Our Project
Introduction
The Timeless Plight takes you on a journey through time, connecting the past with the present through the power of digital media. The project revolves around digitizing historical data from the 18th century English workhouse day called Knaresborough Workhouse Daybook maintained records of the homeless people living in the workhouse and the work they did, providing a unique insight into a different era.
Our project creatively linked this data to modern-day concepts of poverty and homelessness, using data visualizations and creative coding to bring the data to life. Through this project, we aim to convey the temporal, changing, yet constant nature of homelessness that is centuries apart. Our project is not just about presenting data, but it's about creating a thought-provoking experience that connects the past with our present. We want to showcase the similarities and differences between the workhouses of the 18th century and the digital workhouses of today. Our project is an exploration of how technology and social issues intersect and evolve.
We invite you to experience The Timeless Plight and to be a part of a thought-provoking experience that challenges our perceptions of poverty and homelessness.
Project Background
The Knaresborough Workhouse in England was just one of many workhouses that were established in the 18th century. Workhouses were a response to the increasing number of poor people in England who needed assistance. According to historian Samantha Shave, the workhouse system was established to provide relief to the poor, and it was intended to be a more efficient and effective way of providing this relief than the previous methods used. Workhouses were designed to provide work for the poor, to help them to become self-sufficient, and to reduce the burden on the parishes that were responsible for looking after them.
However, although workhouses were intended to be an improvement on the previous system, there were many negative aspects to the workhouse system. According to historian Ruth Richardson, the workhouses were often overcrowded, and the conditions were unsanitary, with poor ventilation and inadequate facilities. The workhouse diet was often insufficient, and many people in workhouses suffered from malnutrition and disease. Workhouses were also seen as punitive institutions, and they were often used to discipline the poor, rather than to provide them with assistance. Despite these challenges, the workhouse served a vital role in addressing the issue of poverty. It provided a roof over the heads of the homeless and gave them a sense of purpose through work. It was not a perfect system, but it was a step forward in the fight against poverty. According to historian Peter Kirby, the workhouse system also provided a form of social welfare for the poor, and it helped to establish a standard of care for the poor that was adopted by other institutions.
The Knaresborough Workhouse Daybook is a unique historical record of daily life in an 18th-century English workhouse located in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, W. Riding. The workhouse was established in 1737 by the parish next to the church, and the inmates were primarily involved in spinning and weaving flax. The project uses this daybook as a starting point for digitizing and humanising historical data and connecting it to the current world. It is a unique social and economic document that was written by the Master(s) of the workhouse between 1788 and 1791. It provides a daily record of life in the workhouse, including the names and occupations of the inmates, food that they were given, the work that they did and how much they earned doing that work, along with records of disruptions in routine of the workhouse.
The Data
Historical data is often relegated to dusty old books, buried deep in archives, and accessible only to a select few. The stories and struggles of the people whose lives were recorded in these texts were often forgotten, left to languish in obscurity. But as technology has advanced and the digital age has dawned, there is now an opportunity to breathe new life into these tales and make them accessible to a wider audience.
By humanising historical data and presenting it in formats that are more accessible in the digital age, we can shed light on the lived experiences of people who have been historically marginalised and bring their stories to the forefront. This is particularly important for our project as it seeks to explore the evolving nature of poverty, homelessness, and workhouses over centuries.
Simply recording names and details is not enough. It is important to humanise this historical data, to bring these people to life and to give them a voice. In doing so, we can help to bridge the gap between the past and the present, and inspire people to take action in the fight against poverty and homelessness.
Examining our Roots
Poverty has been a persistent problem throughout the history of England. The policies and strategies employed to address poverty have changed over time, but the issue itself remains a pressing concern. The visual timeline below helps us understand the evolution of
The Workhouse
For those living in poverty, there may be limited access to education and training opportunities, which can limit their ability to acquire new skills and knowledge that could lead to better job prospects and higher incomes. Additionally, those living in poverty may be forced to take on jobs that offer little room for advancement, leading to a sense of monotony in their daily lives. Monotony in routine can be both a cause and a consequence of poverty, as those living in poverty may be unable to break free from the limitations imposed by their economic circumstances.
