BLAST

One of the major differences between the creation of [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST] and [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST 2] was the physical separation of the contributors. While [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis] was attempting to put together [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST 2], he was fighting on the French Front. Many of the contributors still resided in London during the war; however, because [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis] was on the French Front, coordinating the different pieces of the magazine was infinitely more difficult. This was compounded by other contributors also participating in front line offensives or closely supporting the assaults. Additionally, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Dismorr Jessica Dismoor] served as a nurse on the French Front. The difficulty of war time communication as well as the variability of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyndham_Lewis Lewis'] location likely contributed to some of the changes in style of the second edition of [http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST] compared to the first. Lewis was likely more worried about disseminating the vorticist message than he was with ensuring the second editions textual layout was reminiscent of the first editions style. Lewis made use of the simpler double column layout with separate sections for art because of the communication difficulties and time crunch.  

As far as artwork goes, the first publication of the Tyro seems to contain some more [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticism Vorticist] characteristics than the second publication (this applies a little to the pieces done by Wyndham Lewis than some of the others), but there is a great deal of new content as well. The pieces by Lewis express the same focus on geometric patterns and stark contrast between black and white, however, other pieces exhibit, in general, more shading and less geometry than strictly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticism Vorticist] pieces. The biggest way that this artwork differs from the artwork of BLAST is that the subject is focused on humans (Or Tyros) rather than vortices.  

While it is plain to see that the Tyro shared many things with BLAST, it is also quite apparent that it was something else entirely. The structure, content, artwork, and even ads are quite different with the remains of similar modernist themes of the past. This is likely because of how hard Lewis was working to make something that he thought would last and really trying to fight against the odds. Lewis wrote “The question will arise naturally to what extent the European movement that these things typify has succeeded, how the war has affected it, and what its future may be. During the last ten years, at regular intervals, writers and people in conversation have said : ‘[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism Cubism], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism Futurism], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticism Vorticism], and all the rest of that revolutionary phase of art, is dead’” (the Tyro 2, pg 3). He goes on to argue that “a great innovating movement is not, however, so easily destroyed”, that “the quality of its vitality is certain to be so much truer and harder than that of its multitudes of opponents,” and “that the world would have to penetrate further into chaos than it has done, or is likely to be allowed to go, to make such manifestations impossible” (the Tyro 2, pg 3). Finally, he says that when one compares those movements “with the modes of expression that depend for their existence on the precarious remains of a past order of society and life, you will see that, depending as this other one does on a mentality, in course of formation, whose roots, literally, are in the future, its chances of survival are better than its more immediately traditional rivals” (the Tyro 2, pg 4). It seems as though this magazine were almost an attempt by Lewis and his peers to really advocate for the relevance they thought their work would have in the future. His reasoning may have been slightly overzealous, or overly validating on his own interests, but that could be part of the relevance of his work, and other work like his own.  

We first approached this project by examining the visual elements, physical aspects, and chronology of ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]''. Because of ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'' being created so close to the outbreak of WWI, we then decided to mainly focus on how the war impacted ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'', its subsequent issue, and its future. We decided to utilize

[http://voyant-tools.org Voyant Tools] as this had previously been explored in class and seemed like an impactful way to convey visual representations of important parts of the magazine. Next, we specifically chose the words "art", "man", and "war" as they each represent a major element of ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]''.

We obtained most of our data from digitally scanned copies of ''[http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1143209523824844&view=mjp_object BLAST]'' from the Modern Journals Project website. We supplemented this with research from other common web databases such as Wikipedia. Overall, the formatting of this was done in a standard way with a goal of professionalism.