Persons of Note

For the Persons of Note brief I got: Delia Derbyshire, Alan Turing n Alfred Jarry

DELIA: 

• 1937 - 2001
• English composer / electronic music wonderwoman
• By age 4 was teaching other kids how to read and write
• Accepted to Oxford and Cambridge??? 
• Working class gal so big thumbs up for the uni offers at that time
• Famous for the Doctor Who theme tune which gives me the creeps
• After her music career she worked for British Gas?? something cool about that 
• Paved the way for other women in the music business go on gal
• Inspired Chemical Brothers and Sonic Boom
• Pioneer of electronic sounds - new noises n ways of making music
• I watched a few videos, i like the weird juxtaposition of this crazy music and her very conservative appearance/accent?
• No synthesizers/computers existed - its really cool to watch her creating the music
• Her music is proper creepy gives me the heebie jeebies
• Very underappreciated during her lifetime

ALAN:

• 1912 - 1954
• 'computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist'
• incredibly clever man
• not well known during his lifetime
• conceived modern computing
• excerpt from his school report "I can forgive his writing, though it is the worst I have ever seen, and I try to view tolerantly his unswerving inexactitude and slipshod, dirty, work, inconsistent though such inexactitude is in a utilitarian; but I cannot forgive the stupidity of his attitude towards sane discussion on the New Testament." yes alan
• his granddad gave him a copy of Einsteins book when Alan was 16, he wrote about how he understood it all
• September 1939, joined by other mathematicians at Bletchley Park, Turing quickly developed the Bombe/Engima machine. Vital in helped Britain defeat the Nazis
• "We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done"
• Tragic victim to Britains awful attitude towards homosexuality in the 20th century. Convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952.
• Died in 1957., thought to be of suicide.
• PARDONED IN ONLY 2013?

ALFRED:

• 1873-1907
• French symbolist writer
• His famous play Ubu Roi cited as a forerunner of Dada, Surrealist and Futurist movements
• Loved alcohol, named absinthe the "green goddess", once painted his face green and rode the streets on his bike in 'her honour'
• Less than 5 foot tall aww
• Very eccentric guy
• Picasso loved him, he acquired his revolver and wore it on his 'nocturnal expeditions of Paris'

After this brief intial research I was thinking of choosing Delia Derbyshire, but I wasn't overly enthusiastic. WHen Matt possted a list of extra, more diverse names I researched all of these and found them really interesting. I was torn between James Baldwin, Fela Kuti and Miriam Makeba.

I've settled on Miriam Makeba, she has an incredible legacy (and voice) and I'm excited to research her loife further. I think they'll be some great imagery to dig my teeth into too. Also she's a woman yay