This spiral plot chart titled 'Everyday Rhythm: Tracking Attendance of May 1788' uses the total number of days worked by six inmates of the Workhouse- Owthwate, Brown, Danial, Robert, Andrew and Baff- to record their attendance, with small circles indicating their holiday or absence from work. The chart's radial axis represents each individual's attendance as a separate line, starting at the center of the chart with the first day of the year and spiraling outward for each subsequent day.
The result is a mesmerizing visualization of the workhouse's everyday life, symbolizing the ebbs and flows of daily rhythm through the data spiral.
Understanding Our Place in the World
Seemingly simple transactions when analysed through data illustrate a better perspective of economic conditions. This becomes particularly evident when we examine a data visualisation comparing expenditure and income. The Poverty Paradox is a visualisation that underscores the persistent nature of poverty in the UK and the urgent need for continued efforts to address this critical issue. The striking poverty data visualisation emphasises two major data points: Average monthly household expenditure in the UK in 2022 and monthly workhouse income from July 1790- December 1790. By highlighting these crucial points, the visualisation reveals that even with inflation taken into account, monthly income struggles to cover essential expenses in current times. The data for the year 1790 has been collected from the Knaresborough Workhouse Daybook and the data for the year 2022 has been digitally scrapped from the Office for National Statistics UK.
The 3 month combined income incurred by the inmates (table below) amounted up-to £3.4 in 18th century, which today with inflation is equavalent to £235.40. What use could have the inmates put their money to? Inspired by The National Archives, below are some interesting purchase options.
This data is a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle, still faced by those living in poverty. It also highlight the importance of continued efforts to alleviate poverty and ensure a better standard of living for all.
Spiralling into Crisis
It's no secret now that many folks are struggling with the cost of living crisis, and poverty and homelessness are major issues affecting communities and nations across the globe. But why should we care about data on these themes?
Behind every statistic on poverty and homelessness, there is a real human story. It's important to remember that these numbers are not just cold, hard data points, but rather represent actual people who are experiencing poverty and homelessness every day. They are our community, our neighbours, our friends, or even our family members. We must strive to not only understand the data, but also empathise with the people behind the numbers, and use our knowledge to drive meaningful change in our communities.
The above data illustration weaves a tale of homelessness through time using a spiral. With a striking yellow hue, the 1790 data point of 65 homeless people in the Knaresborough Workhouse marked the start of the journey. As the spiral traversed time, it widened its arc, slowly transforming into a beige to symbolize the 2023 data point of 271,000 homeless people in the UK.
The spiral's curves and winding path echo the fluid nature of homelessness, ever-evolving yet constant. The overall design aims to draw attention to the ongoing nature of homelessness and emphasize the need for continued efforts to address this critical issue.
Every time you refresh the website, a random image of homelessness from upsplash.com is selected and traced with numbers representing the homeless population of the world. This effect is meant to signify the temporal and fluid nature of homelessness, as the numbers representing the homeless population are constantly changing. It also draws attention to the scale of the issue and the large number of individuals affected by it.
Through this interactive experience, we hope to inspire reflection on the challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness and to raise awareness about this important social issue. We believe that art and technology can be powerful tools for promoting empathy and driving social change.
What about the Data
The Big Picture
Text Mirror uses the camera on your device to create a text mirror that displays a powerful message about global homelessness. When you look into the mirror, you'll see your own reflection, but it will be overlaid with text that reads, "In 2021, the World Economic Forum reported that 150 million people were homeless worldwide." The purpose of this project is to use technology in a creative way to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness and to encourage people to think more deeply about the challenges faced by those who are homeless. The accompanying text goes on to explain the difficulties in accurately measuring global homelessness, and how census data often fails to account for the "hidden homeless" who are living in inadequate conditions. By prompting users to see themselves through these words, the project encourages self-reflection and empathy for those facing homelessness.
Though 150 million is numerical in nature, it represents actual, lived human experiences. It's crucial that we humanise the data, whether it's historical or contemporary, so that we can truly understand the impact it has on people's lives. Homelessness is not just an abstract concept - it's a lived reality for 150 million individuals around the world. When we look at data on homelessness and poverty, we must acknowledge the humans behind those numbers and understand the daily struggles they face.
