In our introductory workshop we were asked to bring a text that resonated with us. I brought along a translation of “Beowulf” by Seamus Heaney.
I liked the thinking point that it was a written interpretation of something that was once orally told. It’s an ancient story that has been passed on by word of mouth, undoubtedly evolving and changing as it did so. I liked the themes of translation it encompassed.
We were tasked with explaining our choice to another person, hearing their opinions on it whilst sharing our own on theirs and then designing a way for them to read it.
This was a quick workshop, I wanted to link to the oral tradition of Beowulf and show how listening was linked to reading in this case. For this I made Sami read an excerpt from the book whilst a text to speech generator read it out. I chose an excerpt that I felt created atmosphere by describing the setting.
https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/
We were given the reading to do “The Problem of Reading” by Moyra Davey, it expresses how the practice reading is fundamental to the practice of writing using such examples of authors such as Stephen King, but more predominantly Virginia Wolf . We also had to start gathering interests for a publication we are going to design.
I had some inital interests sparked from articles and films;
https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/
Harun Farocki, Parallel I–IV
Age of the image – BBC iPlayer series
Cameron Aitken Graphic Design 