Falls Memories: Jerry Adams (1982)

Lore can be defined as the dynamic and often traditional knowledge of a subject, typically embedded within stories, oral histories and song.5 Messenger’s (1982) in depth study of the oral history of the linen industry in Belfast, uses lore to establish a knowledge of life in the Mills.

This collection of industrial lore offers an insight into the traditions of the Farset, which at times seems contrary to written primary history sources – such as Connolly’s accounts of the Mill workers conditions in ‘To the Linen Slaves of Belfast’.6

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The North Began: Collage inspired by Oral Histories in “Falls Memories”

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The Linen Slaves of Belfast: Collage inspired by Oral Histories in “Falls Memories”

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Messenger argues that this is not a result of nostalgia, she states that this confliction between the oral knowledge of industrial lore and the accounts of written histories is in regard to the position of the author. This highlights a disconnect between the perspective of an investigative outsider and those who subject of knowledge is their everyday.

Betty Messenger, Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore. (Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980).

James Connolly, ‘To the Linen Slaves of Belfast. Manifesto of Irish Textile Workers’ Union’, 1913.

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The Excavative Research Processes: A plural Approach to History.

The recorded oral histories found in ‘Picking up the Linen Threads’7, ‘Falls Memories’8 and ‘The Rise and Fall and the West Belfast Mills’9 point towards multiple authors of history and this results in a plural account of place. In the instance of the lost streets and the Farset’s industrial past this oral history becomes the only record of the area’s previous inhabitation.

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Consequently, much of the projects research processes have involved tracking down oral history records and tethering them back to the site in which they originated.

This process allows for an alternate view of the site and it’s occupation, through unearthing ‘perspectives that would otherwise pass unrecorded, providing visceral and attitudinal dimensions’.10

Messenger, Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore. (Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980).

Gerry Adams, Falls Memories: A Belfast Life, New Ed edition (Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1993).

Olive Maguire, The Rise and Fall and the West Belfast Mills’, n.d.

Janina Gosseye editor, Naomi Stead editor, and Deborah Van der Plaat editor, Speaking of Buildings (2019)

Doffers, Spinners, Oiler and Doffing Mistress 1915: Messenger 1982 (Photograph)

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A secondary ‘top-down’ research process has involved the compiling of census records from each of the lost streets, which previously connected the Falls and the Shankhill Road. These records give select data which gives a partial insight into those who lived and worked in the area.

In particular this has allowed me to identify the roles of the women in the mills who lived within the lost streets, facilitating an understanding of how lore may have spread between job roles within the mill. Exposing a domestic link between jobs in the mill, where mothers and daughters (or Spinners and Weavers) would share stories and song from one mill and another.

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The balance of census data and oral history offers an alternate picture of a site which has been predominantly erased, and in particular oral history points towards multiple authors and actors in the formulation of the lore which once inhabited the site.

As an archivist this offers a multitextured way into a site, through the trace or memory of occupation. Acting as an architect this undercuts the myth of the architect as the sole designer of a building11, with a plural history pointing towards the ways in which spaces were reformulated or programs disobeyed to facilitate the rituals of industrial lore.

Janina Gosseye editor, Naomi Stead editor, and Deborah Van der Plaat editor, Speaking of Buildings (2019)

Census Loom: Census Migration information weave. Colours represent the birth counties of every resident of Northumberland Road in the 1911 Census: (Conceptual Artwork)

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‘There appears to be a common tendency in societies emerging from conflict to present the future as utopian, shared and equal. Such naivety undermines the potential for history, victimhood and new forms of violence to reappoint the desire among most to remain attached to separate ideas, beliefs and practices.’ 12 Shirlow (2006)

Industrial Decline: Constant’s Utopian Theories as Antithematic within the Context of the Farset.

The social context of the Farset began to change in the late 1960’s, deindustrialization coupled with the emerging Northern Irish civil rights movement destabilized prior cultural and social systems.

The industrial decline hollowed out a sense of cultural stability within the mills and factories of the region. As this working culture and the act of production recedes it can be seen to resurface in the form of acts of violence.

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This is supported by Feldman (1991) ‘The instrumental rationality of mass production returns to the public sphere in the form of working-class violence, where it functions as an emblem of political and not economic mastery. In doing so the transformation of the public sphere of urban social life into a post-industrial wasteland is accelerated.’ 13 These retrospective observations by Feldman are in direct conflict with the utopian visions of the mid 1960’s, whereby the proposed automation of industry would liberate the workforce.

Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (London: Pluto Press, 2006).

Allen Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, 2nd ed. edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

New Babylon - Den Haag: Constant - 1964

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Conway Street and Conway Mill: 1870 (Photograph)

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Conway Street and Conway Mill: August 1969 (Photograph)

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Ode à l’Odéon: Constant - 1969

This utopian ideology can be seen within Constant’s ‘New Babylon’, a theoretical project which envisioned equal civil rights and an liberation from work by automated industry, with utopian visons of ‘post work’ and ‘freespaces’.14 Using New Babylon as an anti-thematic lens exposes the current physical and social configuration of the Farset, Belfast’s juxtaposing interfaces and sanctuaries manifest as the antagonist of Constants vision of a world without boundaries.

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Entrance to the Labyrinth: Constant - 1972

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Where Constant imagines liberation from the frustration and aggression of labour would turn to creativity, Belfast presents a contradiction. In West Belfast the vacuum caused by the hollowing out of the industrial landscape and culture manifested in a time of conflict, fuelling the enactment of political violence. These comparisons are supported by Shirlow (2006).

Laura Stamps author et al., Constant: New Babylon : To Us, Liberty, English edition. (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2016).

Linda Boersma, ‘Constant by Linda Boersma - BOMB Magazine’, accessed 17 June 2020, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/constant/.

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‘In Constant’s own words: ‘Ode à l’Odéon was my first painting after New Babylon. In 1968 there was the student uprising in Paris, where the Odéon theater was occupied. I was in Paris then, by chance on the Rue de l’Odéon. I saw it all from close by.’ 15 Constant (2005) This quote acknowledges an experience in Constant’s life which informs a shift in his work’s sentiment, this realisation can be observed within the artworks shown on pages 8 and 13. The first (1961) displays a utopian vision of creativity as a liberative supplement for work, a scene set within the labyrinth of New Babylon. This ‘labyrinth’ manifests in his later work, but the creative activities become progressively more destructive. Constant’s ‘first painting after New Babylon’ coinsides with a series of protests across Europe, constant’s first hand experiences the uprising within Paris is referenced in the abandonment of his Utopian New Babylon. Simultaneously the civil rights movement is underway in Belfast, the utopian possibilities of the 1960’s can be seen to dwindle. In 1972 the destructive forces within his work have become symbols of violence, manifesting as bloodied stains within the ‘labyrinth’.

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‘Instead of the rise in automation in society freeing time for play, it had led to a surplus of human energy that was released, more often than not, in the form of aggression and increasingly mundane leisure activities. At its dawn, the New Babylonian dream became a nightmare, a nightmare tied to the reality of European society.’ 16 Darren Jorgensen (2017)

The history of the Farset exists in severalty, with communities attached to separate interpretations of a common history, existing predominantly in form of lore. The dynamic nature of lore results in an everchanging knowledge, existing through multiple simultaneous translations of past experiences, fostered by the micro cultures present within the sanctuaries and interfaces. When industry dominates the Farset, lore occurs within the context of production, within the shadow of deindustrialization the lore can be seen to exist within the politics of clandestine war.

