Writing workshop - CW and Karl F
Pre-workshop email exchange:
Questions from Karl Foster:
Where are you?
KVW: Lost. Time lost. Frustrated. Back to work this year and struggling with time management. I know it can be done, others are doing it but I’m troubled to find the right route. There is a need for words, tactility, movement, repetition, geometry, fracturing, collisions.
Where are the writing troubles?
KVW: Weeding through the research. Adding something new. Self-conscious of repetition or inadequate arguments. Inferiority complex. Loss of voice, or lack of voice, need to develop a voice. Authority - where is it and who has it? WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE ABOUT! How do I maintain interest and passion? Do I want to give my passions to the task, will it rob them from me after scrutiny?
Where are the pleasures associated with writing through, about, or within practice?
KVW: In practice: the pleasures are the release of writing. The satisfaction of rhythm and format on a page. The flow of a journey, both physical and psychological.
Through practice: the noting of a journey. Sketchbook time capsules capturing thoughts and progressions. Holding ideas for when they are ready. Gathering moments, instances, mundane information whose purpose is yet to be discovered.
About practice: the research, finding like-minded writers and researchers, but that's not really about writing, that's about reading.
How does writing help with practice?
KVW: Both clarifying and overloading, writing works its way through practice to strengthen it, as the foundations of a construction. Organizing the bricks into a structure that grows from a muddled pile. Sometimes the writing foundations' sprawl, confusing the practice structure, but further writing helps guide the foundations in the right manner. Context, direction, focus, plans, support.
How does practice help with writing?
KVW: I’m not sure it does yet! The writing is taking over, practice is falling by the wayside in the need for time and attention.
Introduction to the work of Francis Ponge. I read his piece 'rain' (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/), it's stunning. His ability to paint a picture with words is incredible, I closed my eyes and I felt like I was watching the rain with him. From this, I went on to explore the poetry society website and discovered their many podcasts which I am now devouring.
Response from Karl Foster:
Thank you very much for your responses the the questions that I asked, and I am glad that you found the writing of Ponge interesting / useful.
I find the idea of writing as being a form or place for 'Holding ideas for when they are ready’ very interesting. This seems to account for one way of thinking about the importance of writing for visual or creative practice; another way of thinking about it is, perhaps, is as a way of accounting for ideas during or after ‘readiness'. I think ‘gathering’ is a good metaphor for the first use, it also looks like some of the practice-based images I have seen on your website - they look like gatherings of things - like murmurations. I think it is important to think about how words might help with the sorting and sifting of what has been gathered without it being an oppressive force. From my perspective, this is the interplay between the creative and the critical. By way of mitigating what is described by you as the negative effects of writing, I would suggest that you turn it continuously back to practice, give it a place alongside what you make, with the knowledge that it is one species of writing. It might also help to see the writing of others as material that you can use rather than something that is just read. If there are two species of writing here, how might you form hybrid that better serves your practice? Other people’s writing might provide a constructed matrix of anchor-points that enable you to exist in the centre of your visual making and thinking.
The session: slightly late due to a commitment.
Notes -
how do you define your territory?
making writing about and a part of practice rather than 'just a component to the course.
keywords that pop up over and over
what words keep coming up and 'flagging' up in your practice - defining your territory -
Form questions around this - How does, what does, why does?
Questions - in what ways might chance procedures increase the chances of not knowing in practice - 'happy accidencts"
Randomness - john cage - Fluxus - surrealism
negative capabilities - Keats
searching after fact and reason
what is important about not knowing? do we need some unknown entities? is art if it's fully known?
Resources:
google scholar
zotero - free software - organizing - popularise it with subjects and keywords - collecting references
The context around our making - a critical review of work but positioned in contemporary practice - what questions are you asking within your work - related to other writings, artists -
who what where when why how -
being 'with' something and establishing what is subjective and what is objective
Talk about excavating and digging the words from my practice - interestingly most people used water metaphors - diving in, immersion etc - Mine is about tactility, excavating, digging and movement - I mention flow once - am I an excavator, an archaeologist, a historian? a constructor laying foundations, a builder? a gatherer. a collector, treasure hunter? A sorter, an organiser, a tidy-er.
consider the different types of writing I have produced - for uni, practice, pgce, etc
objectivity is hard to come by - we don't know and we only scratch the surface.
