Application – Five Bodies

Future Biography: A Proposal for the Realisation of Five Bodies

The way in which we approach research and practice has radically changed in the last year. This is due to global and local politics, biomedical news, personal family events, travel restrictions, geography and climate issues and crises; and also because of the usual migration of birds, pupation of caterpillars, and the ever increasing amounts of borage which have made their own green homes in local and distant areas. In light of these huge changes (the light, needless to say, is growing ever lower and bluer) our own work has additionally taken a new turn.

Drawing on the author’s recent doctoral research on the ancient Greek poet Sappho, sex, fragments, the eighteenth century, and bibliophilia, she has created rich pseudoacademic works that actively describe the intersection between thought, memory, theoretical research and dreams. By working through ‘Five Bodies’, Harriet developed her creative-critical practice and explored patterns of thought which stretched out like the anchor threads of spiderwebs or rigging that were hitherto left fallow. After writing the ‘Radical Fragmentation’ oneiros¹ article in Summer 2020, Harriet wrote the fragmentary pieces of ‘120:2/4/8’ in the close of 2020, working in collaboration with local artists. ‘Five Bodies’ provided the author with the opportunity for research, practice and building community. These three modes of working – reading, writing, and talking – gave life to the oneiroi² project and cemented the dream and memory of academic writing in the low blue light of the turning year.

¹ dream

² dreams