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Darren James Jorgensen and Laetitia Jennifer Wilson, ‘The Utopian Failure of Constant’s New Babylon’, In Visible Culture:An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture 27 (28 November 2017): 7

Mill and Factory Palimpsest 1830 - 1976: Accumulated site information (Conceptual Artwork)

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Erasure: The Lost Streets of the Farset.

Several streets previously ran across the River Farset and connected the Falls to the Shankhill Road. In the early 19th century these streets predominantly housed mill workers of both protestant and Catholic religions. The streets are as follows: Northumberland Street, Percy Street, North Howard Street, Dover Street and Conway Street. In the present day these previously residential streets have been erased, gated or bisected by peace walls – none of the streets retain any resemblance to their condition in the industrial period.

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These streets have been mapped within this project using census information to compile a list of the people who lived in each of the now demolished terraced houses.

The migrant workforce of the mills occupied the areas which surrounded the Farset River, and ‘immigrants moved into their respective Catholic and protestant communities, reinforcing the segregation of the industrial areas’.17 These segregated communities became sanctuaries for each religion, with the ‘lost streets’ being the routes that connected each sanctuary to the mixed industrial workplace. Consequently the ‘lost streets’ housed people of mixed religion who shared the industrial lore of the mills and the streets acted as an interface between two communities.

Messenger, Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore. (Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980).

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Sanctuary (Catholic) Targeted/Targeting Community

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Interface (Mixed) | Defensive/Offensive Violence

Sanctuary (Protestant) Targeted/Targeting Community

FIG01: The Performative Structure of Sectarian Violence in Belfast.18

During the troubles the notion of sanctuary and interface can be used to describe the performative structure of sectarian violence.

(FIG01 - The Performativce Structure of Violence.) This performative structure results in the destruction and politicisation of the interface zone, consequently the urban landscape is destroyed through both violence and defensive intervention. This results in the displacement of the mixed community who reside within the interface and as a consequence the consolidation of the sanctuary.

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This process of consolidation begins to turn what was a mixed or analogue interface between two communities into a binary division – which manifests most overtly in the form of Peace Walls. More subtly is the destruction of the fragile exchanges which facilitated a lore which maintained the shared industrial rituals unique to the Linen mills of the Farset.

Allen Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, 2nd ed. edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

The Lost Streets of the Interface: A map showing the residential streets within the interface.

White space indicates the location of industrial buildings or terraced houses. (Digital Print)

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You’d easy know a weaver, When she goes down to town, With her long yellow hair, And her apron hanging down.

With her scissors tied before her, Or her scissors in her hand, You’ll easy know a weaver, For she’ll always get her man.

Yes she’ll always get her man.19 Doffer Song, sung by a factory worker.

Messenger (1980)

The flux of Lore: Auto Ethnography and the relevance of Constructivism as an Epistemological Theory As established by Messenger (1982) lore is a knowledge which exists in constant flux, manifesting as cultural information which survives through its retelling and reinterpretation. This notion begins to engage with the epistemological theory of constructivism, which states that ‘people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences’.20

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This philosophy is founded on the notion ‘that while reality may exist separate from experience, it can only be known through experience, resulting in a personally unique reality’.21 When considering the dynamic nature of Lore within West Belfast, constructivism offers a philosophy which accommodates the presence of the often conflicting multirealities fostered within the community sanctums along the course of the River Farset.

Betty Messenger, Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore. (Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980).

Carl Bereiter, ‘Constructivism, Socioculturalism, and Popper’s World 3’ 23, no. 7 (1994): 21–23.

Peter E Doolittle, ‘Constructivism: The Career and Technical Education Perspective’ 16, no. 1 (1999).

Weaver in a Belfast Linen Mill: Image from ‘Picking up the Linen Threads’ Messenger 1982 (Photograph)

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You will easy know a weaver, When she comes into town, With her oul’ tatty hair, And her stockin’s hanging down.

With her apron tied before her, And her scissors in her hand, You will easy know a weaver, For she’ll always get her man.

For she’ll never get a man.22 Doffer Song, sung by a spinner.

Messenger (1980)

Constructivism is split into several theoretical positions, all of which are summarized by defining learning as the internalization and reconstruction of an external reality. Radical and Social Constructivism offer separate methods to reflect upon the industrial lore of the Farset.

Social Constructivism relies on the principle that knowledge is of a social nature, stating that knowledge is the product of social interaction, and consequently the theory establishes that knowledge is a shared rather than individual experience.23 This notion is explicit within the inherent social nature of lore, with its roots in song, stories and oral history - the formation of lore is itself a social process.

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Social constructivism further states that knowledge occurs in social-cultural contexts that are bound to time and place. Within the context of the Mills of the Farset, social constructivism establishes that each mill (with its own unique social context and community) represents an individual knowledge of reality. This is supported by social constructivism theory, which states that a shared knowledge of reality is formed in a process of dialogue and interaction between people.

Messenger, Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore. (1980) Peter E Doolittle, ‘Constructivism: The Career and Technical Education Perspective’ 16, no. 1 (1999).

Aerial view of the Falls 1940: (Photograph)

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Process.

Research:

Excavative Mapping.

The mapping process has been facilitated and recorded through an artefact. This physical board has been used to lock stories, cenus data and archival research back to its origin within the site. The board is an artefact of the excavative research process and enables the manifestation of lore with consideration to place.

Throughout its development and transformation the board has contained information in regard to: - Mill Location and Industrial Development - The changing river route - The auto-ethnographic drawing tethers - The locations described in Lore - Individual domestic residences of mill workers - Lost Streets - Mill social and organisational structures - Written history origins - Routes to between workplace and the domestic - Peace Wall locations and interventions

Mapping the Lore: (Studio Workspace and Composite Artwork)

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Process.

Research:

Excavative Mapping.

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‘There is a story with each of the factories, each of the mills, that would provide enough information on their own, each of the mills on its own.’ 24 O’Reilly (2016)

The separate cultures and histories of the mills are documented by Messenger (1982), the mills themselves offer separate industrial lores which feed into the wider Lore of the Farset. Spatially this begins to address the role of sanctuaries and interfaces in the severalty of the lore of the Farset. Aside from social constructivism, radical constructivism states that although an external reality may exist, it is unknowable to the individual, with each individual establishing their own reinterpretation of external reality. This is founded on our experiences of external reality being mediated by our senses, which by their subjective nature cannot render an accurate

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representation of the external.

Radical Constructivism is defined by Staver (1995) as ‘knowledge is knowledge of the knower, not of the external world’.25 In relation to the exploration of the lore of the Farset, radical constructivism offers a position address the presence of the individual’s experiences within the readings of oral history – this situates autoethnography within the context of both the primary formation of lore and the secondary reinterpretation of the oral histories.

Des O’Reilly, An interview with Des O’Reilly, 19 December 2016.

