Rituals
The Sunday when everything was shut
Closing laws structured the week for most of the twentieth century. Their removal changed more than shopping hours.
Ilya Novak
Contributing writer, What People Miss
Ilya writes about sound, signal and the acoustic texture of ordinary places.
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14 articles
Rituals
Appointment television and the last time everyone watched at once
Scheduled broadcast forced an entire population to watch the same thing at the same moment. On-demand fixed the inconvenience and…
Rituals
The slide projector and the family evening spent looking backwards
Transparencies had to be projected, which meant photographs were viewed by a group, in the dark, in a fixed order.
Rituals
The Christmas card list and the annual audit of who you still know
Once a year, households worked through a list and decided who was still on it. That was the only systematic review of a social…
Rituals
Knowing numbers by heart and the memory we handed over first
People once carried dozens of telephone numbers in their heads. That capacity was the first thing devices took, and it went without…
Rituals
Taping off the radio and the art of catching a song
Recording music from the radio meant sitting with a finger on the button, and accepting the presenter talking over the intro.
Work
The proofreader and the last reader before the public one
Publishing once contained a formal stage where somebody read the text purely to catch what everybody else had stopped seeing.
Work
Shorthand and the skill of writing as fast as somebody talks
For most of the last century a large workforce could capture speech at conversational speed with a pen. Recording made it optional…
Rituals
Early closing day and the week that had a visible shape
A weekday afternoon when the shops shut created a fixed hollow in the week. Continuous opening filled it and flattened everything…
Rituals
Payday in cash and the week that started with an envelope
Being paid in notes made income a physical quantity that had to be divided in front of you. Bank transfer made it a number that…
Rituals
The postcard that arrived after you got home
A message that travelled slower than the sender was a strange and specific form. Instant sharing removed the delay and the whole…
Rituals
Darning, mending and the evening spent repairing clothes
Households once contained the tools, the skill and the expectation that clothing would be repaired. Cheap replacement removed all…
Rituals
The shopping list written on the back of an envelope
Planning a week of meals on paper forced a set of decisions in one sitting. Continuous availability removed the sitting and the…
Rituals
Sunday best and the clothes that were kept for one day
Households once maintained a set of clothing reserved for a single weekly occasion. Casual dress removed the wardrobe and the…