Short Intro to My Work

I have a keen interest in language, or rather the particularities of what gives language its meaning and how it affects the intended audience. My practice involves the dissecting of audio-visual material, or their transcripts, and exploring the breaks and the fillers within rehearsed and live dialogue. I concatenate and repackage these aspects in various forms such as hand-made books, performances and sound works. I have been strongly influenced by a number of conceptual artists, writers, and poets; in particular those who follow the notion of ‘Information as Material’.

People generally write very differently to the way they speak. We cut out all the ums and ahs and repeated words to create smooth, flowing texts. Contemporary writers and artists are now going against this and creating works that question language and present words and dialogue in new ways. The identity of the writer is forever changing and too is the role of the reader. We are all aware of how speech is padded out or even aided by filler words and noises and physical gestures. As a fairly socially awkward individual I have always been consciously aware of these traits in myself. I became more critically aware of these traits in others when attempting to transcribe speech. I found it hard to transcribe live TV and interview footage because I wanted to keep people's words intact, while creating a text that would flow and read well. This is what first sparked the initial ideas and concepts behind my work. Once it was in the forefront of my mind I found it hard to have conversations, or attend lectures or watch others speak without picking out their use of filler words. As an artist I want to take this concept further and create a critical and thoughtful responses which will make those who engage with the work more consciously aware of these traits in language and question their perception of language as a whole.