Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities

         With the realization of advertisement in middle class periodicals created a demand for their new products and expanded the market place manufacturers launch advertisement campaigns across the board. In many of the magazines with in the Modernist Journalist Project the advertisements were for other form of literature and upcoming books filled with subjects which the magazine its self focused on . With in the magazine Rhythm the reader was exposed to not only advertisements for new works of literature coming to the stand near you, but the opportunity to read excerpts from new books, notice of new art exhibitions, and local products.

        As discussed by Morrisson in his article the Marketing British Modernism with the increase in advertisement, the exposer to the magazines and the products advertised increase. As Rhythm developed there was a significant increase in the amount of advertisements within each issue. With in Rhythm’s first issue the advertisement consisted of only 3 pages consisting of art and literature in summer of 1911. Sticking with a consistent topography Rhythm increased the amount of advertising pages to almost double. The layout however did not change. Each advertisement was either on its own pager or separated with the use of lines and bullets. Bold writing brought the readers eye towards the subject and a description of the product followed under it.

Within the magazine Rythm many modernist artist and writers combined thier works together to expose to the world their thoughts and ideas. Throught out the issues of Rythm the concepts of femisim and humaism was depicted through the sketched and portriats with in the magazine. The use of a womans body as art was a reaccuring event as each issue developed over the course of its publication. The reader is first exposed to a woman siting by a tree holding a piece of fruit on the front cover http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/115989738112.jpg. This could be consider a relation to the moderinst belives that human posses an essence which nature and animals do not posses. The exposed woman is depicted as happy and content while her surroundings grow around her. Women are liberated with use of thier bodies. The depiction of an exposed woman is seen several time through out each issues. Each image either coinsides with the work before, in the mist of, or on the same page it is on. Sometime the images stand alone expressing the betuity and power of the woman at hand. In Vol 2 No. 10 the image Nude Study by S.J Peple  http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/1159897669406261.jpg  is a drawing of a woman who seems to be sitting and reading.  She is not cloth nor can you see her face. The artist leaves the viewer wondering what she is consitrated on.

Woman were admired for their beauty and grace. Within Rythm vol IV page 3 the drawing by Anne Estelle Rice http://dl.lib.brown.edu/jpegs/1159894618781261.jpgdepict several women working together. The woman seem to be gathering fruit while dancing through an orcher. The woman are also exposed to the world which reveals their cofidence and power. The woman stand tall along side eachother and bring new light on the concept of care giver. The womans purpose in life was thought to care for the house hold and her family. With the smile and embrace on the womans faces Rice depict several woman who took pride within them selves and their so called duty. They carry the fruit of their labor and open up to the world with in the single frame.

There is a major evident influence of French culture and art throughout Rhythm. It is apparent in various issues, whether in discussing French works, or artists themselves, that French artistry was held in high regard by the authors of this Modernist magazine. As the magazine came out with more issues between 1911 and 1913, more and more of the content of the magazine not only discussed French culture and art, but began to publish full pieces in the language itself. It is quite common to find French epigraphs or titles of pieces throughout Rhythm, as well as French essays and poems.

Many of these poems and works are accompanied by illustrations and drawings. There is a common trend with these poems that host artwork on their pages: that is that the drawing or painting is never done by the same author, and are often seemingly irrelevant. Petit Poeme by Tristan Dereme, in the Winter 1911 issue, depicts the trite scene of a relationship, lacking in the romantic ardor it once possessed. The scenario is blatantly set, and the scene is painted as if the romance should still be there, but discusses how smiles are forced, gardens are abandoned, and silence ensues between the two. Atop the poem is an abstract drawing by Jessie Dismorr. It depicts a nude woman, with dark hair, blank eyes, extended arm, and an unidentifiable figure in the background. A similar pairing of works is seen in Le Petit Comptable by Jean Pellerin. This poem, found in the 1912 Spring issue tells of an accountant taking inventory of a produce shop in his book. The poem uses sensory imaging in discussing the colorful touch and feel of the fruits and vegetables, almost as if one is caressing them romantically, reminiscently. Then the author nostagically takes in the sky on the rainy, dreary day. It is also accompanied by a drawing by Dismorr. The drawings possess similar features: both appear to be of nude women, with bold outlines, blank stares and awkwardly sketched background images. The poems, both posessing similar themes of the end of love in sad scenarios, are accompanied by these unusual drawings, which could merely be the editor's way of filling space, or an objective influence on how the reader should perceive these poems, particularly the reader who does not speak French. The Dismorr drawings could be acting as a link between the two poems for those who cannot comprehend the text. By placing these drawings near these poems, the editor offers a unique insight to the similarity in the themes of these French poets. He does not offer a translation; however, these drawings aid the reader in making the connection between the two.

