Words Unstable on the Table - Exhibition
This exhibition was arranged in conjunction with the E-Poetry [2013] Festival at Kingston University-London, which I have had the privilege to convene. The works were selected from the submissions to the festival and taking into account the Riverside Gallery’s space at the Watermans Art Centre.
Due to its interdisciplinary nature many discussions have taken place about where to position this work, whether in the arts, literature or new media and this becomes apparent in the works in the show. Questions such as; what is literary in these works? -What are the roles of the reader, the writer, the author? -What is the actual text? Is it the language? The images? The sounds? Is it the combination of all three? Is it the programmable language? The software used? - What are the grammars? These are all questions, which have been in the minds of many of us for years, and still are, but we have also moved on.
We have embraced new technologies, and the new possibilities electronic platforms are bringing to the new reader/writer, we are eager to investigate and explore aesthetic and poetic possibilities, methods of interaction, engagement and participation. In a medium in flux, the whole point is about questioning the stable and focusing on the process of producing, creating and evolving in/with the unstable. Words such as medium, unstable, malleable, in flux (R.Lanham) become the familiar as opposed to words such as stable, linear, centered.
This is the reason behind the title for this exhibition. It highlights a communal characteristic in all the works; words are in flux inhabiting fluid spaces, they generate, erase, delete and fade away to generate again. There is an infatuation with language and, at the same time, an obliteration of it.
We should then question: What are the new languages? How can we explore different writing styles and interactive poetics/aesthetics? What are these new technologies and networks offering for writing and creative practices? The works in the exhibition touch upon a variety of themes, literary, cultural, social and historical aspects such as; nature, identity, gender, multilingualism, reading, remixing, translation, e-vanescence, online-communication and digital culture. And they do so by combining different software, programming languages, mobile technology, network possibilities and new media tools, to produce a wide spectrum of creative practice in the form of game like structures, videos, digital-poems, net.art and language new media art.
Practice has always been the leading force of E-Poetry and hopefully this exhibition gives the multimedial and multimodal reader the opportunity to explore and experience the works of this inspiring and constantly emerging field.
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