The first event connected to our current exhibition, All Our Relations / Ár gCaidreamh Uilig!
Potential Wor(l)ds: Remote Connection is a slow-tempo event with artists Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain that will take place (at your own pace) over several days, through the messaging app, Telegram. This guided experimentation will consider and 'prefigure' future communicative possibilities, using the speculative fiction of Suzette Haden Elgin and the invented feminist language Láadan as a starting point.
After registering, participants will be posted a materials pack and will receive daily prompts via the Telegram App from August 11 to 15 that they can respond to in their own time. Make sure to download Telegram for free in order to receive your prompts, which is available for Android, iOS, PC, Linux and macOS. This workshop is free but spaces are extremely limited, and advance booking is essential. Booking will close on 4 August!
Due to postage costs, we can only send packs to participants in Ireland/Europe/UK. If you live elsewhere and would like to join us, email sara@projectartscentre.ie and we can send a short list of materials for you to source yourself.
The materials pack text is offered in both English and in Irish.
Potential Wor(l)ds: Remote Connection
Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain
Potential Wor(l)ds is a collaborative project between artists Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain, drawing on shared interests in feminist science fiction, embodied processes of making, and different ways of worldbuilding.
The project is inspired by Láadan, a feminist language created by linguist and science fiction writer Suzette Haden Elgin in 1984. Finding herself unable to express certain ideas and emotions in English, Elgin wanted to make space for new words and ways of communicating. Elgin saw gaps in dominant language – where ‘there ought to be a word,’ but none yet exists – as a place to start creating change. She called these gaps ‘potential words.’
The idea of these potential wor(l)ds has formed the basis of workshops that we have held since 2018, where we experiment with sound, objects, drawing and our own bodies to create a collective vocabulary.
Adapted from our workshops for socially-distanced participants using smartphones, Remote Connection is an invitation to explore language and expression over five days of guided experimentation. Together we will move through more familiar ways of communicating via our phones (like messaging apps, voice notes and streaming) towards stranger and more playful ways of using this tool. Participants will receive a material kit and daily prompts that they will be invited to respond to in their own time.
Material from Remote Connection will be added to the Potential Wor(l)ds dictionary.
How It Works
There are limited spaces, so participation will be first-come-first-served for those signing up via the form.
Material packs will be sent via post to all participants.
From 11-15 August, participants will be sent daily prompts via the Telegram App.
You can complete these prompts at your own pace.
Image: Thor Brødreskift
