Writing In / To / Through Art
  • Writing In / To / Through Art
    • Writing In / To / Through Art

    WITTAverse
    10–14 July 2023 
    Spike Island UWE Studios, Bristol

    In July 2023, WITTAverse happened. It was a week-long event which involved a range of artists, writers, composers, and students. It turned into a mini-residency in which we met each day in the Spike Island UWE studios and worked together and alongside each other.

    We spent the week exploring the written and spoken word in art and sound, as well as prototyping a model for running longer-form exploratory group collaborative activities. We had no brief and no central theme, other than a shared curiosity about building interrelations with words, art and sound. We asked ourselves, why do artists do things with words? And how do artists do things with words? How do we get started? What are the ideal conditions for writing? How do words emerge in a social, collaborative setting?

    It was amazing to see what transpired over the week. Artworks would spring up throughout the studio in response to conversations being had or work being made around the corner or in another room. The focus throughout was on process but as the week developed questions of outcome and documentation surfaced. We wondered how we could share this thinking-in-progress?

    We thought about emblems and audits and buckets and bubbles and bats and rhythms and tongues and sigils and the weather and the sky and theft and rust. We manoeuvred egg yolks with horsehair, held impromptu improvisations on the synths and the drums. Signs were made. Feathers stuck. Tape masked. Words overwritten. Letters mounded. Wood stacked. Food shared. Conversations overheard and ideas proposed. Very quickly it was clear that this was not a conclusion.

    This event was organised by Lizzie Lloyd and Kit Poulson.

    Thank you to our collaborators: Owen Lloyd, Esther Hesketh, Lily Francis, Harriet Bowman, Bryony Gillard, Harry Judge, Simone Marconi, Lolly Deazeley, Beth Towers, Hannah Hornby, Nia Samuels, A1 (Adedamola Sowemino), Ewan Mitchell, Daniela Dyson, George Pettengell, Rebecca Edery, Catherine White, Jocelyn Brett, Kei Langley, Edwina Ashton, Mirabel

    Events & Projects
    WITTAnights

    WITTAnights are a place for showing, reading, listening and trying things out.
    WITTAsurvey

    Calling all artists who write, writers who art(!) and everything in between: tell us more about your work.
    WITTApodcast

    The WITTA podcast – hosted by Lizzie Lloyd and Kit Poulson –  invites guests to reflect on why they do things with words, how they do things with words and what words allow them to do that other materials don’t.
    WITTAprompts

    Through various WITTA events, working with participants and collaborators within and beyond the university, questions have emerged.
    WITTAfilm

    This WITTAfilm was made from interviews and materials gathered at an informal week-long creative residency / experiment called WITTAverse.
    WITTAverse

    In July 2023, WITTAverse happened. It was a week-long event which involved a range of artists, writers, composers, and students.
    Journal of Writing in Creative Practice: Ways of Writing in Art & Design

    Members of the Ways of Writing in Art & Design (WoW) network, which is housed within the Visual Culture Research Group, have written and guest edited the first of two special issues of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.
    Call for Participation: Writing Photographs

    Invitation to work as part of a research group devised by artists Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, which investigates contemporary modes of collaborative image-text-production.
    WITTA with Freya Dooley & Cinzia Mutigli

    Freya Dooley and Cinzia Mutigli’s ongoing collaboration spans writing, performance, sound and moving image.
    WITTA with Polly Barton & Daniela Cascella

    In this inaugural event we invite Polly Barton and Daniela Cascella to discuss translation, relationships between art, writing and sound, and what it means to write between disciplines.
    Acts of Transfer

    This evening of conversation with artist Katy Beinart, writer Lizzie Lloyd and curator Marianne Mulvey will consider their shared interests in socially engaged or participatory art projects.
    WITTA Introduction

    WITTA (Writing In / To / Through Art) is the start of what I hope to become a fully fledged research group at UWE Bristol.

    Writing In / To / Through Art

    WITTAverse
    10–14 July 2023 
    Spike Island UWE Studios, Bristol

    In July 2023, WITTAverse happened. It was a week-long event which involved a range of artists, writers, composers, and students. It turned into a mini-residency in which we met each day in the Spike Island UWE studios and worked together and alongside each other.

    We spent the week exploring the written and spoken word in art and sound, as well as prototyping a model for running longer-form exploratory group collaborative activities. We had no brief and no central theme, other than a shared curiosity about building interrelations with words, art and sound. We asked ourselves, why do artists do things with words? And how do artists do things with words? How do we get started? What are the ideal conditions for writing? How do words emerge in a social, collaborative setting?

    It was amazing to see what transpired over the week. Artworks would spring up throughout the studio in response to conversations being had or work being made around the corner or in another room. The focus throughout was on process but as the week developed questions of outcome and documentation surfaced. We wondered how we could share this thinking-in-progress?

    We thought about emblems and audits and buckets and bubbles and bats and rhythms and tongues and sigils and the weather and the sky and theft and rust. We manoeuvred egg yolks with horsehair, held impromptu improvisations on the synths and the drums. Signs were made. Feathers stuck. Tape masked. Words overwritten. Letters mounded. Wood stacked. Food shared. Conversations overheard and ideas proposed. Very quickly it was clear that this was not a conclusion.

    This event was organised by Lizzie Lloyd and Kit Poulson.

    Thank you to our collaborators: Owen Lloyd, Esther Hesketh, Lily Francis, Harriet Bowman, Bryony Gillard, Harry Judge, Simone Marconi, Lolly Deazeley, Beth Towers, Hannah Hornby, Nia Samuels, A1 (Adedamola Sowemino), Ewan Mitchell, Daniela Dyson, George Pettengell, Rebecca Edery, Catherine White, Jocelyn Brett, Kei Langley, Edwina Ashton, Mirabel

    Events & Projects
    WITTAnights

    WITTAnights are a place for showing, reading, listening and trying things out.
    WITTAsurvey

    Calling all artists who write, writers who art(!) and everything in between: tell us more about your work.
    WITTApodcast

    The WITTA podcast – hosted by Lizzie Lloyd and Kit Poulson –  invites guests to reflect on why they do things with words, how they do things with words and what words allow them to do that other materials don’t.
    WITTAprompts

    Through various WITTA events, working with participants and collaborators within and beyond the university, questions have emerged.
    WITTAfilm

    This WITTAfilm was made from interviews and materials gathered at an informal week-long creative residency / experiment called WITTAverse.
    WITTAverse

    In July 2023, WITTAverse happened. It was a week-long event which involved a range of artists, writers, composers, and students.
    Journal of Writing in Creative Practice: Ways of Writing in Art & Design

    Members of the Ways of Writing in Art & Design (WoW) network, which is housed within the Visual Culture Research Group, have written and guest edited the first of two special issues of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.
    Call for Participation: Writing Photographs

    Invitation to work as part of a research group devised by artists Beverley Carruthers and Wiebke Leister, which investigates contemporary modes of collaborative image-text-production.
    WITTA with Freya Dooley & Cinzia Mutigli

    Freya Dooley and Cinzia Mutigli’s ongoing collaboration spans writing, performance, sound and moving image.
    WITTA with Polly Barton & Daniela Cascella

    In this inaugural event we invite Polly Barton and Daniela Cascella to discuss translation, relationships between art, writing and sound, and what it means to write between disciplines.
    Acts of Transfer

    This evening of conversation with artist Katy Beinart, writer Lizzie Lloyd and curator Marianne Mulvey will consider their shared interests in socially engaged or participatory art projects.
    WITTA Introduction

    WITTA (Writing In / To / Through Art) is the start of what I hope to become a fully fledged research group at UWE Bristol.