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Mary Newcombes plans and quick illustrations on location 

getting down information from an environment in this way is something I practiced when location drawing and can incorporate into my practice, to take back into studios and work from

(the plans for fountain illustration I almost prefer more than the real illustration) 

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2012 rendition of this poster 

GUERRILLA GIRLS

being a woman creating art https://www.guerrillagirls.com/#open (illustrators such as Mary Newcombe me and Pia think lacked the exposure because she was female. She is just beginning to get famous and she is dead now, the guerrilla girls address topics like this)

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research techniques I have used before

I will be able to use some similar methods of research as I did for the Draw my Attention project. This would involve going out into the real world to interview people and collect stories. What I discover from these interviews may inform the direction that my project goes in.

I enjoyed so much the process of forming our story worlds that we explored in Believing is seeing project. I will use some of these when creating narrative and story worlds based on the people I have interviewed. 

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Which jobs do you find yourself surprised to see women doing ? 

Bus drivers  Builders  Kabab shop worker Uber Drivers Takeaway deliverers Fire fighters

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building on moments I have visited before - a woman works at a five star hotel, she works 9-5 on her feet and her boss insists that she looks more professional and enticing if she is wearing 6 inch heels. This is a long painful shift, she almost always has weak ankles and blisters on the balls of her feet. She knows that getting surgery to add extensions to the heel of her foot would is her only solution. She loves her job and wouldn't give it up for the world, but she longs for the natural feet she once had. 

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Companies are legally allowed to insist that women wear heels at work as part of the uniform. Nicola Thorpe in 2016 made the news for her refusal to put a pair of heels on for a 9 hour shit - resulting in her being sent home without pay.

High heels are often very uncomfortable and increase risk of musculoskeletal conditions such as tendonitis. 

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I have touched on the topic of retirement when looking at our relationship with the older members of our family and how keeping in touch with them can benefit both family member’s mental health. This is the opposite to some topics which I may be covering of people who are at the height of their careers or dedicating their life to their work. I may consider how this changes as we get older and no longer work, and are relying on calls from our younger family members to keep us from becoming lonely. 

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A retired (then male) scientist / spy

an conversation I had with a friend who had made friends with an old lady recently. When she got to know her better she realised that this old lady used to be a spy 

L: Kate fell over when me and my dad were passing on the way to dinner and we saw her so we like helped her home and thats how we met her. She was just like talking to us, I think because she doesn’t have many people to talk to, so like when she has the opportunity to talk to someone she talks for a long time. She probably has a lot to say. 

So we like got to her door and we were talking for ages, and she was saying really interesting things about her house and like a bit about her past, and thats what interested me because it was very arts based. She was saying oh ah I painted that painting myself or I made that window. It was like really cool. So thats why I went back to go and visit her again 

I: so did you like ask her then If you could meet her again? 

L: well I didn’t ask her then, I just knocked on her door another day and asked her then if I could come in and chat to her. 

What was quite dangerous for her about when I knocked on the door for the second time is that she invited me straight in for a cup of tea.. but she couldn’t even remember who I was.

I: ohhh

L: then I explained myself, but if I was a dangerous person she would’ve been putting herself in a vulnerable position by being so open and just letting anyone who knocked on her door into her house. 

I: yeh cos she was like do you wanna come in but like hey do I know you at the same time 

L: haha yeh, which was nice of her but… 

Our relationship is a bit weird now, because… did I tell u about this when it happened? 

I: I think you did, is this the same lady that offered you all her clothes? 

L: yeh yeh it is, and I need to go and say thank you for that to her honest but I just haven’t had time not gonna lie, I need to go and see her again which I feel a little guilty about 

But yeh so I went round for the first time with her and I stayed for hours and hours and hours and her house was like beautiful it was like straight out the 1950s because thats when she’s lived there since, and it was really nice. And she told me her whole life story pretty much, because she lived through WWII, and she is trans from male to female. 

I: How long ago did she transition? 