John R Staver, ‘Scientific Research and Oncoming Vehicles: Can Radical Constructivists Embrace One and Dodge the Other? - Staver - 1995 - Journal of Research in Science Teaching - Wiley Online Library’ 32, no. 10 (1995): 1125–28.

Assembling Multi-histories within the Site: Locking the stories and mill workers back to site.

(Mixed Media Artwork)

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Research Artefact: Tags show Census information. Lore manifests.

(Mixed Media Artwork)

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Cherry Lips: Spinner Born 1905

Bride Slide: Dressmaker Born 1912

Ducking Yee: Warper Born 1900

Bucket of Steam: Doffing Mistress Born 1896

‘I remember my first pay. I brought it home to my mother. She

‘If a girl was getting married for

‘There was a custom – it’s funny, it

‘Now there was cleeks (large hooks) on the steam pipes

spit on it for luck….All our mothers done it, when we were all

example, one of the girls had a

happened to me. Now, at the time, it’s

hangin’, and that’s where you hang this bucket on to get

young … spit on your first pay for luck…Out of seven and six, I

flair for making things on her lunch

what … we call a tub. It was as long

boiled water … to boil the rollers …. It was all bubblin’

got the sixpence. Well, we went to a dance, and that left four

hour and when one of the girls

as this kitchen. And --- what they call

up, really boilin’,

pence. Well, then ….. bought a tuppence worth of cherry lips.

was getting married to one of the

wet waster came off the frames. It was

And he took the bucket off me. And he hung it on

They were a wee scenty smell, so that when you danced with

Clarkes, that owned the fruit shop,

made into a ball about this size, and it

one of these cleeks, and he let it hang for a couple

a fella and leaned up to talk to him, there was a lovely smell…

she fashioned her this outfit in the

was threw into this tub. Now, them was

of minutes. And he says, “There you are, Luv. That’s

and then, the other tuppence done you for Wednesday night,

shape of a tomato, and we tied her

all wet. And the spinners, they woulda

enough” And I brought it to him, and I said “There you

for the barn dance.’

to a lamp outside.’

got the foreman in one part of the room.

are, Sir. That’s enough. “And he said, “Yes.” And the laugh

They got hold of you and out you in the

– everybody had the best laugh. The bucket was still

‘One of the things that we used to

box along – that was your baptism of

at me, and I thought it was invisible or something’. So

do internally, which was dangerous,

fire. Your clothes were all wet … ‘til you

he took the bucket off me and saya … “I’ve clened me

was that between our room and

went home. That was done with nearly

shoes myself, now that you got away, on account of

the ornamenting room there was a

everyone that went into the spinnin’ room

getting me the bucket of steam.” So I hand’t to clean his

shoot that we used to put the stuff

….”Ducking Yee” The custom was known

shoes. I got off well.’

down, and we used to put the bride

as ‘dippin’ ‘em” in another mill, but there

down. You just made your own fun.’

the “wee larners” were dipped into vats

Six Oral Histories: Lore Inhabiting the Mills in the form of Rituals Throughout the gathered oral histories from the linen mills a number of customs are described as spanning generations of the workforce, this establishes them as rituals of industrial lore. This project exposes six of these rituals: Ducking Yee: Job Initiation Bride Slide: Marriage Hazing Cherry Lips: First Pay A Bucket of Steam: Hazing Junior Workers Parliament: Mill Politics The Haunted Lift: Myths

in which rollers were soaked overnight to keep them from cracking.’

Haunted Lift: Weaver Born 1938

Parliament: Spinner Born 1902

‘The women had to do it because a lot of the women’s husbands would have been on strike

‘The weavers called theirs parliament. And you

or unemployed because the shipyards were always on strike, and the women needed the

know what we called ours? The wee house. My

money. We used to cover for each other. In Blackstaff there used to be a spiral staircase at

Mother was a weaver. She called it parliament.

the back of the building. We had two lifts, there was one lift that we couldn’t get the workers

My Sister called it parliament. I used to say to

to use because it had a ghost, you see every mill had a ghost. Apparently fifty or sixty years

my mother “we call ours the wee house” “well,”

before some lad was pushing a truck and he turned to get in the lift but when he stepped

Mother replied, “we call ours parliament”. ’

back to get in there was no lift and away down he went down the shaft. That was the story, and the story went that he come back now and again and so you couldn’t get the women to use that lift shaft. We had a spiral staircase, an iron one. We used to cover for each other.

When a woman had a baby, for instance, once the baby was born she would be back to work after a few days because she needed the money.’

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Process.

Imagined Atmospheres: Auto-ethnographic Drawings.

While reading and unearthing oral histories I began to draw the imagined scenes that emerged in my mind. These early drawings were created using techniques commonly associated with life drawing and time limits were applied to each sketch.

These time limits enabled the capturing of my immediate and formative responses in 5s, 10s and 20s sketches. The use of ink, charcoal and paint-pens allowed for quick markings to be made on paper, acetate and trace.

These drawings aim to capture my immediate responses to the lore, manifesting on paper the thoughts, experiences and memories which were triggered by the narrative of the history.

Imagined Atmosphere: Mill Strikes - Oral History (Sketch Book)

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Imagined Atmosphere: Marriage Chute - Oral History (Sketch Book)

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Imagined Atmosphere: Marriage Hazing - Oral History (Sketch Book)

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Imagined Atmosphere: Strike Negotiations - Oral History (Pen and Ink - 20 seconds)

This drawing process begins to address the role that the experiences of the outsider plays in the reinterpretation of the multiple lores of the Farset. Furthermore, this suggests that under radical constructivism an architect must acknowledge their subjectivity and their personal experiences when attempting to engage with lore and oral history. If architectural design is seen a respond to a context and embody the knowledge of the site, radical constructivism would suggest the presence of personal experience in the formation of an architectural response.

This sense of autoethnography will be addressed within the generation of an architecture which embodies the theory radical constructivism in regard to the internalisation and reinterpretation of lore.

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Sketch Book: “She was put on the van with the rest of us” - Oral History (Pen and Ink - 20 seconds)

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Sketch Book: “Mother completely and utterly broke” - Oral History (Pen and Ink - 20 seconds)

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Oxygen House Project (Ideogram) Douglas Darden - 1988

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Condemned Buildings: Architectural exploration of Narrative. ‘Condemned Buildings’ by Darden (1993) explores allegorical works of architecture as a way of expressing a series of histories, myths and texts.

Darden uses ideograms as method to bridge written texts and architectural expression. These ideograms act a composite drawing which overlays multiple representations of the subject matter in order to generate a parti.33 This technique poses a drawing methodology which can be applied to expressing the lore of the Farset.

By generating ideograms of recorded oral history,

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through engaging with both radical and social constructivism within the development composite drawings, an architectural representational process which engages with lore emerges. This drawing style engages with the notion of lore as socially constructed knowledge, through the ideograms composite elements engaging with the layering of interpretations.

While the layering of personal experiences and signified imagery into the drawings acknowledges the autoethnographical nature of translating oral histories into an allegorical architecture.

These processes look to engage with the lore of the Farset through the formation of an allegorical architecture which reflects a constructivist theory of oral history.

Douglas Darden, Condemned Buildings (Princeton Architectural Press, 1993).

