Writing_Making: Object as body, language and material
A turn away from language and the human mind as the dominant (or only) determinants of reality can be identified within many disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy and literature, reflecting a growing acceptance of human and non-human, living and non-living entities as real, complex and partially withdrawn agents in the world. In Object Oriented Ontology the definition of object is extended to include humans, who have no special ontological status. Timothy Morton proposes rhetoric as a means of drawing closer to other objects, of contacting the ‘strange stranger’; objects cannot be known directly, or fully, but can be explored through imaginative speculation. Drawing on Object Oriented Ontology, my project explores making - an intimate engagement between body and material
- as a means of thinking the body as a (strange) object within a mesh of strange objects. Facture is documented as image and language, prompting a series of shifting, speculative questions:
• Can writing be brought to making to generate new new approaches to craft production?
• How might writing in response to making, or objects, be reintroduced into a making process as a form of feedback?
• Can writing_making methods generate new approaches to writing (about) making and materials?
• How might a combination of production, documentation and reflection be displayed as artwork/research?
• Can making be seen as a means for contacting the ‘strange stranger’?