For the reading, we were supposed to ‘read’ or look at a bunch of super interesting graphics about Vogue magazine but I ran into a problem.

I have almost no context.

I’ve never read Vogue. I have never even opened a magazine. It hasn’t been in my dentist’s office’s waiting room. None of my family members subscribe to it. I figure it’s about fashion, but that’s all.

As I thought about this, I was reminded of our discussion on meaning in GIFs, how different people get different things out of them depending on background knowledge, shared experience, etc. That lead me to a question.

Does my complete lack of Vogue knowledge make me a poor observer of this work due to my lack of context, or a better one because of my complete objectivity?

Something to think about.

I’m sort of falling down a DH rabbit hole in my mind. What is the purpose of all of this Vogue summing? What do we get out of the Vogue to computer to me chain of reading?  Why Vogue?

The authors answer that question. Vogue has been in consistent publication for over a century, and the magazines are already conveniently digitized. (Working with stuff already digitized seems to be a theme)

I’d like to think Vogue was also chosen because of its visual appeal. It is about fashion, color, space, and beauty. This makes for a much more interesting project than a summing of each issue of Elevator World.

That’s a real magazine

And it isn’t as visually appealing. I have thumbed through an issue of Elevator World before. (But not Vogue. Crazy, right?)

But maybe if someone digitized a bunch of copies of Elevator World and did a similar project, we would get more out of it. Maybe obscurity helps.

Who knows?