karen barad
the type of righting - 'circluar and the imagery they produce'
an account of what happened - a descriprtion of practice - of process - an uttereance of
an object as a stimulus for writing - a response - ithoughts map - gherasim luca -
protocol - use of dictation software - collecting thoughts - collecting research -- getting something wrong -
Karl plays a piece of work - the Prince of my fingers - its a spoken piece by a voice speaking the writing that was initially text that came from dictation. The rhythm and the process 0 the movement of the words, the speed was intense at times due to the punctuation and the length of words, them there were pauses. It took me on a visual and tactile journey though words, it felt familiar, how my own through work. how I speak and explain my work. How I explore, how I look, how I question. the internet was breaking it up, the chance encounter of the breaking and disruption of the sounds, changed the way we absorbed the piece, I question if we all experienced it differently. The volume, the connection, the speed, the sound quality, too much bass, not enough bass,
a higher degree of not knowing, and greater control in the process - writing from doing -
say what you are going to say, say it, say what you have said - introduction, main body, conclusion - start in the middle and work out - 2000 words - chop of the front and back - 1500, 2-3 point about practice - divide that in to 3 and its 500 words each point - thats not a lot!
stick to a plan, hold off for as long a s possible - introduce creative writing to evidence how it fits in practice - if the information is not supporting your argument it has no place to be there - you can construct the same argument in images - three images to tell the story - write out the images - of your practice or someone else practice - what do you want from the image? if you start from the introduction first you will result in a writing car crash COLLISION
argument? they to convince someone of something or of points that you've recognized - each pint - one quote for one pint - sometimes two - making sure things are relevant and not just for the sake of t - each paragraph need to add value - conclusion should identify what you have collected -
how do you frame the creative accept for what you are doing? can you think critically - not taking for granted - need to evidence your creativity -
quote at the beginning to anchor - no quote at the end as it will need to be unpacked and there is no room for that - writing in a way that suits you, don't fake it, not colloquial - but in a style that is familiar - finding the comfort -
SO WHAT? why is it important? - WHY?
reference Deleuze and Guattari - and that they are referenced so much ---- is it necessary -
be affected by the work - be respectful of the work as well - take responsibility for what you write - do it for your self to understand something of your self and your development - how can you separate your self
break
Karl discusses that things were are interested in will find a way in - he then references a previous students who spoke about the 'void' and referenced Balka's "how it is? instillation in the turbine hall - which made me smile as I can't let that go. the tactility and the experience has stayed so solidly with me - the opposite of the void that she spoke of - i looked for the concrete, the hard wall - the tactility of the soft velvet and its comfort -
do justice to a tiny object in our house
-pick an object and write about it-
you tarnish me,
my fingers are dirty, you dirty me
I'm dirty
you're soft in a hard form
you make marks, but not alone
you need me to make marks, you mark me
I need you to make marks
I inhale you, I don't want to but you are there,
In my breath,
uninvited,
tiny invasions
violations,
creeping into my orifices,
under my nails,
in the cracks of my skin,
on my skin
I need you,
I use you,
you use me to spread yourself,
I spread you,
you disseminate across the surface,
across me,
on to my skin.
Its dark,
you're dark,
you make me dark,
I use you lightly but you are still darker than the light,
I make you darker,
not darker than yourself,
You touch me, I touch you, we come together,
we collide,
I make a collision using you.
I use you
There is sound,
you are silent but your movement makes sound,
I move you to make sound,
you and I generate sound,
we generate,
generate sound, marks, dust, traces,
little traces of touch.
I no longer have you but you're still with me.
I see you.
I feel you.
you make me dirty.
I wash.
*compressed Charcoal*
I write about my relationship to things - to acts or objects - materiality - tactility - traces -
Share the words -
RT: its shape and its reach - its atomic mass and light and how it is perceived - reflection and refraction - travelling - stars and how light travels from the stars, how we see light and its distance.
Me: sensuality - touch -
metaphors we live by - a book - the fabric of writing
Bruno Latour -
What are the keywords from my writing? how do they fit in with my practice? have you googled the keyword as an academic term - epidemiology of the word -
reviews are not until 18th Feb - share before if we can - conversation that have happened to inform the writing and take it forward -