ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [9 April 2012]

Here

a Beginning is attempted     it's usually expected     an Introduction leading through Middle to   ...  

End almost known as  AugustmergingSeptember

but even an End is   ...  

Edward Said said much about Beginning - 

      a project has beginning/middle/end                                                        =  transitive

but then he found

                             < intransitive >

another Beginning                                                 one that "cannot truly be known, because it belongs more to silence

                  than it does to language

because it is what has always been

                                      left behind

and because it challenges continuities that go cheerfully forward with their beginnings obediently affixed"

my transitive beginning is now pullingpushing me towards ending

my intransitive Beginning is further past and future, pulling in ideas encountered in seminars, reading, listening, living, pushing at ideas not formed

there's no glimmer of Ending

it's going to be an interesting journey

with a b/Beginning I might recognise some time

if not now

# 2 [16 April 2012]

a time of moves it was it is             a time of searching sense           a time of influences

collectings + connectings = continuings

                nightday x seven

     a             step                another 

       inc-re-ment            further 

    edge          along  

                            (careful now)

      a perhaps path    

                        a sign ghosting                   

fingerstip-toe-ing        ten-ta-tive

         rockface             brushing 

        sidestepping

      bending             stooping       but 

                                                           DON'T               LOOK                   DOWN                                                 

NOW:   crouch     crawl       small    crawl blindfolded   crawl    along a     crawl beckoning      crawl    tunnel         crawl narrowingcrawl easing crawl squeeeezing   crawl      to emerge

                                       where???   

       stumble tumble make off take off into the realms of

 ZZZZZaummmMMmmS-ow-nnn-d-SSS

swarmings and scamperings (just out of mindshot)

                           journey ON

sinuous serpentining stFreLtcOhiWng

           Celt>Angle>Celt

  integrate distance with time

                >CCCCaerdyddgyrrugyrrudriving>>gyrruBristoldrivinggyrrugyrrudriv>>>

>>>>inglavirianzdrivinggyrruAberfallaviri>>>ANZRRRRRRR>>>

until

in fishshellsandharbour                  gathering books beached on highwater saltshelves

         senses openingopenopened

           cast rough nets around        

                        a mist     {in a bottle}

tan c/g ent r/i/als: Rachel Lois Clapham and Caroline Wilkins talking about their work at Tertulia, Spike Island, Bristol, 10 april 2012

# 3 [23 April 2012]

questions seed questions crop questions

questionable relationships

reading↔writing          writer↔reading        reader↔writing     writer↔reader     writing↔sounding               sound↔read      reading↔sounding    

h'm...

                 What colour are your eyes?

what colour watches my thoughtfollowing linear left to regimented right              jump

                      down hopskip

                                         down to

                                  the last letterz

[start, return to]     and       all over

again

[return]       shuffle in your seat

     smile awareness of self as reader    thinking about the colour of your eyes     your smile      my/your voice asking        the colour of your/my eyes         eyes         settling

       Here X              and here XXX       continue XXXXXXXXXXX

Break/The/Gaze

                  Do you read this out loud?

twis-ting-eve-ry-syll-a-ble-like-butt-er-weft-through-your-tongue

loud forcing of air to vibrate feeling bzz tckl text breath through throatsinusmouthtonguepalateteethspringLIPS

          Probably not

                                         Why not

try       (no need for embarrassment    no medusa spectating here            we're all in this                  together)

my shapes your sounds potentially prising words from fluently stainless interior space to shift for themselves amongst she sells sea shells cough up splutter red lorry yellow lorry stutter squeak everyday spasms expelling reason and will and will perhaps will free to find the colour of my voice free for you to voice your voice and place it

soundly in ears 

         inside and outside                    

            all           at the same time    

# 4 [30 April 2012]

Marcel Un-Caged

 coming upon a melancholic aBsence

               good foR nothing immobility

   resounding nOn-communication

through pOetry Marcel

transmogrifieD

        flaring feaThered wings and claws

    unmuzzling arnarcHic allegorical assemblages

eagle-riding thermAls over hollow shell towers

performing thought   rE-toothing language

               to gnaw esoteric tRuths onto

headstoned structureS bleachedboney institutions

Q:  Language performs twenty-four times better when washing away.

A:  Sometimes?

ps  Performance Writing weekend at Arnolfini, Bristol 4 - 6 May www.arnolfini.org.uk

# 5 [20 May 2012]

Busybusy couple of weeks starting with a stimulating and eclectic weekend of Performance Writing at Arnolfini, Bristol, and then ten days in Shetland, where landsounds and seaskylife make indelible marks:

SKY

                   massiveness

cloud encompassing grey white towering blue bright lowering silverlight darkening                compassionless                                                           gullflecked

changeling wind whipping gusting whispering still gripping taunting singing

                                        PEE-wit-wit-wit              infinite

imprisoning sunrain intimidating sleethail shapeshifting snowshadowing

vast

wonder                             full                 kitiwakekitiwakekitiwake

thermalwinged                    screech ascend           higherhigher     to           swoop dive       through sprayscent

a     detail           insignificant                                    a matchbox airplane rides rodeo

LAND

               stubborn chin    jutting

                                                                       layered

 retreating

              defiant in isolate                  peat   promontory  

fire  lava  millennia   brown peat scree stream stone heather lone tree grassgreening                                  settlers sheep working obstinate pony lamb crofter communicating