Oxygen House Project (Constructing an Ideogram) Douglas Darden - 1988

p Oxygen House Project (Section): Douglas Darden - 1988

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Process.

Ideograms and Genealogy: Tethering story to place and signifier.

Inspired by the processes of Douglas Darden I began to gather imagery from the site associated with the oral histories. This gathering process engaged with archival research at the Linen Hall Library. The material gathered for each industrial ritual included: - The palmiest lines of the site of origin - A historic image from the site used to tether the story to place - Archival architectural drawings from the Mill of origin - Signifier imagery

Ideogram: Marriage Chute - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Ideogram: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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These artifacts were drawn over and layered up to develop an initial parti of the Lore.

Ideogram: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Modelling the Lore - Haunted Lift: Combining the autoethnographic response and the ideogram of the story and tethering this back to site.

(Photograph) Modelling the Lore - Haunted Lift: Combining the auto-ethnographic response, the ideogram of the story and tethering this back to site. (Photograph)

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Erasure of the Vessels of Lore: Forming a Lens from the Oral Traces of ‘Excess’ The politicisation of the industrial interface resulted in the destruction of the terraced housing and linen mills through acts of performative violence beginning in August 1969.

Coupled with the automation of the traditional practices of linen production in the 1970’s the vessels which facilitated the customs and exchanges of lore were hollowed out.

Where exchanges of story and song are no longer facilitated, knowledge in the form of lore is no longer able to survive.

26

The destruction of the interface as a whole led to the displacement of the workforce and the erasure of the domestic vessels of lore, breaking down the context for both the primary formation of lore and the secondary reinterpretation of oral history.

Buildings derive meaning, in part, from the ways in which people inhabit them,26 in the instance of the Farset, the lost buildings also derive meaning through their depiction in lore and their inhabitation of the rituals of lore.

Janina Gosseye editor, Naomi Stead editor, and Deborah Van der Plaat editor, Speaking of Buildings (2019) 53

p Lore Mapping - Parliament: Combining the Autoethnographical and the Ideograms and Locking them Back to Site.

Lore Drawing - Cherry Lips: Combining the Autoethnographical and the Ideograms.

In an architectural sense this lens aligns with what Grosz (2001) terms ‘excess’, where ‘buildings, monuments and places are always something more than their physical materiality’ 27. Grosz term, ‘Outside architecture is always inside bodies’28, refers to external perspectives on architecture such as technologies, bodies, fantasies and politics or in this instance of this project - lore. The place of the ‘Lost Streets and Lost Mills’ exists outside architecture and in the interactions between people.

Through the propagation of lore, the architecture of the mills establishes alternate and informal programmatic meaning.

27 28

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Spoken accounts of inhabitation frames the architecture and buildings through a new lens, the oral exposes the former presence of ‘programmatic disobedience’ which occupied the now erased place. This programmatic disobedience can be defined as the manipulation of the institutional workplace or domestic environment to facilitate the rituals of industrial lore.

Russell Staiff author, Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the Past-Future (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

Elizabeth Grosz, Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space, 2001.

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‘Stories about the past matter deeply in the present, indeed they only exist in the present.’ 29 Pollock (2005)

Oral History Performance: The relationship between the teller, the listener and what is formed in-between.

Reflections on Oral history through the performing arts offer an insight into the role representation plays in engaging with spoken history, this reveals opportunities for similar muses when applied to architectural representation.

Performance of oral histories manifests not as a “double” in the form of a mirror image of the story, but the performance ‘works the hinges of their relationship and in the story, seeking a likeness that travels across and between bodies, histories and cultures’.30 This process aligns with the epistemological theory of constructivism which

founds its philosophy on the internalisation of external knowledge in the context of previous personal experience.

In the context of oral history narratives, the listener must use their imagination and own memory to see and hear the actual performances.31 This establishes the unique and predisposed position of the listener in the process of lore: through narratives ‘we engage not only with other humans but also with ourselves’.32 The project is then faced with the challenge of how to explore the representation of oral history within the architectural sphere. How might the project manifest industrial lore in a way which engages with the roles of the teller and the listener, while allowing for multiple readings dependant on the external standpoint of the viewer.

29 Della Pollock, Remembering: Oral History Performance, Palgrave Studies in Oral History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

30 Pollock 31 Pollock 32 Russell Staiff author, Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the Past-Future (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

Composite Drawing: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Drawing the Lore )

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Lore Drawing - Bride Slide: Combining the Autoethnographical and the Ideograms.

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Process.

Capturing the moment between teller and listener: Layering and Merging the auto-ethnographic with the ideogram genealogy.

Working with the Ideograms and the auto-ethnographic imagined atmospheres a composite model is produced for each oral history.

The composite model is constructed from two layers of perspex with a gap between. On one layer of perspex the ideogram is attached, on the other the imagined atmosphere. This begins to become a looking device which represents the process of lore, allowing for multiples views into the object, each creating it’s own composition of the oral history.

These composite models are then placed back onto the research board, within their sites of origin and are photographed to capture a moment of lore.

The photographs are then drawn into in conjunction with archival models of the mills, this begins to manifest the lore within the context of the material.

Fragment of Composite Model Bucket of Steam: Combining the Autoethnographical and the Ideograms.

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‘Parallel lines are really parallel; there is no far and no near, the size of everything remains constant because all things are represented as being the same distance away and the eye of the spectator everywhere at once.

When we imagine at thing or strive to visualize it in the mind or memory, we do it in this way’. 34 Bragdon (1932)

Axonometric Representation depicting the oral as an inhabitation of the material: A play between Precision and Ambiguity.

Axonometry offers a representational method to depict the inhabitation of the lore within the site, axonometric drawing presents a duality where information is drawn precisely and with imminence, while to the viewer it offers moments of ambiguity which are open to personal interpretation. Similarities can be seen between the nature of axonometric drawing and knowledge in the form of lore.

The engagement of personal memories with the internalisation of oral histories aligns with Bragdon’s theory that Axonometry ‘more truly renders the mental image – the thing seen by the mind’s eye’.34 This drawing method therefore touches on the methodologies more commonly associated with performative art’s engagement with lore, whereby the viewer engages with their personal memory in order to truly visualise the oral history.35 This is further reinforced by axonometry’s ambiguity, ‘at times it is atopical and polymorphous – it is abstract’.36 It is this polymorphous nature which creates several possible readings of the same image37, this further supports its use in relation to depicting lore and oral history’s plural nature.

34 Claude Fayette Bragdon, The Frozen Fountain: Being Essays on Architecture and the Art of Design in Space (A.A. Knopf, 1932).

35 Bragdon 36 Della Pollock, Remembering: Oral History Performance, Palgrave Studies in Oral History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

37 Yve-Alain Bois, ‘Metamorphosis of Axonometry’, Berlin Architectural Journal, no. 36 (15 September 1981).

Notational Drawing and Axonometry: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Sketch)

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The potential for multiple readings is enabled by the liberation of the eye to read into the drawing – performing individual routes through the same image. This is highlighted

by Bois (1981) ‘Axonometric projection abolishes the fixed viewpoint of the spectator and creates several possible readings of one and the same image’38. The viewers eye is no longer “trained” or “petrified” as in perspectival representation, opening up opportunities for the drawing to present a multitude of readings – each responding to the rationalization of the drawing through engaging individual memories of each viewer.

