Attitudes to reading: drifting towards objects and events

This public lecture introduces the key theoretical and aesthetic practices that have informed the creation of ‘we share some words’, a long, self-generating poem which folds together readings from the library at the Leeds College of Art. It is argued that reading can be a form of drifting (as a kind of library Dérive); or collecting and observing (likened to in-the-moment recording and drawing). The outcomes to this rule-based activity are defined as “poetic residua”, actualised as stable books and “eventualised” as a real-time digital projection.

Within the randomness of the poem we strive to recognise meaning and pattern. This apophenia is a human desire which seeks the ghosts and fairies within the machine. BUT none are there.

What remains are beautiful glitches - random events that reveal some of the inner nature of language.