...re-writing the self - reflection on the move...
…re-writing the self - reflection on the move… seeks to establish a channel of communication between two (at least) aspects of a personality that reside in the same body but do not speak… Structured around a series of journeys made by bike between The Margate School of Art (TMS) where I work as a lecturer, and my parents’/childhood home in Walmer, Kent, UK, the project employs interview outtakes (with colleagues and parents), self-reflection, field recordings, and citational material (Butler, Phelan, Verela, De Certeau, etc) to script an autoethnographic encounter between professional and familial selves. Theses authorial perspectives are supported (propped up) by optical and kinaesthetic viewpoints recorded via analogue medium format photography taken whilst moving between locations. For the presentation, I will employ these materials as interlocutors in a dialogue (including my presenting voice) that explores the potential of being between—moving towards and away from simultaneously—places and selves. Of particular interest is the metaphorical play (between place and self) afforded by this approach and the transformative effect movement might have on representations of this relationship. The value of engaging metaphors with the body is a key component of enactive thought where phrases such as“as if”or“seeing as”are used to generate imaginative jumps in who, what, where, and how something is acting or speaking from, based on the application of cognitive and affective skills in the field. This playful shifting focus unsettles the “deictic centre” of the speaking subject, generating a space and time for plural writing positions to emerge. The interviews at either end of the journey are structured around these principles, where the purpose of the interview has not been to dialogue “about” a “subject” (me) that precedes that space (the interview) but rather to employ the language produced on route to invite (collectively) new versions of self into unfamiliar territory. The presentation will continue the performative approach to representation in evidence across the work, staging an encounter between site, self and language that punctuates the relationship between narrative voice and egoic “I”. What can the process of reflecting on the move tell us about the relationship between language and the construction of self? How can words and images generated under these conditions traverse the gap between two (or more) dietic centres?