38

Yve-Alain Bois, ‘Metamorphosis of Axonometry’, Berlin Architectural Journal, no. 36 (15 September 1981).

Cherry Lips Oral History : (3D development drawing)

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Process.

Translating the Composite Model Drawings into Axonometry: Manifesting the Lore.

Following the merging of the Ideograms, Auto-ethnography and the origin of the history, the composite drawings are translated into axonometric representations.

This process involves using archival architectural drawings and photographs to reproduce partial 3D models of the lost mill infrastructure, focusing on the origin location of each story.

Then the oral history is converted into notational drawings, using the expression of movement in the story to define the notational structure. This notation is used to animate the composite drawings, giving them atmospheric form, enabling the inhabitation of the lost sites.

Composite Line Drawing - Cherry Lips: Combining the Autoethnographical, the Ideograms and Story Origin.

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Manifesting Lore: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Axonometric Sketch)

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The Six Oral Histories: Industrial Rituals of Lore: The following pages individually record the process of translation.

Exposing a snapshot the processes involved in the listening, internalisation, translation and representation for each oral history.

01 Bride Slide 02 Cherry Lips 03 Bucket of Steam 04 Ducking Yee 05 Haunted Lift 06 Parliament

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Bride Slide - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Signifier/Signified

01 - Bride Slide: Ideogram Genealogy.

Dressmaker Born 1912 “If a girl was getting married for example, one of the girls had a flair for making things on her lunch hour and when one of the girls was getting married to one of the Clarkes, that owned the fruit shop, she fashioned her this outfit in the shape of a tomato, and we tied her to a lamp outside.’

‘One of the things that we used to do internally, which was dangerous, was that between our room and the ornamenting room there was a shoot that we used to put the stuff down, and we used to put the bride down. You just made your own fun.”

Ideogram: Bride Slide - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Bride Slide - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

01 - Bride Slide: Autoethnographical Drawing.

Dressmaker Born 1912 “If a girl was getting married for example, one of the girls had a flair for making things on her lunch hour and when one of the girls was getting married to one of the Clarkes, that owned the fruit shop, she fashioned her this outfit in the shape of a tomato, and we tied her to a lamp outside.’

‘One of the things that we used to do internally, which was dangerous, was that between our room and the ornamenting room there was a shoot that we used to put the stuff down, and we used to put the bride down. You just made your own fun.”

Imagined Atmosphere: Bride Slide - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Locking History to Site: Bride Slide - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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01 - Bride Slide: Capturing the Lore.

Dressmaker Born 1912 “If a girl was getting married for example, one of the girls had a flair for making things on her lunch hour and when one of the girls was getting married to one of the Clarkes, that owned the fruit shop, she fashioned her this outfit in the shape of a tomato, and we tied her to a lamp outside.’

‘One of the things that we used to do internally, which was dangerous, was that between our room and the ornamenting room there was a shoot that we used to put the stuff down, and we used to put the bride down. You just made your own fun.”

Capturing the Lore: Bride Slide - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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01 - Bride Slide: Axonometric Translation.

Dressmaker Born 1912 “If a girl was getting married for example, one of the girls had a flair for making things on her lunch hour and when one of the girls was getting married to one of the Clarkes, that owned the fruit shop, she fashioned her this outfit in the shape of a tomato, and we tied her to a lamp outside.’

‘One of the things that we used to do internally, which was dangerous, was that between our room and the ornamenting room there was a shoot that we used to put the stuff down, and we used to put the bride down. You just made your own fun.”

Axonometric Drawing: Bride Slide - Oral History (Digital Drawing)

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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02 - Cherry Lips: Ideogram Genealogy.

Spinner Born 1905 ‘I remember my first pay. I brought it home to my mother. She spit on it for luck….All our mothers done it, when we were all young … spit on your first pay for luck…Out of seven and six, I got the sixpence. Well, we went to a dance, and that left four pence. Well, then ….. bought a tuppence worth of cherry lips. They were a wee scenty smell, so that when you danced with a fella and leaned up to talk to him, there was a lovely smell… and then, the other tuppence done you for Wednesday night, for the barn dance.’

Ideogram: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Mixed Media)

02 - Cherry Lips: Auto-ethnographical Drawing.

Spinner Born 1905 ‘I remember my first pay. I brought it home to my mother. She spit on it for luck….All our mothers done it, when we were all young … spit on your first pay for luck…Out of seven and six, I got the sixpence. Well, we went to a dance, and that left four pence. Well, then ….. bought a tuppence worth of cherry lips. They were a wee scenty smell, so that when you danced with a fella and leaned up to talk to him, there was a lovely smell… and then, the other tuppence done you for Wednesday night, for the barn dance.’

Imagined Atmosphere: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Mixed Media)

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p Capturing the Lore: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media) Locking History to Site: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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02 - Cherry Lips: Capturing the Lore.

Spinner Born 1905 ‘I remember my first pay. I brought it home to my mother. She spit on it for luck….All our mothers done it, when we were all young … spit on your first pay for luck…Out of seven and six, I got the sixpence. Well, we went to a dance, and that left four pence. Well, then ….. bought a tuppence worth of cherry lips. They were a wee scenty smell, so that when you danced with a fella and leaned up to talk to him, there was a lovely smell… and then, the other tuppence done you for Wednesday night, for the barn dance.’

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02 - Cherry Lips: Axonometric Translation.

Spinner Born 1905 ‘I remember my first pay. I brought it home to my mother.

She spit on it for luck….All our mothers done it, when we were all young … spit on your first pay for luck…Out of seven and six, I got the sixpence. Well, we went to a dance, and that left four pence. Well, then ….. bought a tuppence worth of cherry lips.

They were a wee scenty smell, so that when you danced with a fella and leaned up to talk to him, there was a lovely smell… and then, the other tuppence done you for Wednesday night, for the barn dance.’

Axonometric Drawing: Cherry Lips - Oral History (Digital Drawing)

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Archive Architecture

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03 - Bucket of Steam: Ideogram Genealogy.

Doffing Mistress Born 1896 “Now there was cleeks (large hooks) on the steam pipes hangin’, and that’s where you hang this bucket on to get boiled water … to boil the rollers …. It was all bubblin’ up, really boilin’, And he took the bucket off me. And he hung it on one of these cleeks, and he let it hang for a couple of minutes. And he says, “There you are, Luv. That’s enough” And I brought it to him, and I said “There you are, Sir. That’s enough. “And he said, “Yes.” And the laugh – everybody had the best laugh. The bucket was still at me, and I thought it was invisible or something’. So he took the bucket off me and saya … “I’ve clened me shoes myself, now that you got away, on account of getting me the bucket of steam.” So I hand’t to clean his shoes. I got off well.”

Ideogram: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Mixed Media)

03 - Bucket of Steam: Auto-ethnographical Drawing.

