the texts for bodies are what i call ‘arrangements’, pieces made by taking works existing in the public domain, sim-reading them them & noting down words, pairings of words, or fragments of phrases that intuitively jump out as useful to whatever i am trying to make. these elements are then put in columns, until they begin to ‘talk’ to each other. eventually, i start to feel that some words belong in the company of others, until they gradually become arranged in groupings, working themselves into new phrases, fragments, or single words resonating in relationship to the others they neighbour. then there follows a process of editing, and the final spatial shaping of the text in the field of the page. for the project the nature of things, source texts included old works on dance, biology, anatomy, & geology.
Gavin Text bodies
very early in the process of research for this project, Gavin developed a series of ‘text bodies’ that became some of our starting points for physical work in the studio. Below is a short text from him explaining their development and creation – and the latest version of the ‘text bodies’: