performing_patents_otherwise/web/content/section_2/I-Martha-gowans.md

# I, Martha Gowans

*I, Martha Gowans* is based on a UK patent for improved pockets for women workers, filed by Martha Gowans (Milliner) in Dundee, Scotland, 1903. *I, Martha Gowans* is an experiment in translating the historical clothing patent into a score for two sewing machines, a voice and a computer. Performing the piece brings untold archival stories and possibilities to the fore.

Every patent contains instructions for labouring bodies and machines, yet while labour is all over the archive it is nowhere to be found. This performance experiments with making the explicit choreography of working bodies and machines that is written into the archive audible.

A series of translations formalise the work of invention into a patent. Seemingly dry and dusty patents, in turn, inform the deployment, beat and rhythm of labour.

UK patent Nº5835, filed by Martha Gowans in 1903 in Dundee, is a design for a suspended pocket for working women. Around that time, women workers were forming an important part of the industrial labour force, but women's constraining clothing was dysfunctional for industrial labour, lacking, for example, suitable pockets to hold the tools of the trade. Martha is one of several women inventors who invented suspended pockets to address this issue.

<maybe include the search or images from other chatelaines here>

For this performance, the fashion designer Ellen Fowles drew on Martha's patent to create a sewing pattern. The sewing pattern is a template that makes the musical information that is contained in the patent visible. Long-steady stretches, dense staccato sections, zigzag and straights stitches, padding, reinforcement and a range of symbols commonly found on sewing patterns such as *shorten, fuse, reduce, puncture or reinforce.*

The sewing pattern, in concert with a script that we composed from the original patent text, served as the basis for the musical improvisation by two operators on Global industrial sewing machines and the composer. The voice performer improvises to the rhythm of the machines, using the script and sewing pattern to guide their choice of pitch, length and emphasis.

*I, Martha Gowans* is an ongoing experiment, that will change every time that it is performed. The video below provides documentation of a three-day performance workshop that took place in the autumn of 2022 at Het Huis in Utrecht.

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Contributors: Julien McHardy, Nahuel Cano, Kat Jungnickel (Concept & Direction), Nahuel Cano (Sound composition), Juan Fernández Gebauer (Camera & Montage), Kat Jungnickel, Julien McHardy (Research), Margo van de Linde (Text collaborator & Voice), Kat Jungnickel, Emma Hoette (Machine operators), Ellen Fowles (Sewing pattern).

*I, Martha Gowans* is a co-production of [__POP – Politics of Patents__](https://www.politicsofpatents.org/pm/): Re-imagining Citizenship via Clothing Inventions, [__COPIM__](https://www.copim.ac.uk/workpackage/wp6/) – Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs, and [__Studio Julien McHardy__](https://www.julienmchardy.info/).

*I, Martha Gowans* was funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, Research England Development (RED) Fund, The Creative Industries Fund NL & the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 819584). Special thanks to Het Huis, Utrecht, Goldsmiths, University of London & Coventry University.

![patent_header.png](/static/images/patent_header.png)  
![Patent_image.png](/static/images/Patent_image.png)

## ![Chatelaine Pattern.png](/static/images/Chatelaine%20Pattern.png)

### Script: I Martha Gowans

### I.

Pockets: for Personal Wear.

I, Martha Gowans, of 6 Whitehall Crescent, Dundee, in the county of Forfar, Scotland, Milliner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows…

This invention relates to improvements in

Pockets

Office pockets

Factory pockets

Counter pockets

Pockets for personal wear

Pockets for holding or carrying implements necessary to the wearer’s calling or occupation.

Pockets… for carrying implements

A detachable appliance for the wearer’s occupation.

in mantle or millinery saloons,

In drapery establishments

In offices

or factories

A suspensory pocket… necessary to the wearers calling

I, Martha Gowans, hereby declare…

Smart, up-to-date saleswomen, clerkesses and the like… require an appliance to hold pencils, scissors, pincushions, knives and other tools.

For example,

In some cases,

saleswomen wear their scissors suspended

By an elastic band

A most dangerous proceeding

Scissors becoming entangled

striking the wearer when released

Accidents frequently occur

Pencils again…

Placed in the waist belt or hair

Pencils again…

Are lost

Or their points become broken

I make a suspensory pocket…

I declare that what I claim:

### II.

It is to meet this want that I, Martha Gowans have invented…

It is to meet this want that I have invented… a suspensory pocket… at such a distance below the waist that the wearer's hand can quite readily obtain any of the tools carried without having to stop/ without having to stoop.

It is to meet this want that I have invented a series of pockets, each of a width and depth suitable for the tool which is to be carried

I have invented… pockets which are intended for carrying sharp-pointed instruments

I have invented the above…

A pincushion is protected with a shield

in order that the points of the pins may not injure the wearer.

It is to meet this want that I have invented…

### III.

I, Martha Gowans,

Require a convenient appliance to hold

Pencils

Scissors

Pincushions

A Knife

other necessary tools

Pencils again

Are lost in hair,

Pencils again, their points

Become broken.

I, Martha Gowans, make a suspensory pocket of suede

I make a pocket of linen

I make a pocket of American cloth

I make a pocket of velvet, of Italian cloth

Sateen, silk, satin…

I Martha, make a pocket of leather, metal or the like… with a suitable hook

a hook for engaging with the waist… belt

A series of pockets.

of a width and depth suitable for the tool

which is to be carried.

A series of pockets

of ordinary construction

except that in all cases

its backing consists

of some more or less

impenetrable substance

Such as metal or cardboard

With metallic sheaths.

Provided with protective sheath

Padded parts for pins

protected with a shield

### IV.

Patent Nª 5835   A.D. 1903

Date of Application, 13th March, 1903

Complete Specification, 12th December, 1903

Accepted, 14th January, 1904

Provisional specification.

Complete specification.

This invention relates to

the Construction of

For example...

the above mentioned article

a convenient and unobtrusive appliance

And in order that

the manner of performing

or carrying the same into effect

may be properly understood

I have hereunto appended

an explanatory sheet of drawings

reference numerals are used to indicate corresponding parts in all the figures, that is to say

\- Figure 1. Is a face view of the appliance and

\- Figure 2 a sectional elevation at A.A. (Figure 1.)

In connection with and part of the lower extremity, a series of pockets 5

Having now particularly described and ascertained

I declare that what I claim:

…as described and illustrated on the drawings annexed.

This drawing is a reproduction of the original on a reduced scale.

Photo-litho Malby & Sons

Dated this 11th day of December 1903.

Agents for the applicant.

George C Douglas & Co,

Chartered patent agent

41 reform street, Dundee

Printed for His Majety’s Stationery Office by Love & Malcomson.

## Performing the Archive: Reflections on ‘I Martha Gowans’

**Kat Jungnickel & Julien McHardy**

*The following are notes we took after the performance. We are writing these up into a more coherent reflection that will in time replace the notes below.*

The layout of the text was spatial, social, inviting – formed/ held the group – in silence

While the text did not make it into the final piece, it helped to form the group – reinforced shared understanding of the point/ purpose of the day/ Stay true to the text

We reduced, amplified, montage and deletion, repetition of keywords – I, Martha Gowans….. I have invented, …… pockets. “Take this piece and sculpt it so it fits through the mouth”. Tried to disentangle diff discourses of the document – personal, problem, solution, technical

The bureaucratic reduction of ideas hasn’t totally erased the personal – we see and hear Martha Gowans, what was important to her, what she wanted to change, and how she envisioned this change. When J theorises, he feels he has to add stuff to feel the substance or prove something, or build a machine. We paired it back to the material, bodies, and interactions – scary and liberating. To trust that something will emerge in collaboration. To bring a frame, materials, people, disciplinary emotional orientation and share them

And trust that people with diff skills will do something together and something will emerge

It conflicts with the desire to control, plan

Actually v liberating. Nahuel – will hear the dynamic range

J + K – read the text and image and see the discourses

Emma – held her body / grace/ focused tension –

Margot – could express verbally

We could all see, recognise and understand - complement these diff translations. All brought into the space – some words were given to it, but mostly not what happens with translations

also about letting go. seeing translations = something new emerging and not trying to match it to expectations, just let it be there; embodied knowledge can conflict with ideas of control

also interesting in relation to shared embodied knowledge – shared bodies learning and making together

### Drama, affect

satisfying to be carried by a beat and cinematic graphic,density, emotional scape, long for it and distrust it moved from being dry and dramatic. smiling. could feel it and see it on people's faces and in bodies. this is good or this is true. blissful broad smiles, collective feelings. what happens in this moment – when you feel held, when beauty is emerging. Emotions mark ontological ruptures

(used in EM paper). What happens when this feeling of harmony emerges – a landmark – a feeling of falling into place? To do with rhythm also

For things to go on long enough for parts that don’t work or are useless, there is density, and then things fall into place or can be given more shape later – improvisations. Constraints. When too much flexibility can be limiting – need edges/ scripts/constraints so freedom is possible

When Nahuel said Margot needed more constraints to be free. What is this for? Free-ing to not have this be for anyone. Yet the camera gave it gravitas, seriousness. Experimentation – learn things in the moment. Discipline – not a thing

Everyone at ease. Seemed natural that everyone had a set of skills, and overlaps, but not regulated/defined. Acceptance of diff skills at diff points. Not articulated, problemed. A naturalised condition.