Doffing Mistress Born 1896 “Now there was cleeks (large hooks) on the steam pipes hangin’, and that’s where you hang this bucket on to get boiled water … to boil the rollers …. It was all bubblin’ up, really boilin’, And he took the bucket off me. And he hung it on one of these cleeks, and he let it hang for a couple of minutes. And he says, “There you are, Luv. That’s enough” And I brought it to him, and I said “There you are, Sir. That’s enough. “And he said, “Yes.” And the laugh – everybody had the best laugh. The bucket was still at me, and I thought it was invisible or something’. So he took the bucket off me and saya … “I’ve clened me shoes myself, now that you got away, on account of getting me the bucket of steam.” So I hand’t to clean his shoes. I got off well.”

Imagined Atmosphere: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Mixed Media)

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p Capturing the Lore: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media) Locking History to Site: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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03 - Bucket of Steam: Capturing the Lore.

Doffing Mistress Born 1896 “Now there was cleeks (large hooks) on the steam pipes hangin’, and that’s where you hang this bucket on to get boiled water … to boil the rollers …. It was all bubblin’ up, really boilin’, And he took the bucket off me. And he hung it on one of these cleeks, and he let it hang for a couple of minutes. And he says, “There you are, Luv. That’s enough” And I brought it to him, and I said “There you are, Sir. That’s enough. “And he said, “Yes.” And the laugh – everybody had the best laugh. The bucket was still at me, and I thought it was invisible or something’. So he took the bucket off me and saya … “I’ve clened me shoes myself, now that you got away, on account of getting me the bucket of steam.” So I hand’t to clean his shoes. I got off well.”

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Axonometric Drawing: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Digital Drawing) p

03 - Bucket of Steam: Axonometric Translation.

Doffing Mistress Born 1896 “Now there was cleeks (large hooks) on the steam pipes hangin’, and that’s where you hang this bucket on to get boiled water … to boil the rollers …. It was all bubblin’ up, really boilin’, And he took the bucket off me. And he hung it on one of these cleeks, and he let it hang for a couple of minutes. And he says, “There you are, Luv. That’s enough” And I brought it to him, and I said “There you are, Sir. That’s enough. “And he said, “Yes.” And the laugh – everybody had the best laugh. The bucket was still at me, and I thought it was invisible or something’. So he took the bucket off me and saya … “I’ve clened me shoes myself, now that you got away, on account of getting me the bucket of steam.” So I hand’t to clean his shoes. I got off well.”

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Archive Architecture

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04 - Ducking Yee Ideogram Genealogy.

Warper Born 1900 “There was a custom – it’s funny, it happened to me. Now, at the time, it’s what … we call a tub. It was as long as this kitchen. And --- what they call wet waster came off the frames. It was made into a ball about this size, and it was threw into this tub. Now, them was all wet. And the spinners, they woulda got the foreman in one part of the room.

They got hold of you and out you in the box along – that was your baptism of fire. Your clothes were all wet … ‘til you went home. That was done with nearly everyone that went into the spinnin’ room ….”Ducking Yee” The custom was known as ‘dippin’ ‘em” in another mill, but there the “wee larners” were dipped into vats in which rollers were soaked overnight to keep them from cracking.”

Ideogram: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Mixed Media)

04 - Ducking Yee Auto-ethnographical Drawing.

Warper Born 1900 “There was a custom – it’s funny, it happened to me. Now, at the time, it’s what … we call a tub. It was as long as this kitchen. And --- what they call wet waster came off the frames. It was made into a ball about this size, and it was threw into this tub. Now, them was all wet. And the spinners, they woulda got the foreman in one part of the room.

They got hold of you and out you in the box along – that was your baptism of fire. Your clothes were all wet … ‘til you went home. That was done with nearly everyone that went into the spinnin’ room ….”Ducking Yee” The custom was known as ‘dippin’ ‘em” in another mill, but there the “wee larners” were dipped into vats in which rollers were soaked overnight to keep them from cracking.”

Imagined Atmosphere: Bucket of Steam - Oral History (Mixed Media)

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p Capturing the Lore: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media) Locking History to Site: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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04 - Ducking Yee Capturing the Lore.

Warper Born 1900 “There was a custom – it’s funny, it happened to me. Now, at the time, it’s what … we call a tub. It was as long as this kitchen. And --- what they call wet waster came off the frames. It was made into a ball about this size, and it was threw into this tub. Now, them was all wet. And the spinners, they woulda got the foreman in one part of the room.

They got hold of you and out you in the box along – that was your baptism of fire. Your clothes were all wet … ‘til you went home. That was done with nearly everyone that went into the spinnin’ room ….”Ducking Yee” The custom was known as ‘dippin’ ‘em” in another mill, but there the “wee larners” were dipped into vats in which rollers were soaked overnight to keep them from cracking.”

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04 - Ducking Yee Axonometric Translation.

Warper Born 1900 “There was a custom – it’s funny, it happened to me. Now, at the time, it’s what … we call a tub. It was as long as this kitchen. And --- what they call wet waster came off the frames. It was made into a ball about this size, and it was threw into this tub. Now, them was all wet. And the spinners, they woulda got the foreman in one part of the room.

They got hold of you and out you in the box along – that was your baptism of fire. Your clothes were all wet … ‘til you went home. That was done with nearly everyone that went into the spinnin’ room ….”Ducking Yee” The custom was known as ‘dippin’ ‘em” in another mill, but there the “wee larners” were dipped into vats in which rollers were soaked overnight to keep them from cracking.”

Axonometric Drawing: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Digital Drawing)

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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Signifier/Signified

05 Haunted Lift: Ideogram Genealogy.

Weaver Born 1938 “The women had to do it because a lot of the women’s husbands would have been on strike or unemployed because the shipyards were always on strike, and the women needed the money. We used to cover for each other. In Blackstaff there used to be a spiral staircase at the back of the building. We had two lifts, there was one lift that we couldn’t get the workers to use because it had a ghost, you see every mill had a ghost. Apparently fifty or sixty years before some lad was pushing a truck and he turned to get in the lift but when he stepped back to get in there was no lift and away down he went down the shaft.

That was the story, and the story went that he come back now and again and so you couldn’t get the women to use that lift shaft. We had a spiral staircase, an iron one. We used to cover for each other. When a woman had a baby, for instance, once the baby was born she would be back to work after a few days because she needed the money.”

Ideogram: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Mixed Media)

05 Haunted Lift: Auto-ethnographical Drawing.

Weaver Born 1938 “The women had to do it because a lot of the women’s husbands would have been on strike or unemployed because the shipyards were always on strike, and the women needed the money. We used to cover for each other. In Blackstaff there used to be a spiral staircase at the back of the building. We had two lifts, there was one lift that we couldn’t get the workers to use because it had a ghost, you see every mill had a ghost. Apparently fifty or sixty years before some lad was pushing a truck and he turned to get in the lift but when he stepped back to get in there was no lift and away down he went down the shaft.

That was the story, and the story went that he come back now and again and so you couldn’t get the women to use that lift shaft. We had a spiral staircase, an iron one. We used to cover for each other. When a woman had a baby, for instance, once the baby was born she would be back to work after a few days because she needed the money.”

Imagined Atmosphere: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Mixed Media)

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p Capturing the Lore: Ducking Yee - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media) Locking History to Site: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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05 Haunted Lift: Capturing the Lore.