Throughout its one-year, eight month run Rhythm used a certain piece of art on four different occasions. The drawing is of a figure in a prostrate position and seemingly studying either something on the ground or something floating in the air just above its outstretched hand. When I first discovered the picture, I thought it added something to the poem it was printed under. What I saw after seeing it attached to three other works is how the picture changed depending on what it was printed next to. The figure first appears in the very first issue of Rhythm after the first article. The opening article to Rhythm (Vol. 1, No.1) is an article on the philosophical belief of Thelema. A quick Wikipedia search will tell you that Thelema is the belief in living your life according to your own conscience. “The New Thelema” by Frederick Goodyear is a highly stylized look at this philosophy. Goodyear sees Thelema as more than just a religious philosophy, but as an imminent future. He writes, “Thelema lies in the future, not the never-never land of the theologian, but the ordinary human future that is perpetually transmuting itself into the past” (1). After two more pages of writing that consistently looks towards the future world the figure closes the page. Here, the figure seems to be the author, Goodyear, looking into the globe that is floating above his hand, looking into the future.

The next two times the figure appears is after poems of loss. The first poem is “The See Child” by Katherine Mansfield, featured in Vol. 2, No. 5 of Rhythm. The overwhelming feeling in this poem is despair. In the first stanza a mother is depicted forming her child with her own hands, yet in the second stanza the mother abandons the child. In the fourth stanza the mother is seen selling the very things she used to make her child and returning home heartbroken. In the fifth and final stanza the speaker takes on the persona of the mother, telling the daughter not to follow her. The poem ends, “There is nothing here but sad sea water, / And a handful of sifting sand” (1). The second poem is “Geraniums” by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, featured in Vol. 2, No. 7 of Rhythm. The poem is the story of a man who bought flowers from a poor woman so that she would have a place to sleep for the night. In the end, the speaker cannot help but think that not only will the flowers be dead tomorrow, but the old woman may be dead too. The speaker sees the woman’s death as an end to her “heavy sorrow” because they’ll be no “need to barter blossoms – for a bed” (73). The figure at the bottom of these two pages is a decidedly despondent one. The drawing loses its hopeful, philosophical bent and becomes a figure of bent over sadness and the orb seems to be merely a spot ink and not part of the picture.

The third and final time we see this figure the picture regains some of its hopefulness; not because of the work’s subject matter, but because of the tone it is delivered in. In Rhythm (Vol 2., No. 10) Gilbert Cannan writes a piece on marriage entitled “Observations and Opinions.” The piece is decidedly against marriage the institution as it stands in Cannan’s day. Cannan writes, “Every marriage is in itself a sacrament or a piece of blasphemy and neither the sanction of the State nor the blessing of the Church can alter its character” (265). Cannan even takes a surprisingly feminist stance in his views on marriage stating, “The majority of marriages are ruined by the absurd masculine theories concerning women, theories to which women, being ill-educated and economically dependent, subscribe.” Cannan is arguing for the right for people to divorce without becoming social outcasts, yet in his argument he makes points that could be used in the feminist movements of the time as well as the gay rights movement of our time. Cannan ends his piece, “Without simplicity, without courage, without generosity there can be no good marriage, and without good marriage, without ideal of marriage which can conquer fear of public opinion and its purblind, hypocritical, official morality there can be no health in us” (267). The figure once again looks hopeful, looks towards a better future and a better world.

"A Superman" is a short story by Hall Ruffy found in the Winter, 1911 issue of Rhythm. It tells of a seemingly ordinary cafe, most likely in France, considering that whatever dialogue is written in interaction with the waiting staff of the cafe is in French. Two people are seated separately at the cafe; once they were lovers, now they watch each other from afar. "A Superman" offers a tense glimpse into the furtive thoughts of these two, going about a seemingly ordinary activity, disturbed inwardly by the sight of one another. The interruption propmts him to get drunk, whereupon he reveals that she has left him for a wealthy fat man, the one whom she is with. She, despite her having left her lover for another, is unhappy. She is young and attractive, and imagines leaving at that moment in the cafe, for her old beloved. The story is interrupted by a picture. It is a copy of a painting by Auguste Chaubaud. It looks dreary and dark, dotted with globs of paint. It seems to portray a desolate street scene, under a patched umbrella, potentially seats in a cafe, with a dark silhouettes in the distance. The cafe is described as lively in the story, as though busy and bright in the daytime; moreover, the painting has no particularly distinct connection to the story, despite its location amid the pages of the narrative. The artist is different, as is even listed separately in the table of contents at the beginning of the magazine issue. Why then place the picture in between in story's content? It reminds me of a line in the text: "Just in that moment he was in the passive condition when one seems to be outside of life. All was like a picture which he looked at critically; the pale green chairs and tables; the laurel trees in white boxes looking unreal in the brilliant light with men and women dotted about." The description with its "white boxes" and "dotted" imagery is reminiscent of a similar scene, maybe and a different time of day, or a different season, one cannot be entirely sure, but it influences the imagery within one's own imagination.