Around the Globe
Governments and organizations across the globe are working to address this problem through various policies and initiatives. An interactive map of current poverty alleviation policies across the globe can help us understand the global efforts being made to tackle this issue. The map can provide a visual representation of the progress being made in different parts of the world, as well as highlight areas where more work is needed. With this information, we can work together to continue fighting poverty and building a more equitable future for all.
Visualising and humanising data can lead us to more effective solutions to alleviate poverty. By seeing the data in a more tangible way, we can identify patterns and trends that we may not have noticed before. It also helps us to communicate the impact of poverty to a wider audience and generate more empathy and understanding. Moreover, humanising data can help us to shift the conversation from blaming individuals for their poverty to addressing the systemic issues that cause poverty in the first place. By understanding the root cause of this timeless plight, we can develop policies and initiatives that tackle these issues and create more equitable and sustainable societies.
Behind the Data
Imagine having embarked on a journey into the unknown - a quest to uncover the mysteries of homelessness, poverty, and workhouses that have plagued humanity for centuries. As you took your first steps, you realised that you were not alone in this journey. Our trusty companion was none other than the existing literature that helped us navigate through the vast expanse of research and knowledge on the topic.
With the literature review in hand, we began to explore the different paths that previous researchers had taken, noting the landmarks and milestones along the way. We delved deeper into the terrain, discovering hidden treasures of concepts and methods that had been used to understand the complex nature of data.
Literature Review
The project aims to connect this historical data to the modern-day concepts of poverty, homelessness, and digital workhouses. The project explores the temporal, changing, yet constant nature of homelessness and how it has evolved over centuries. It analyses Knaresborough Workhouse Day Book (1788-92), and through the use of digital tools, extracts, processes, organise and present the data to reveal patterns, trends, and relationships. The project uses this analysis to understand the changing nature of homelessness, poverty, and workhouses in a contemporary context.
Hitchcock (1985) summarised that the Workhouse Test Act passed in 1723 became the legal basis of the workhouse system. This act helped to build the framework of the workhouse, accepted poor people, reduced pension expenses, and encouraged hiring poor people in institutions. The government hoped to transform the unemployed homeless people into diligent workers through the workhouse system and encouraged them to become self-supporting, thus realising social reformation (Hitchcock, 1985). Under this law, the Knaresborough Workhouse was established in 1737 (Giner & Montgomery, 2001) to provide shelter and work opportunities for homeless people. Workhouses enabled poor people to make a living, but some workhouses could not provide qualified living conditions due to corruption of contractors. This was the most severe problem for the workhouse system at that time (Hitchcock, 1985).
The Daybook provided people with an opportunity to observe the working lives of the homeless in the workhouse, learn about their job duties and other activities at that time, and see the real effect of the system. As recorded by Borrow (1788), on one working day, Robert Jeffery spent the entire day drinking. This indicates that although some people worked normally in the workhouse, some workers could not complete the work routine due to unreasonable excuses. It is evident that changing people's personal traits by merely bringing them together and telling them to work is challenging. In modern times, the UK government continues to make efforts to assist homeless people. From 2011 to 2015, 6.5 billion pounds were used for housing supporting services, aimed at helping homeless and other disadvantaged groups (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2015). The number of statutory homeless people continues to increase, resulting in more use of temporary accommodation. Housing expenses increased in 2010 to 2011 and 2016 to 2017 (Harding, 2020). Furthermore, the COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the intrinsic deficiencies of housing that have continued for decades (Murphy, 2023). As various international issues arise, the situation of homeless people may worsen, and the government may need to provide more support. However, the government's funds must be allocated for diverse national affairs, leading to the recurrence of housing problems. The UK government has used various methods to tackle the issue of homelessness. However, the problem has evolved over time and requires a solution that takes into account both past experiences and current circumstances. The workhouse system offers some insights that can inform contemporary poverty alleviation policies in the UK. This raises important questions such as what are the main differences between ancient and modern anti-poverty policies in the UK, and how do the workhouse policies and their implementation influence today's homeless population.