Ideas: Of making Martha’s voice emerge. How did this happen? Why? Was this organised? Was this something that we just did? We all agreed - to bring out her voice. Hysteria: When Margo used the cultural repertoire. Does this recreate and change the data/ story/ what this person was or could be? Transmissions: In this kind of performative work, you work with performers in a similar way to the audience. You have to figure out how to transit something for both. A lot of the work is similar – Event – we are seeing what can be drawn from a patent, and about who is here. We invite you to come with us on this exploration. We don’t know what will happen or how it will flow

Creates the gaze, is the gaze, becomes the audience,

Focuses attention. wants certain things. Creates temporal edges

Steals shots, make frames. Requires repeats, transforms players into actors to repeat, delivers emotional labour

The relationship is reversed – from respectful observer to becoming demanding -0 do it again, get louder/softer, Stretches where things develop or don’t work so well. The idea that sewing machines had a long intro

Created a logic for things to flow from rather than create competition. Nahuel nerded out on a dynamic range of sewing machines, as if they have infinite range and vocal capacity

Does text have this? A more normalised volume? But they get edited, to tighten, adjust. We needed some times when things didn’t work. We did this in perf, live, to create space for things to happen, for improvisation

### Working on the machines

Solidarity. global machine. Incredibly responsive, to the point that it sometimes responded to things I didn't expect, my foot was having these communications with the machines that surprised me. Three things: my intention, the machine responding and then another element, the surprise. The machine wasn't doing things without me, I was involved but sometimes I wasn't completely in control of it. (That moment when the machine did klick klack when Kat go put and everybody was laughing).

So interactive. My knee. I was sitting to low, I would have used a cushion to saw properly. I was also aware of the power of it, because it goes so fast, the danger of it, because it was unfamiliar. I was directing the sawing, but also the way Nahuel was responding to me, and I was also responding to Margo but she was also responding to me and the machine, and I found that really exciting, but it also required lot of energy, which meant my sawing went a bit rubbish because normally my sawing gets all the attention, because a mixed choreography of the machine, material, body and other players, and the sound. I like thinking about the sawing machine as a musical instrument. We were thinking about that in the poplar anyway because we have such a different sonic footprint compared to everyone around us, because we're sandwiched by politics (scholars) and we have three machines running at the same time. But here they took on a different musical range, as a player, in an ensemble.

I listed to it in relation to other sounds. It was part of this composition. In a way that was quite deliberate and organised, structured by both the pattern in front of us, but also in relation to the happenings. Multiple readings at once: reading the fabric that was reading the pattern, and in a multidimensional sense, reading the room, and other people. I felt that I was part of the conducting but also being conducted and in that way it felt like an ensemble. And having Emma. Having the two sewing machines together, I was quite delighted, they worked together and in tandem but also as complementary instruments. And at that speed we ended up staying with, we didn't really oscillate the speed, which we didn't - we could have been more ambitions with what the machines could do, we stuck with three modes - the sewing speed, the clanking, the lifting of the foot, putting the heel back was the clanking noise, the knee was the lift and the pivot, so the needle would remain in the fabric, and the knee lifted, and pivot and paused to reset again. And then we start again. Sometimes however, if you leant slightly forward then it reversed, because of the sensitivity of the pedal.

At the end of the performance, either I didn't look at Emma, or she didn't look at me, but she felt what I was going to do anyhow, so there was something about this connectivity that comes from learning in an orchestra, because you know something is about to happen, because of a silence or beat that you play with. And the arrangement of the players was quite, not that there was any conductor, but we were in an ensemble orientation in this space. Actually a sewing circle could be like that too. We were just communicating differently.

How do you come to these conclusions, of how to setup a space?

Two sewing machines. At first she [Emma] was the only one I really looked at, because I was trying to doing the sewing, and looking at Emma, trying to become comfortable with the choreography that was emerging. We didn't start with a certain choreography. We started together a sophisticated non-verbal communication with the group. Maybe that's what everybody started to feel.

\-> we let the machines run together for a long stretch first, because that felt right. Now, that was the moment when then machines/operators established the emerging choreography. This was the moment of tuning.

The joy when things align, into harmony. The joy when things contrast.

We fell into a phrasing that makes sense. Again that wasn't articulated, because the pieces of pattern did that, because before I didn't know how this was going to work, but then we came together... And then it was just so easy. If we hadn't felt that early on, it might have been quite stressful. They didn't bang. They came together. All these elements of music and manufacture came together and that surprise was kinda delightful and made it kinda easy. And then we were just playing. It was also nice to see Juan's delight, when he get caught in the moment. People were skilful and respectful.