Weaver Born 1938 “The women had to do it because a lot of the women’s husbands would have been on strike or unemployed because the shipyards were always on strike, and the women needed the money. We used to cover for each other. In Blackstaff there used to be a spiral staircase at the back of the building. We had two lifts, there was one lift that we couldn’t get the workers to use because it had a ghost, you see every mill had a ghost. Apparently fifty or sixty years before some lad was pushing a truck and he turned to get in the lift but when he stepped back to get in there was no lift and away down he went down the shaft.

That was the story, and the story went that he come back now and again and so you couldn’t get the women to use that lift shaft. We had a spiral staircase, an iron one. We used to cover for each other. When a woman had a baby, for instance, once the baby was born she would be back to work after a few days because she needed the money.”

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05 Haunted Lift: Axonometric Translation.

Weaver Born 1938 “The women had to do it because a lot of the women’s husbands would have been on strike or unemployed because the shipyards were always on strike, and the women needed the money. We used to cover for each other. In Blackstaff there used to be a spiral staircase at the back of the building. We had two lifts, there was one lift that we couldn’t get the workers to use because it had a ghost, you see every mill had a ghost. Apparently fifty or sixty years before some lad was pushing a truck and he turned to get in the lift but when he stepped back to get in there was no lift and away down he went down the shaft.

That was the story, and the story went that he come back now and again and so you couldn’t get the women to use that lift shaft. We had a spiral staircase, an iron one. We used to cover for each other. When a woman had a baby, for instance, once the baby was born she would be back to work after a few days because she needed the money.”

Axonometric Drawing: Haunted Lift - Oral History (Digital Drawing)

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p Ideogram Genealogy: Parliament - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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06 - Parliament: Ideogram Genealogy.

Spinner Born 1902 “The weavers called theirs parliament. And you know what we called ours? The wee house. My Mother was a weaver. She called it parliament.

My Sister called it parliament. I used to say to my mother “we call ours the wee house” “well,” Mother replied, “we call ours parliament”

Ideogram: Parliament - Oral History (Pen and Ink)

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p Imagined Atmosphere Genealogy: Parliament - Oral History (Mixed Media)

06 - Parliament: Auto-ethnographical Drawing.

Spinner Born 1902 “The weavers called theirs parliament. And you know what we called ours? The wee house. My Mother was a weaver. She called it parliament.

My Sister called it parliament. I used to say to my mother “we call ours the wee house” “well,” Mother replied, “we call ours parliament”

Imagined Atmosphere: Parliament - Oral History (Mixed Media)

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p Capturing the Lore: Parliament - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media) Locking History to Site: Parliament - Oral History (Digital Mixed Media)

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06 - Parliament: Capturing the Lore.

Spinner Born 1902 “The weavers called theirs parliament. And you know what we called ours? The wee house. My Mother was a weaver. She called it parliament.

My Sister called it parliament. I used to say to my mother “we call ours the wee house” “well,” Mother replied, “we call ours parliament”

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06 - Parliament: Axonometric Translation.

Spinner Born 1902 “The weavers called theirs parliament. And you know what we called ours? The wee house. My Mother was a weaver. She called it parliament.

My Sister called it parliament. I used to say to my mother “we call ours the wee house” “well,”

Axonometric Drawing: Parliament - Oral History (Digital Drawing)

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Mother replied, “we call ours parliament”

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Architectural Representation and Lore: The architects utility and oral history: The following pages further discuss axonometric drawing in the context of lore and the erasure of history.

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Spatio-temporality and Axonometry: Oral History and Lore as Knowledge in Flux Alongside axonometry’s role as representing the mental image it is able to depict the inhabitation of architecture. Through the use of x-ray axonometry abstract relationships between elements of an architectural composition can be drawn, depicting the transformation of a space through its occupation. Luscombe (2017) states that in Rietveld’s x-ray axonometric drawings of the Schröder House the ‘concrete nature of three dimensional architectural space’ becomes the ‘symbolically referential environment of inhabitation’.39

This representational style allows for referential and invisible spatial relationships to be read within the drawings. Luscombe further states that in the drawings, ‘the inhabitant becomes integral to the architecture of the building’ and ‘the viewer is no longer defined as passive and compliant’, with the viewers memory of space engaged with the formation of drawn architectural space.40 This theory of axonometric representation poses a unique opportunity when applied to the learning theory associated with lore and oral history.

39 Desley Luscombe, ‘Illustrating Architecture: The Spatio-Temporal Dimension of Gerrit Rietveld’s Representations of the Schröder

House’, The Journal of Architecture 22, no. 5 (4 July 2017): 899–932, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2017.1351779.

40 Luscombe

Bride Slide: Axonometric Manifestation of The Lore (Axonometric Drawing)

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SchrĂśder House Axonometric Drawing: Gerrit Rietveld (1924)

While the formation of architectural space for the viewer in x-ray axonometry is dependent on the engagement of spatial memory, within oral history the internalisation of knowledge is similarly dependent on the listeners personal experiences. When using axonometry to depict oral history of lost places this poses an opportunity to utilise personal memory in forming individual readings of a site, re-inhabiting erased places through the visual retelling of lore in the present day. This drawing therefore embodies lore as knowledge in flux, with the drawings visual narrative made dynamic through the viewers engagement with memory in its translation. This is particularly evident when the drawing is observed alongside the immersive effects of the

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audible, the audio places the viewer ‘in the middle’.41 The oral history audio immerses the viewer in the narrative, engaging with their personal memories and momentarily becoming a kind of place in itself. 42 This process engages the viewer with the polymorphic nature of the axonometric representation, allowing the moment between the speaker and the listener to guide the viewers eye to perform a reading.

41 Shelley Trower, Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History, Palgrave Studies in Oral History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

42 Trower

Parliament: Axonometric Manifestation of The Lore (Axonometric Drawing)

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Nobson Newtown (Oblique Drawing): Paul Noble - 2004

Paul Noble: Auto-ethnography, World Building and Drawing Myth.

Alongside the relevance of the viewers position in reading the axonometric drawing, an awareness of the authors position in translating site specific oral histories is present. When translating myth to drawing or creating a world, autoethnographic traits begin to surface within this world. An awareness of the influence of the drawer’s experiences and predisposition becomes entangled in the translation process. This is evident in the world building of Paul Noble, who’s Nobson Newtown simultaneously critiques the politics of

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modern suburbia whilst, through auto-ethnography, sheds light upon his upbringing and experiences. Noble also includes an intensity of detail within his work which he defines as ‘phonemes’ the visual equivalent of the sounds humans make between words (erm, oh, ah ha…)43. The detailed large-scale drawings cause the viewers eye to oscillate between positions reasonably far from the picture and many positions very close to it 44. This brings the viewer into the world he has created whilst reminding them that they are looking in as an outsider. This brief immersion into a world in-between that of feeling as an ‘outsider’ ties back to the experiences of engaging with oral history. Where at moments the listener is immersed in sharing a similar memory with the speaker, and at other times listening from outside of the world or lore and rituals.

43 Anthony Spira, Paul Noble (Art Catalogue) (Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2004).

44 Spira

Nobson Newtown (Oblique Drawing): Paul Noble - 2004

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Process.