The research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods, where qualitative data is obtained through manual data scraping from online texts, images, or videos, and quantitative data is obtained through digital data scraping using web scraping tools or programming languages (Kozinets, 2015). The data collected through both methods is then analysed and visualised using data visualisation techniques to gain insights and convey findings in a meaningful manner through the coding languages like HTML, CSS and Java Script (Tufekci, 2014), along with creative platforms like Open Processing and Flourish. The interpretation of findings is supported with relevant literature.
Old and new media are relative to one another (Menke and Schwarzenegger, 2019) and the way media is used and experienced is shaped by our lifeworld, which includes our social, cultural, and historical contexts. Menke and Schwarzenegger (2019) argue that the distinction between old and new media is not as clear-cut as it may seem, and that we need to take a lifeworld perspective to understand the relationship between them. This perspective is relevant to the project, which aims to explore the changing nature of homelessness and poverty over time. By taking a lifeworld perspective, we can better understand how the use of digital tools to analyse data can shape our understanding of historical and contemporary issues. The project employs the use of data fiction (Dourish and Gómez Cruz, 2018) by creating narratives based on the collected data. Data fiction has the potential to offer new insights into the changing nature of homelessness and poverty. By creating narratives based on historical data, we can gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the poor and homeless in the workhouse system.
Madianou (2019) defines technocolonialism as the use of digital innovation and data practices by powerful actors in ways that perpetuate the power asymmetries of colonialism. The use of digital tools to analyse historical data can help to reveal the hidden structures of power that were present in the workhouse system. By understanding how data was collected, managed, and used, we can challenge the power structures that perpetuate poverty and homelessness today (Madianou, 2019). Datafication has significant implications for the analysis of historical data using digital tools. Dourish and Gómez Cruz (2018) discuss the concept of datafication as a process of transforming social and cultural phenomena into data. The transformation of historical records into data reveals patterns, trends, and relationships in the project that were not previously visible.
References
- Borrow, W. 1788 to 1791. Knaresborough Workhouse Daybook.
- Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. 2017. Collecting Data in Mixed Methods Research. In: Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. pp. 110-127.
- Dourish, P. and Gómez Cruz, E. 2018. Datafication and data fiction: Narrating data and narrating with data. Big data & society. 5(2).
- Kozinets, R.V. 2014. Netnography.: redefined Second edition. Los Angeles: Sage.
- Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. 2015. 2010 to 2015 government policy: housing for older and vulnerable people. [Online]. [Accessed 15 April 2023]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-housing-for-older-and-vulnerable-people/2010-to-2015-government-policy-housing-for-older-and-vulnerable-people
- Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, and Eddie Hughes MP. 2022. Rough sleepers helped to rebuild their lives with new strategy backed by £2bn government support. [Online]. [Accessed 15 April 2023]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rough-sleepers-helped-to-rebuild-their-lives-with-new-strategy-backed-by-2bn-government-support
- Giner, M. G. and Montgomery, M. 2001. Yorkshire English Two Hundred Years Ago. Journal of English Linguistics. 29(4), pp.346–362.
- Harding, J. 2020. The Conservative-Led Administrations from 2010: Familiar Policies in New Rhetoric. In: Post-war homelessness policy in the UK: making and implementation. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 193-227.
- Hitchcock, T.V. 1985. The English workhouse: a study in institutional poor relief in selected countries 1696-1750. [Online]. [Accessed 16 April 2023]. Available from: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:57a30e82-1101-4b09-ab83-8e8e271c77f4/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=602344969.pdf&type_of_work=Thesis
- Madianou, M. 2019. Technocolonialism: Digital Innovation and Data Practices in the Humanitarian Response to Refugee Crises. Social media + society. 5(3).
- Menke, M. and Schwarzenegger, C. 2019. On the relativity of old and new media: A lifeworld perspective. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 25(4), pp.657–672.
- Murphy, P. 2023. Housing Policy and provision after COVID-19. In: Bonner, A. ed. COVID-19 and social determinants of health: wicked issues and relationalism. Bristol: Bristol University Press. pp. 210-229.
- Tufekci, Z. 2014. Big Questions for Social Media Big Data: Representativeness, Validity and Other Methodological Pitfalls.