Liz Oakley-Brown

Visualising Surfaces, Surfacing Vision: Introduction

In this Introduction to a special section on ‘Visualizing Surfaces, Surfacing Vision’, the authors argue that to conceive vision in the contemporary world it is necessary to examine its embedding within, expression via and organization on the surface. First, they review recent social and cultural theories to demonstrate how and why an attention to surfaces is salient today. Second, they consider how vision may be understood in terms of surfaces, discussing the emergence of the term ‘surface’, and its transhistorical relationship with vision. Third, they introduce the contributions to the special section, which cover written articles and artworks. They make connections between them, including their exploration of reflexivity and recursion, observation, objectivity and agency, ontology and epistemology, relationality, process, and two- and three-dimensionality. Fourth, the authors consider some implications of an understanding of visualizing surfaces/surfacing vision.

A pirate for all seasons? Captain Kidd and pirates in popular culture A review of ‘Pirates: the Captain Kidd story’, an exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, 20 May–30 October 2011

The recent exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands – ‘Pirates: the Captain Kidd story’ – was developed by Tom Wareham and Hilary Davidson. This exhibition took advantage of the widespread popular appeal of pirates – most vividly epitomised by the worldwide success of Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates of the Caribbean film phenomena (2003; 2006; 2007; 2011) with Johnny Depp’s charismatic and tongue-in-cheek depiction of the ambiguously anti-heroic Captain Jack Sparrow. However, the museum show focused on the life and death of one of England’s most famous real-life pirates, William Kidd (c. 1645–1701). Like Jack Sparrow, who emerges as a fully formed pirate at the beginning of The Curse of the Black Pearl with no Bildungsroman-style back story, very little is known about Kidd’s early life. He was a Scot, and was probably born in the 1640s, but his first appearance in the historical record only occurs in 1689, when he was a member of a pirate crew who turned privateer against the French in the West Indies. However, the most interesting aspects of Kidd’s life, and the events on which the exhibition focused, are from the midto late 1690s. Secretly financed by a powerful but secret Whig syndicate made up of some of the most illustrious English peers of the day – including the earls of Shrewsbury, Orford and Romney, as well as John, Lord Somers – Kidd was licensed to capture pirates in the Indian Ocean. Equipped with a powerful ship, the Adventure Galley, Kidd soon returned to piracy himself. In 1697, he sailed to the Red Sea and unsuccessfully attacked the pilgrim fleet en route for India, before heading for the west coast of India where he attempted to take a number of other ships. His crew, who were on a ‘no prey, no pay’ contract, were increasingly unhappy and tensions increased until, during a fight for control of the ship, Kidd killed his gunner, William Moore. Kidd went on to capture six ships, of which only two, which were carrying French passes, could be considered legitimate prey under his commission. He then sailed to Madagascar and openly consorted with the pirates he had been sent to capture. As a result, the East India Company, punished by the Mughal government for the depredations of the pirates, campaigned against Kidd, so that he was proclaimed an outlaw in 1698 and instructions were issued for his capture. He was finally arrested by one of his former backers, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont and governor of New York and Massachusetts Bay, and sent to London for trial. During Kidd’s absence from England the political landscape had changed markedly. Kidd’s secret Whig patrons were out of power and he was approached by the Tories to testify against them. Though Kidd refused, the Whigs (themselves facing charges of treason) let matters proceed against Kidd in order to get him out of the way. One unusual feature of his trial was the fact that the French passes he had seized from two vessels could not be found for him to use as evidence. Unsurprisingly, Kidd was sentenced to death for the murder of Moore, and for piracy. He was hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping, on 23 May 1701. Two attempts were needed, since the first time the rope split and had to be rapidly replaced. Kidd’s hoard of

Disability, health, and happiness in the Shakespearean body: Disability, health, and happiness in the Shakespearean body, edited by Sujata Iyengar, Routledge Studies in Shakespeare, New York, Routledge, 2015, 280 pp., £90.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-138-80428-9

and British Deaf News documenting the social activities of deaf clubs and deaf sport, it is possible to see that deaf people enjoyed a diverse range of leisure pursuits from choirs to golf, dispelling many stereotypes attributed to them. Although these publications only provide a window onto deaf leisure and culture, the amount of data available is still quite considerable. In light of this, Atherton uses north-west England as a case study to illustrate the factors involved. One defining feature is the level of enjoyment gained from visiting and being visited by other deaf people, a pleasure which set the tone for many club-based events (127), ranging from hosted visits to communal holidays and trips. Fundraising activities, such as fashion shows (137) and the provision of educational and self-help opportunities (140), are likewise prominent. In terms of sporting endeavour, 11 sports hold sway (football, cricket, athletics, bowls, dominoes, snooker/billiards/pool, darts, chess, badminton, table tennis and swimming), and sport was for the most part enjoyed indoors (143–144). Atherton concludes from analysis of the leisure and sporting pursuits of deaf communities and clubs that most appear similar to those enjoyed by other social groupings, with one minor exception – a slightly less diverse range of sporting choices. The drive behind the recreations seems to be the pleasure in engaging in them with those who shared their interests, their deaf culture.