Walking the Newsroom: Towards a Sensory Experience of Journalism

Sander Hölsgens

We invite you to join us on a walk through the newsroom of a regional newspaper, Dagblad van het Noorden. We trace how the journalists perceive, articulate, engage, embrace, challenge, are receptive to, and give form to the ‘atmospheres’ of their workspace. The concept of atmospheres is central in how we have looked at the newsroom. On this walk, we explore the spatial, socio-cultural, rhythmic, tonal, and somatic characteristics of the recently redesigned newsroom, using video, sound, text, and drawing. Employing artistic methods, we want to let you experience this newsroom together with us – giving you insight into the journalists’ lived experience of their profession as fundamentally interwoven with the idiosyncrasies of their workspace. Our host on the walk is online news editor Alfred Meester. Alfred walked us, Saskia and Sander, through the newsroom, which we visited as part of the project Exploring Journalism’s Limits (funded by the Dutch Research Council, NWO, project number: 314-99-205). Also joining us on this day is Ricky Booms, a visual artist invited to reflect on the space alongside us. Along the way, we encounter visual editors, interns, freelancers, editorial staff writers, and learn about the kinds of spaces that resonate with them. The walk takes approximately 45 minutes.

Valuing multivalence

During our first research visit, a coppery-brown sculpture of one of the founding editors is installed in close proximity to the newspaper’s visual editors and photographers. Rather than initiating a conversation the monumental value (Nietzsche, 1874) of the object and what it represents, a couple of the visual editors start to look for clothing to ‘embellish’ the sculpture. They eventually dress it with a hat and a shawl, clearly enjoying the process.

For us, the multivalence of atmospheric staging is the core of the exposition: There are multiple, at times clashing, experiences of the atmospheres. Rather than suggesting that one experience is more akin to the aim of the staging, we aimed to capture the multivalence, mirror it in the exposition. Indeed, if anything, we aspire to show the richness of how the people inhabiting these spaces interact with, appropriate, and play with design. Atmospheres are only partly shaped by architectural and interior design. We have aimed to draw attention to the depth, richness, and complexity of journalists’ lived experience, as they are vital to understanding the affordances of an environment (e.g. the pulls and bears of height-adjustable hot desks and cosy sofas in a workspace). Moreover, it is vital to do justice to the emerging, vanishing, transforming, and expanding characteristics of atmospheres in the use of the space and its design.

In response to the staging of the atmosphere in the newsroom, artist Ricky recalls that he immediately found himself looking for patterns and order. However, he realises that the newsroom was more chaotic than he anticipated:

‘There were multiple places where you could literally get lost. I found myself outside of the newsroom multiple times, and I had to wait for someone to let me back in again.’

It affected the way in which he visualises the newsroom in his artwork: Instead of translating the newsroom into an infographic, as he initially decided on when engaging with the workplace, he opted for an approach that reflected this impression of chaos and multiple layers that he developed throughout the day. Being overwhelmed by the space, Ricky’s initial response is to count objects, find patterns, and document the newsroom’s structure. Identifying the (open) office space of news writers as the heart of the newsroom, he slowly and systematically works his way outward towards a more multilayered and personalised reflection.

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This work was supported by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
[grant numbers 276-45-003; 314-99-205].

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