Thursday, 8 October 2020

[LAUIL601] Visiting Lecturer: Anthony Ellis

Visiting Lecturer: Anthony Ellis


  • This lecture is an essay that wasn't published on street literature.
  • A Victorian term – fly postering, shop signage. Anything on the streets. Interested me and wanted to develop it.


First Section


  • manifesto from 1957 or 1960 from Marxist thinkers. Thinking of the future and how people will have nothing to do but be an artist.
  • Le society du spectacle - How representation of commodity had taken over. Money is one of the biggest forms of mass media. The Queen and other historical figures. Money controlling us.
  • You can drift through city. Modernist. You can wonder. Photographing shop signs. Walked along way. Got up at dawn and got the tube to travel every road of London. You can go anywhere at 5:30 am and no one will bother you.
  • Methodologies. Research method. Cultural geography. Standing while talking. Putting up structures and networking. People. No distractions.


Second chapter


  • video clip. Secret life of Walter Mitty. Short story. He is an editor of a publisher. He isn't happy with his life and something setting him off to fantasise. They conform to the literary. Commander, soldier, doctor, pirate.
  • Particular scene that stood out to me. He is driving through the city and sees a billboard. He then has a fantasy about saving a ship and being the hero.
  • 1880s Punch magazine. Able to find it in university. Linguistic artwork. Imagination weaving its way through the city through advertising. Language and the city street. Talks about how arbitrary the delightful sociality. The London Street 1835. Painting but he hardly did anything else so it's hard to find.
  • Kid stealing a handkerchief, but there is a wall of posters. Colliding language. Chaos. Reminded me of the web.
  • Photo of a road in Liverpool. All the roots are named after literary greats from Britain. Shakespeare, Kelly, Elliott. Streets, closes, courts.
  • Opening scene to a movie. Announcer reading out song requests, then cuts to the person who requested it. Shows the difference in scale. Contrasts in lives. Seeing the streets and people through mediation. 
  • Radio rentals van. Billy having fantasies about cinematic genre.


Third Chapter


  • Literariness and the city in a direct way. Last year went to Liverpool and took photos. General structure remains. Swelling here, shrinking there.
  • Photos of shop signs matched with literary quotes. Starbucks shop – Starbuck quote. Naked lunch shop – Naked Lunch quote. Hope & Anchor shop – hope quote.


Chapter Four


  • Appendix to project / or latest stop along the way. Reading. Literariness in the city. Idea of reading in Reading. Reading train station.
  • Viking term distorted through time period.
  • Went down in the summer to document "general views." could be stock footage. 
  • Weird vibe to Reading. Reading Central library. Word play. Ridiculous.
  • Kate Middleton's favourite pub is in Reading. The Reading Lion. New station in Reading. Street names. Photographing street signs of how reading is suspended.
  • End of the essay. Essay based around Walter Mitty.
  • The literary coming towards Mitty through the advertisement. Enter the advertisement. Delusional world around the self. Fools' paradise of capitalism. Mind triggered by signs.
  • Instagram - Ayre Press
  • Beat Poetry
  • Synthesising
  •  Do you start with theory or practice? I start with theory. Literary theorists. Structuralism and post structuralism. I've also enjoyed going for a walk and documenting too. Both a mix. Different formats.
  • Always enjoyed reading but also being practical and getting out a Camera. Enjoy structuralism books and literary theory is that inspire me. "This is not a pipe."
  • Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters part of the Dada Zurich group.
  • Ian Sinclair and psycho geography to navigate city.
  • London orbital Road M25
  • Understanding city through rhythm.


Reflections on Visiting Lecturer:

While I'm not a fan of literary theory or psycho geography in the same way that Anthony Ellis is, his sheer enthusiasm and meticulousness for these subjects cannot be denied and he expertly synthesised multiple facets together across various mediums that initially didn't relate. He proficiently stringed multiple correlating mediums together in a compelling way which has inspired me greatly to do the same with my own research.

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