                                                         invadestroyers

   peat smoke gripping forcing wall broch home clearance

          ruinSurvival

       fiddling melody bowing dancing                             corbie laverock draatsie trow

horizon wandering fence poles peat tractor rabbit with tattie musical oo

                                                      bonxie maalies plivver weaving dialect naming enduring LAND

SEA

NorthwatersAtlantic     surgesurroundings     glitterintently      mergingsubsoundings

       driftingoffoaming wavespray upthunder

gripping white gullcliff marinate harbour tangling migrants shaping with seaweed

      sand pebble shellpool      urchin crab scallop

 islands to islets skerries and ferries  

      causeway with ropenets voesounds oil rhythm

 tankerandfishboatandcruiseshiproundrockstacks

       musselkelpselkiefishpottedlobster

houselightbyinkbluearchguardedbybrigdi

       maali da seacraas minke returning

AtlantictakesNorthsalt     surgessubsoundings      glitterintently   mergingsurroundings

      waves spray up thunder foaming then drifting



# 6 [28 May 2012]

→▪ [a starting point]

                                                  decision -  take part in work(mapping&writing)shop      

entering

                      parallelwhite longwalls    spaceful of strangers      beanbags with bodies maps and markmakers            papers and people

anticipating

introductions: names→performwrite↑student→Dartington↓artist↔ exploration↓energies←wonderings→performancewriting↓ document↑dancing↔words→tutor↓enthusiasms↔ experiences↑openess←info→structured↑ready→to→GO↔ 

beginning

joining

NOW   leave

                           follow any straight line

                                                                        as long as ten outdoor minutes

                                  noting     noticing

NOW   return

markmaking into paper         communal journeying...  so different (noticings)...     yet... familiar/similar (responsiveness)        

resulting

                        to-fro-ings overmeanderlappings paintinkedness graphicwordings of movements recorded onto our longpaperlength

                whiteness now technicolouring     narratives sounding between parallel lines

questioning

?what are you mapping?    why map   how is a map   {a map   a tying down   a fixing   an instant   a fencing   a naming}    who map when map what map how map what map      ?can maps help people get lost?                    jumblingtoursroundSpACesNaMESCOnTOURSgraPHiCsrEaSonINgSOMisSIONSBOrrOwiNgssUbJECtiVEExcLuSIVeiLlEgiBLE

exploring

to make different sensing with silkness of charcoal and softness of pencil and scenting of crayon in smoothness of paper find pattern turn texture from pavement and roadroute and pathway and cobblestone  patterns flow wallwards raise buildings and columns spill out onto air tracing patterns bluesounding from sax-singing water splash glintripple  walking        harmonics of bridging                                                                         cityscape    live-living                                                     movement  through senses



Re-visiting something after a while has passed can bring another way of seeing - always worth doing if/when possible.  (Performance Writing workshop exploring mapping and movement at PW12, Arnolfini, May 4-6, inspirationally lead by Melanie Thompson (performance/installation artist) and Christos Polymenakos (writer/dancer), and bringing together an exceptional group of participants.)

# 7 [4 June 2012]

... spaces are to be explored       spaces      lacks bounded by somethings      not-beings becoming                                      events surrounded by their silence                              shadows exist in wide open spaces    (if some attention is paid)    traverse re-travel map ignore overlook re-discover      it is not possible to disregard the fatal intersection of time with space (Foucault 1967/1984)    

time tick now ticking tick tick itself ticking to september's solidity

                         hands freecatherinewheeling

                                                             digits flipflailingflick

threshing through infinite to blackhope of shape

m                         or                       ph                           M                             or                          pheus

explorations                                        pour

                                                  end

                                                  ing

                                                     s

                 {sreniat on celbatius ot ni}



# 8 [11 June 2012]

white landscapes horizon

         horizon underscores culture

                      culture borders language

                                  language choreographs mind

                                                  mind perceives place

                                                           place moves presence

                                                                   presence speaks horizons

                                                                                    horizons    lay down    stillness

                                                                                                         stillness     movement      flicks

                                                                                                                                                       flick

                                                                                                                                                          repeat

                                                                                                                                                               flick

                                                                                                                                                                     flicks

                                                                     momentum   flick

                    moment   POWERS

                                        (flicktwistflick)

                                                powerflick sings

# 9 [18 June 2012]

composing    =       textingshapesounds                  in definites                                       un beginnings           shadows in minds lie dormant for years                   (then past)                             others                previously unknown    searchingsearching     until             rise                                free       (now past)                          everything contributes              nothing wasted    or  wasteful               a shape forms      shifts    restlessly continues     flexing fluxing    settles         shakes    moves on           nothing plain to see until that single specific moment of presentation and                 then it flows on again                          spoken voice  digital recordings   spatiality    movement      energy pulses in>through>round>from                       potential is infinite                                                   shapes swimshoaling under                            any thing could happen

it does

it will



# 10 [28 June 2012]

SWitCH

open

pre-e-e-ss

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New

white

tap

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tap

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S L O W

tap

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ding

black

SWitCH

Erasmus Intensive Course on Digital Literature, University of Madrid, Spain