The end of the story also hosts a small "Study" in the blank half of the page below the text. The picture, by J. D. Fergusson portrays an open champagne bottle, upon a cluttered table, potentially and illustration of the scenario described in the story, when the man gets drunk. Also a thought provoking piece of art.

In addition, the story itself begins with a French epigraph, although the story itself is not in French; however, there are many French articles in this particular issue of Rhythm, mostly proceeding this particular story. The influence of the French language and culture within the sequence of what goes into the issue itself is an interesting way to view what material surround this story, and why the issue was assembled in its particular fashion.

The magazine Rhythm, which was produced from 1911 until early 1913, had a consistent lay out which was followed through its issues. The magazine’s cover and table of contents as well as the back cover and advertisements page was printed on its signature blue paper while the inside of the magazine was printed on the traditional white. The context of the magazine follows the same similar pattern through out every issue. Rhythm starts off with a few stories moving into portraits going in to play and poems and end off with one or several books reviews and a few advertisements for the magazine its self and other press releases.     

    There are lots of drawings in Rhythm magazine's Volume 2, Number 5, from June of 1912. The cover is a naked woman picking fruit off of a tree surrounded by vaginal looking flowers. The first real page of contents features a nude figure bend over on the ground. Then there are some innocent looking drawings of a village, a big face, The Arc de Triomphe, basic fruit still lifes. But if the cover tells us anything, we should not be surprised to see some breasts. And certainly there is a nude woman, fruit, and tree motif going on in this issue. So should we be surprised by Breast Fruit? Probably not, but I still am. Why, amid plenty of other, tamer still life drawings of fruit are these two pairs of breasts shoved in our faces? It's hard to assume that the likeness is unintentional. I can't think of a single fruit that has such pronounced, uniform nipples. Some citrus fruits could debatably have nipples, but these grow on trees and are never this close together until they are picked. Strangely, for a magazine that seems almost obsessed with trees, this vine comes out of nowhere. These are clearly breasts, and perhaps it is an idealistic dream of the art editor for them to grow on trees.

    Maybe it is one of those presumptions we tend to have that we live in a more progressive, sexually explicit time, but I think it's pretty true. I know people had sex just as much around this time, I read The Sun Also Rises, and I know it was seen in art, as it has been for hundreds and hundreds of years, but apparently it was also in magazines. Obviously these modernist magazines weren't exactly mainstream, but I was still a little surprised to see this in the same issue of Rhythm. The woman is strong, tall, and prominent. Her hair is up, and she is looking down at the man. We do not even see the man's face. He may as well be a big skin blanket. He does not matter, except to add to the suggestiveness of the piece. Despite, or perhaps because of, the strength of the woman this is a tender moment. As far as I can tell this couple has just had sex. Or, is even debatably still engaging in some form of it. Was this drawing surprising to viewers? Was it considered obscene? Was it stared it, or mostly ignored? 

"Study" was published in "Rhythm" Vol.1, No.1 on page 4, during summer 1911. It was drawn by Orthon Friesz and it depicts a man with his back towrads us who does not seem to have much clothes on. His face is turned towards us and he is holding some kind of bag or sack in his hands. It is a very simple drawing with no color and very little shading. The Magazine cover says that it is about Art, Music and Literature. The pages are filled with tons of essays and varying kinds of art. This particular drawing goes along with the general motif of the magazine. It's simple and forces you to really look at it and decide for yourself what you think it portrays. It forces you to focus on the contour's of the body, as does the majority of the other artwork in the magazine. It seems very different and revolutionary.

"A Composition" was published in The Blue Review Vol. 1, No.2 on page 41 in June 1913. It was drawn by G.S. Lightfoot and it is a portrait of a woman sitting on a bed with her hands holding her face. Her face is pointed towards the ceiling and her eyes are closed. She seems very distressed. There is a lot more detail to this picture as well as the other drawings in this magazine. Although we can clearly see what she is doing we still do not know what is going on, which forces you to give your own interpretations. Since the "The Blue Review" is the successor to "Rhythm", it has the same kind of structure. It is filled with different kinds of art, poems and essays. They mostly focus on the Futurism movement, which I think both of these drawings exemplify.

