Tuesday 17 January 2012

Failing Eyesight




I spent a few days last week making drawings of the collected weather data on to graph paper.
Let me explain:

So far since October i've read hundreds of letters by the Bronte sisters and also Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) and i'm half way through The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte). I've noted down all the weather references in every text.
During this time the weather station that is sited at the Bronte Parsonage Museum has been collecting data.

So, for the drawings i've tried to cross reference the two - finding a specific text written by one of the Brontes and tried to match it up with a date from this past few months.

Their letters are dated and refer to recent weather so they were easier to match, but there are some fictional references in the novels that i've been able to find similar days in October and November last year. Get it? 

So the image above shows:

"Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves in my book, I studied the aspect of that wintery afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast."

Chapter 1 in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Looking through the records from the weather station i found that Saturday 26th November was a pretty "drear November day", with heavy rain in the afternoon and gusty wind and clouds etc. So my drawing shows 12 hours from midnight on 26.11.11 

I have to say that concentrating for hours at a time focusing on graph paper has made my eyesight go completely to pieces. I suppose that now i'm in my mid 30's it's just something i'll have to get used to? I can feel an eye test coming on.

1 comment:

  1. thanks for sharing the information about Bronte Weather Project....
    Project failure

    ReplyDelete