BLAST

The first articles of BLAST I and BLAST II are important to consider when assessing some of the differences in the magazines. This was decided based on the assumption that the authors, as artists, chose their introductory pieces to set up the tone and themes of the works. The very first full article in BLAST I is the Preliminary Vortex, which will not be considered as the first BLAST article, because it is almost an introduction to the Vorticist movement rather than the journal itself. Furthermore, it has a different aesthetic than the majority of the other articles in the work. It is formatted in a rather straightforward manner with minimal use of excessive capitals or rearranging of space - something that is arguably the focus of BLAST I.  

The article that will be examined as the first BLAST I article is delineated with a square box and the number 1 in it on page 11. Visually, the article closely resembles the one that follows it, as seen here. It is much more complex, in this way, than the second publication. This can also make it a little bit difficult to follow at times. The designers used different sizes of a stark font in bold, ranging from all capitals to lowercase across the page while playing with the words to create an overall image that resembles the vortex. Portions of the writing are also set up without following a full sentence structure, for example, “THE CURATE of “Eltham” BRITANNIC AESTHETE WILD NATURE CRANK DOMESTICATED POLICEMAN LONDON COLISEUM SOCIALIST-PLAYWRIGHT DALY’S MUSICAL COMEDY GAIETY CHORUS GIRL TONKS” (11). This string of words  is clarified by the very nature of BLAST because of the way that the designers played with the space of the page, as well as conveying meaning through shock and awe. This is more the focus of the first publication meaning that, although there is featured vorticist art, the writing and the displays they are presented in are the art of much of BLAST. Although each page like this is different, almost every single page that uses this display method features an overall pattern indicative of a vortex or whirlwind shape that is created by manipulating the font size and orientation on the page as you can see with the example. This seems to be the artistic focal point, or uniqueness of BLAST, although there are plenty of other featured literary works that are not presented in the same manner and are important to the vorticist movement.  

The second publication of BLAST has a much different character than the first. It is also worth noting that the first publication is exactly one hundred pages longer than the second publication. While the amount of time and effort put into the first edition is unknown, the second was published within a year and a month later. In publication terms, this is rather fast, meaning that the authors pulled together and churned out content. This is observable based on the fact that much of the content is reflecting on or reacting to World War I, so the majority of the literary works were probably not pieces that the authors had laying around at home. While the beginning of the article titled “THE GOD OF SPORT AND BLOOD” (9) indicates that the authors are talking about a “merciless war on Cubism and Expressionism” (9), as noted by the distant reading on the word “war”, World War I was having quite an influence on the content of this publication. The most notable section of this article reads, “Sport and blood are inseparable, or Sport without blood is anaemic. Sport and blood again are the rich manure all our vitality battens on” (9). Although it is a bit lengthy, another section that helps depict the mood of the time can be seen by the way the Germans were perceived in this section. The author says that the Germans “[had] become infernally philosophic and democratic, their heads naturally being too weak to resist”, then followed it by saying that “there is only one sort of person who can be conscious and not degenerate”, and concluded the thought by saying that “Germany’s rulers do not belong to that august category” (10). To finish the thought, the author finally says that “[the German’s] wicked and low degeneration and identifying of themselves with the people will recoil on their own heads. No wonder they have an admiration for English cunning, as they describe moderate British good-sense” (10). This is telling of the environment that the author was writing in at the time as it promotes very nationalistic feelings and is themed around the idea of war as sort of a necessary evil.  

Visually, the second issue of BLAST is much more standardized - a two column nightmare of the most part. The second publication of BLAST lost the artful textual displays that were heavily featured in the first and focuses more on articles with informational (in the traditional sense), literary content (although, they often featured small pieces of art at the end of articles, as can be seen above). There appears to be more artwork in the second issue of BLAST as well, and it seems that the vorticist style had more time to develop and solidify than it did in the first. This can be seen below. One can understand this by comparing artwork between the two issues, as the artwork in the second publication is mostly very stark, angular, and even minimalist at times while the artwork of the first publication has more variety to it concerning texture, shading, and shapes. The artwork of the second publication of BLAST seems to be more abstract than that of the first - this could be due to the development of the vorticist style, or it could reflect some of the social and cultural conflict that the WWI was causing. In this way, the second publication of BLAST can be seen as a peek into the emotions and reactions of the Vorticists of the time.