L: in the 70s 

Which is a very scary time to do it! So she has been a woman since the 70s, but before then she was a ‘male’ scientist. She told me that she was married to a woman but they divorced when she transitioned. She had two kids.

I: Do you know much about her children? 

L: One of her kids lives around the corner but the other one she hasn’t seen since her daughter was 18. She just walked out the house one day and never came back 

I: Oh no really 

L: I know its so sad isn’t it

Its weird being interviewed I feel like im being so formal 

I: ahahah 

L: hahahah

OK do you want to know anything else about Kate? 

I: yes, how come your relationship is weird now? L: OH yes of course, so I went round a second time to see her again, and I completely understand this and understand where she was coming from, but then it just freaked me out. She was basically like how do I know that you’re not coming round to my house to steal from me. She said to me: you’re stealing from me. You’re using me, you’re just being friends with me so that when I die you can have all my money. How do I know that when you look upstairs around the house (because I looked around her house because I like interior design and I was like wow this is so great) so she said how do I know that you’re not doing that and like taking jewellery off of my night stand. So shed basically spoken to her partner who lives in Russia thats like 20 years younger then her. And when she was last on facetime to her partner she told her all about me and her partner said who the hell is this person why have you let her into your house. So that freaked her out but then she basically was saying to me you’re actually doing all of this. So I just stood there like being like I’m honestly not, 

I: but then you also kinda got it, you were like ok I can see how you think that, especially how her partner thought that because she’s never met you and doesn’t know how friendly and harmless u seem you know aha 

L: yeah ! But then I was like im honestly not, and she said well someone who is doing that would say that. So I was like well theres nothing I can do in this situation. For the next few hours I tried my best because it made me feel really uncomfortable, because I know it sounds really stupid, but like I felt that threat then in her presence. She also made strange comments about things, like she told me a story about spies, because she has a history with spies and was a spy for a bit. Um but she basically said that at cocktail parties spies never talked about themselves and she was basically directing the story at me, saying that I was a SPY! 

I: oh! Oh yeh I remember you telling me this, and she was like oh um like and she was like like that like that she was making

L: ahahahaha

I: that she was making it out as if you were doing the spy stuff

L: exactly yeh, and I wasnt. And basically so the first time I went to see her she mentioned that she had loads of clothes and she wanted to chuck them out so I was like (just to change the subject off of spies) I was like you said you had loads of clothes, may I have a look through some of them? Because I do fashion im really interested in especially old clothes. So she brought a big bag of clothes in and said you can take what you want because ill only take them down to the dump anyway. So I was like no its fine its fine and she just said take it, so I took a few pieces out then she just said actually just take the whole bag and give them to your friends. When I left she said to me I’m so glad you’re not a spy. 

I: Awh so 

L: by the end of the interaction I guess she had more confidence in me 

I: but that was probably weird because she immediately really trusted you then all of a sudden it was completely taken away 

L: and it also took away the trust with me, you know because of the whole ***** thing, I was just thinking you don’t really know people sometimes, even when you live with them. Also, on the other side I am going to this ladies house who I don’t know, and that then scared me because I thought I don’t know what she will do to me. Like its so pathetic, because she was saying all of these things whilst making me a cup of coffee and I just thought - is she putting poison in this coffee? I know thats such a stupid thing to think, but because of the situation that passed my mind and then I just did not want to drink my drink. Then she kept on being like Oh do you not like the coffee? And I kept on being like 

I: ahah oh like thats what someone who did poison your drink would say aha ha

L: yeah exactly 

I: and her being a past spy and all

L: ahahahah 

So I was in my own head like fuck is she trying to kill me ! But… yeah I dunno 

So its kinda like when I first left her house I felt really inspired, and it was the loveliest interaction ever, and the second time was like the worst. 

I: because you left and u were a bit freaked 

L: so now I’m a bit freaked to go back but I need to go back because ive got her trolly. 