World Building: Non Linear Navigation and Point + Click The act of engaging with a site through oral history is plural and non-linear, each individuals interactions with lore is unique. This coupled with the dislocation from the traditional studio due to COVID, has informed the development of a point and click archive of the axonometric representations of Lore. This document, inspired by the world building of Paul Noble, allows users to navigate the project autonomously. With each user selecting their own non-prescribed route through the document, resulting in a personally unique engagement with the drawings and oral histories. This diagram exposes the documents structure and rationale. The document is available via the following link:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/232faaecad48-4300-95cc-976d4ea32e35

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The Lore of the Farset: The board as the site

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‘Architecture is full of layered “residue” of the remembered past.’ 45 Boyer (1994)

Architectures of Lore: Material History and the Oral.

As established the material site has been distinctly changed by the urban interventions of the troubles and cultural hollowing by the processes of deindustrialisation. What remains from the sites past is a residue of industrial lore, a series of documented oral histories depicting daily life and shared ritual. This lore offers an alternate lens on the fragmented and erased history associated with a site deeply entrenched in its past as an interface of performative violence.

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Within the project residual oral histories act as a driving force, inhabiting the drawn representations, to bring a sense of the material to the viewer and their understanding of the site. By engaging with the immersive audible experiences of the speaker in the context of axonometry the viewer plays an active role in the drawing’s translation, using their own memory and experience to decipher the drawings ambiguity.

Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments, (1994.)

Bucket of Steam: Axonometric Fragment of The Lore (Axonometric Drawing)

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Lore exists in flux and represents a plural approach to history, oral histories themselves are representations as they relate to the events that precede them.46 Yet the stories themselves define a moment independent to the described events.

Staiff (2014) defines this moment as the ‘fictive space’47, it is the moment between the teller and the listener and relates to the power of the imagination to shift the listener beyond the reality of listening or viewing. It is through this ‘fictive’ moment that the project seeks to engage the viewer with the site in a new way, through accessing first-hand bodily knowledge the lost streets – offering a new lens on the present Farset.

This process looks to expose what is erased, by manifesting a cultural residue to give a new context in which to reflect upon the present conditions.

46 Russell Staiff author, Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the Past-Future (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

47 Staiff

Haunted Lift: Axonometric Fragment of The Lore (Axonometric Drawing)

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‘Oral Histories allow for alternative voices to emerge that can challenge prevailing views and unearth marginalized perspectives. These narratives are more inclusive and more open to accounting for the agency of non-elite actors, and they enable an understanding of buildings as moving, affective projects in flux, rather than static, “objective,” mute structures.’ 48 Gosseye (2019)

The Archival Role of the Architect: Plural History and Site.

Traditionally the architect responds to the physical constraints of the site, considering the material conditions in order to propose an appropriate response. This approach to history promotes a singular viewpoint of the past, using only the physical remains to establish a partial narrative.

This project considers an alternate approach by using oral history and the knowledge of lore to present the erased elements of the site, giving them material weight when considering the present. This proposes an alternate role for heritage interpretation within the architect’s study by identifying that heritage engagement is not a passive process.

48 49 50

As Staiff (2014) states heritage should be ‘an active process of assembling a series of objects, places and practices that we choose to hold up as a mirror to the present.’49 This project presents a role for the architect to represent lore and story and give voice to oral histories which are rooted in places. In fields beyond the architectural sphere the spoken word has been embraced to give plural history a platform to expose erasure. Leach (1996) questions this role of the architect, ‘Oral History has been used by social historians to provide plurality of voices, to extend a degree of agency to those with less power, and, potentially, to provide a means to subvert dominant discourses.’ 50

Janina Gosseye editor, Naomi Stead editor, and Deborah Van der Plaat editor, Speaking of Buildings (2019) Russell Staiff author, Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the Past-Future (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, (1996)

Ducking Yee: Axonometric Manifestation of The Lore (Axonometric Drawing)

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References:

Afterword: Thoughts on Practice.

The architect often favours the singularity of the dominant discourse and excludes the opportunities that lore and oral history offer to enrich our understanding of the inhabitation of places. The architect’s acknowledgement of history as dynamic removes the convenient truths associated with singular histories and it exposes conflicting realities. The archivist architect’s utility is problematic, by engaging sincerely with oral history it removes the shield of the ‘apolitical vacuum’ – the world in which Architects claim to operate.

Adams, Gerry. Falls Memories: A Belfast Life. New Ed edition. Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1982.

Bereiter, Carl. ‘Constructivism, Socioculturalism, and Popper’s World 3’ 23, no. 7 (1994): 21–23.

Bois, Yve-Alain. ‘Metamorphosis of Axonometry’. Berlin Architectural Journal, no. 36 (15 September 1981).

Boyer, Christine. The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments, 1994.

Bragdon, Claude Fayette. The Frozen Fountain: Being Essays on Architecture and the Art of Design in Space. A.A. Knopf, 1932.

Connolly, James. ‘To the Linen Slaves of Belfast. Manifesto of Irish Textile Workers’ Union’, 1913.

Darden, Douglas. Condemned Buildings. Princeton Architectural Press, 1993.

Doolittle, Peter E. ‘Constructivism: The Career and Technical Education Perspective’ 16, no. 1 (1999).

Feldman, Allen. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. 2nd ed. edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Grosz, Elizabeth. Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space, 2001.

Janina Gosseye editor, Naomi Stead editor, and Deborah Van der Plaat editor.

Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research. First edition..

New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019.

Laura Stamps author, Willemijn Stokvis author, Mark Wigley author, Pascal Gielen author, Trudy van der Horst author, Sue McDonnell translator, Constant, host institution Haags Gemeentemuseum, host institution Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Netherlands) Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst (Amstelveen. Constant: New Babylon : To Us, Liberty. English edition.

Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2016.

Leach, Neil. Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, 1996.

Luscombe, Desley. ‘Illustrating Architecture: The Spatio-Temporal Dimension of Gerrit Rietveld’s Representations of the Schröder House’. The Journal of Architecture 22, no. 5 (4 July 2017): 899–932. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360236 5.2017.1351779.

Maguire, Olive. The Rise and Fall and the West Belfast Mills’, n.d.

Messenger, Betty. Picking Up the Linen Threads: Study in Industrial Folklore.

Blackstaff Press Ltd, 1980.

O’Reilly, Des. An interview with Des O’Reilly, 19 December 2016.

———. History of River Farset, 2015. http://www.belfastheritagetours.com/historyof-river-farset/.

Pollock, Della. Remembering: Oral History Performance. Palgrave Studies in Oral History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Russell Staiff author. Re-Imagining Heritage Interpretation: Enchanting the PastFuture. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.

Shirlow, Peter, and Brendan Murtagh. Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City.

London: Pluto Press, 2006.

Spira, Anthony. Paul Noble (Art Catalogue). Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2004.

Staver, John R. ‘Scientific Research and Oncoming Vehicles: Can Radical Constructivists Embrace One and Dodge the Other? - Staver - 1995 Journal of Research in Science Teaching - Wiley Online Library’ 32, no. 10 (1995): 1125–28.

Trower, Shelley. Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History. Palgrave Studies in Oral History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

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Jack Ingham 2020