Rhythm: Art Music Literature Quarterly

Eugenia, Noriela, Christina

            Our group analyzed and discussed the journal of Rhythm from the Modernist Journal Project.  This journal ran from the summer of 1911 until 1913.  The main editor was John Middleton Murry and his assistants were Michael T.H. Sadler and John Duncan Ferguson, who was mainly the art editor.  In June of 1912, Katherine Mansfield joined Rhythm as the assistant editor and she became the co-editor in 1913.  She and John Murray started a long tumultuous affair.  They were married years later around 1918.  We focused on Volume One, Issue One, Summer of 1911, Volume Two, Issue Nine, October 1912 and Issue Fourteen, March 1913.  After doing some further research into the lives of Murry and Mansfield we discovered that there were many poems and stories written about their romance such as the poem Torment written by Murray in Issue Nine in Volume Two.  He writes about his torment of being the other man. Murray's writing in this poem shows his lust and desire to be with his mistress forever.  According to the end of the first Volume, Issue One, the Aim and Ideals of Rhythm were to seek out the strong things in art.  " Before art can be human it must learn to be brutal.  Our intention is to provide art, be it drawing, literature, or criticism." 

Rhythm was published in London by The Saint Catherine Press Stephen Swift and Company LTD Martin Secker from 1911-1912.  In 1912 Secker continued on as publisher in 1913 and into The Blue Review Journal which was a follow up to Rhythm.  Through WorldCat we found that the original magazine is in New Zealand.  The journal is at the Alexander Turnbill Library, the National Library of New Zealand.  We corresponded with the library and they have informed us that they indeed do have Rhythm.  They wanted our address to send us relevant information about the journal.  Unfortunately, the New Zealand library said it would take up to three weeks to get more information to us.  Maybe you are wondering why the original Rhythm is in New Zealand? Well Katherine Mansfield was born in the country.  She lived there until she moved to England to pursue her writing dreams.  Mansfield was one of few prominant literary artists from  New Zealand and therefore she was recognized and respected there.  Our theory is that the original is in New Zealand to honor their local writer.

Bibliographic Descriptions:

The cover of each magazine is the same.  It is blue with a picture of a naked woman that seems to represent Eve.  We assume that the lady is a representation o because she is next to a tree holding an apple in her hand.  The print is fairly large and bold.  Most pages have pictures on them with distinct bold lines and harsh colors.  "This is why many artists connected to Rhythm were later considered Vorticists." 

The pictures were on pages with stories and poems and some were on a page by themselves.  Noticeably many of the drawings were displayed in a sexual manner.  There were instances where the drawings also directly followed the related poetry, stories or reviews.  The artists who drew the pictures were real artists, fairly well known from different countries such as France, England and Italy. Many of the magazines also had self portraits of the artists and the editors of the journal.  For example, the following sketch is of the co-editor Katherine Mansfield.

In the earlier journal their were no advertisements.  It was not until the third journal that "announcements" were installed.  This is the name they used for advertisements.  Jet'Aime is an example of an advertisemnt that followed a poem about love and romance.  Jet'Aime means I love you.  This company still exists today and has evolved into a Bridal Shoppe in New Zealand.  The adverisements in Issue Nine (1912) were primarily ads for Art.  Such as advertisements for museums, galleries, exhibitions and stores selling or showing art.  There were also many ads for theatrical readings, plays and shows around the region.

Political and Social Economic Positioning:

Based on reading and scanning the three issues we have chosen, I have come to the conclusion that Rhythm did have some strong positioning on Art and Philosophy.  Its editors did have opinions as far as social class and gender.  In looking into some of the authors of the stories and poems I read, I found that most of them were well established in areas such as science fiction and fantasy.  My assumption is that writing for Rhythm enabled these writers to express their positioning on Art and voice what they felt  was going on economically and politically within the time period.  For example, to start of with I want to dicuss Volume I, Issue One's article Art and Philosophy written by its main editor John Middleton Murry.  I think this article sums up what Rhythm was continuously trying to accomplish throughout the years.  The article is based on the French Philosopher Bergson's theories.  The belief in free will, real truth and eternality of Art were some of his thoeries that Murry stands behind.  Art should continue from generation to generation.  You only become individualized from the past's inheritance.  "Art doesn't break from the past, but a path to the future."  The present presents a fresh path of progress.  You do not forget the past, you embrace it and move forward with changes of the times and truth within your heart.  Aetheticism is how one should create their art.  False Aetheticism cripples Art. Art has many forms and Murry continues to state that having just the past is one aspect of art.  Using the past to create the future "harmonizes" the two into a beautiful song. 