I: haahah ohh that trolly thats in our flat 

L: well yeah its just the little one, and it was right in the back of her cupboard so I knew she wouldn’t use it often because she’s not that mobile so I think thats fine. But I do need to return it at some point but I just know that if I knock on the door ill be invited into the house for 5 hours. And I also feel really awkward about it because I don’t, well I made it clear to her that I was doing a project on her because I was at the time, but I think she forgot that by the second interaction. So the things that she was relaying to her partner, she was like to me: you gave me a fake address! And I was like no I didn’t give you a fake address but she just didn’t recognise the layout for halls adresses and she thought it was fake because theres no road name and it says C3F at the start of it which doesn’t seem like a house number. And I was like I didn’t give you a fake address, I didnt…. 

So its all just a bit … Ah ! 

*lights in the room we were in turned out*

I: ahahahahah

Just move a bit its automatic lighting 

L: aahhhhhhahah 

I: wait the sensors only in that corner I think 

L: that must happen all the time 

I: oh yeh it happens all the time.. oh yeah there we go 

L: so thats the story with Kate, and I saw her in Kingston town the other day but I ran away because I got scared. I should’ve gone up to her and said hey how you doing, 

I: has she lived in Kingston this whole time? 

L: yes same house since the 50s

She’s such an interesting person, so its such a shame 

I: and I mean I can imagine my gran being like that in a way, because she is very trusting too and assumes the best in people before she will doubt anything, but all of a sudden getting so scared is understandable 

L: I completely understand why she got scared, because if I looked back at the situation, it could be taken in that way.

I: I mean because she probably also made the assumption you are innocent because you have a prejudice of thinking that you mean any harm in the world. 

L: when she talked to me she knew that I was a nice person but her partner doesn’t know me, so her partner could’ve assumed that I was a bad person and kept on reinforcing that idea to her. But she only realised that I was a nice person after spending that time with me again. And eventually she realised that I was not there for any exterior motives and I just wanted to see her and listen to her stories. 

I’m really scared of getting old at the moment because seeing Kate although it was nice, it always really terrified me of getting old. Because she is really immobile, and the fact that she has no one to talk to. Ive never been scared of dying or whatever, but it scared me a bit 

I: most old people have no one to talk to unfortunately

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHuDGe1fA8)

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkwwsSP0FS0)

in conservative 1970s Britain, the European wrestling champion Adrian Street was entering the ring with peroxide blonde hair tied into ponytails, tight purple and gold outfits and flamboyant eye makeup and lipstick. 

Only 15 years before he won this title Adrian Street was working in a coal mine. “I hated that,” says Street. “It’s dark down there and I was made to be seen”. 

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what is different about being a woman in the workplace compared to a man?

what is the definition of a successful woman? 

what is it like in the workplace for people of gender minorities?

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NASA astronauts scheduled to make the first ever all-female spacewalk

a crew composed solely of female astronauts will conduct a spacewalk at the International Space Station on March 29 2019

WHY WOMEN WEREMN’T ALLOWED TO BE ASTRONAUTS:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/women-in-space/498833/

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MOVIE : Made in Dagenham - Comedy drama charting the fight of female factory workers at the Ford Dagenham plant for equal pay. In 1968, one determined factory worker leads her colleagues out on strike in the hope of eradicating unfair working conditions and sexual discrimination.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rcc33

How have the way we have approached certain jobs changed throughout history / what are jobs that there used to be that have become obsolete / what are jobs that we have had to create recently that we had no need for in the past

Peter Brook

how primary school children perceive what they think they can be when they grow up 

(Secret life of 5-year olds)

What’s important for girls when they grow up? To go to work, to vote definitely. There were these girls who had to fight to vote, but they all got killed So that’s why it’s important to vote, so that this doesn’t happen again

Why can’t girls be scientists? 5-year-old boy: Because they make silly potions

women led and men led jobs in the current industry

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women in the workplace

places which high heels are a uniform standard 

definition of success for females

burlesque dancers

has a woman ever been on the moon

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potential starting points or areas of research: 

visiting women in their jobs and interviewing them

trans women in the police force / gender netural / non binary members of the police force 

how women in the police force are presented in the media 

women in the workplace as a more general area of exploration