Later on, however, I believe that some of the magazine issues do delve into the political and veer away from being totally aesthetic.  There is aestheticism in this issue within the poetry. Two poems of Arthur Crossthwaite's convey love and depression.  He uses a lot of imagery and metaphor in Songe D' ete and Ennui.  You get the sense he is writing from the heart and perhaps a loved one.  He uses a flower and color to represent women.  It seems as if the class of women is below a man and a lonely life.  The women depicted in some of these poems and stories is portrayed as a dreamer, dreaming because she is stuck with no place to go and is controlled by society; particularly men.  We see this in Volume Two, Issue Fourteen  in two stories: The Little Town and The Clown.  Both stories depict the women as puppets.  The Little Town shows how society is manipulated by the governing or popular factor.  No matter what the women does she cannot stop the manipulation.  The poem the "Mocking Fairy" is also a representation of a women who is not truly free to express herself within Art.  She is stuck in her home sheltered away from the rest of the world even the mystical one.  It is interesting the poems and stories I have mentioned were written by men.  I think this is because the men writing in Rhythm believed in the same philosophy as Bergson and wanted an aestheticism in art and life for everyone.  It was time to use the past to create a productive future.  Changes were neccesary and needed for the equality of genders and the productiveness of society.

Flipping back to the middle section of journals with Volume Two, Issue Nine, the magazine relates work to its editors Murry and Middleton's love affair. Throughout there are some stories that hindge on religion which as I believe to know it would not be in the aestheticism way.  At first, I thought the journal was harping on religion based on skimming through various articles. From skimming religions seemed present because the use of many theological terms were present.  But it is my inclination now that I was wrong and Rhythm does not overwhelmingly procure specific teachings of one particular religion in the articles I read.  There was a snippet of mention in the story The Little Girl only because they went to church.  But, the main focus was on the little girl's relationship with her father.  Instead this story brings up issues of class and roles of the family.  The stereotype that the father in the household is the boss and that a child should be scared of him.  As opposed to the woman figures in the home such as her mother or grandmother.  The story also implies a certain class status of wealth due to the fact they own a piano, soft silk pillows, extra rooms in the house and servants to help out.  The author Lili Heron shows you a stereotype of the past and then at the end of her story she enables the reader to see how change benefits the role of the family when the father can take his daugher in his arms and be just as maternal as a grandma would be. A different type of story called Fuel written by Dusany links back to the earlier theories of Art and Philosophy.  I sensed as strong tone of sarcasm in his writing.  Dusany whose background is in fantasty uses this genre, he knows so well, and creates a story that mixes fantasy with metaphorical satire.  He associates the coal as the unwanted poets of the time.  He analyses how the poets are neglected and that their ideals are mocked.  "Staying left in the past keeps Art at hold like an anchored ship."  Dusany wants to see the old ways come down.  He declares he'd sit down and listen to a poet any old day or time.  He feels it is important to talk and share dreams and hopes with your friends and loved ones before you die. In another comparison, Dusany uses the magic children feel Christmas Eve night and sacred ritual it is as a way to say that people should feel that mystery and magical spark about Art.

From what I have read and observed Rhythm was an entertaining journal.  It had a mixture of literature for everyone.  It had artwork that was bold, daring and compelling to the eye.  The stories and poems were both enjoyable, and intense.  They inclined you to be socially aware of the present and how to move forward into the future.  Their advertisements were passionate about institutionalizing the arts into every day life.  For the most part the editors of Rhythm sustained their mission to have aesthetic viewpoints on Art and to continue to adhere into the future not negating the past, just changing it.

Now concernning their spiritual beliefs a thought was sparked when I first read their first story in Volume 1 which was called the 'The New Thelema'. At first when I read it, I questioned whether this was a story or was it their philosophy on life.  Therefore I looked up the word Thelema and I found that it was a philosophy which was developed by Francois Rabelais in 1532. Then around 1904 an English poet and author called Alesister Crowley, developed this philosophy even furthur. The main beliefs are "Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law."They believed that every man and woman is a star and that each have a unique path in the universe. Therefore, because of this unique path in the universe they must do what they will in order to obtain their fulfillment and freedom in life. Another main belief is, "Love is the law, love under will". They believe that the entire universe of  humans are united by this power of love.

In conclusion this philosophy focuses on freedom and individuality and love and when you come to think of it, that is what Rhythm is all about.One can see individuality and freedom through their paintings and one can definitely sense the power of love through their poems.