Details of exploration:
Below is the overall 'score' or series of prompts that were used for structuring an experiment in collective writing in public space. A series of prompts for timed writing/reading together in Frauenplan square in Weimar, in conjunction with an agreed pattern of movement. Specific positions/locations could be moved or changed during the practices.
To the right is documentation of this exploration, alongside the texts generated through engaging with each 'score' or 'prompt'.
Prompt: Acousmatic
Notate sounds whose source you cannot identify or spot. The language invitation is towards ingings, meaning; instead of notating nouns add the suffix-ing to make a verb out of a noun.
Location: Moving around in the vicinity of Frauenplan Square, Weimar
Duration: 30 minutes writing
Prompt: SAY IT AGAIN, SPHERE OF INTEREST
DETAILS: Stand in a circle as group and give your last sentence to the person to the right of you. Start writing with that sentence for 5 minutes and in the centre of the square. Move to the middle position and write for 5 minutes and to conclude move to the periphery and write for 5 minutes.
Location: Frauenplan Square, Weimar: Centre to periphery.
Duration: 15 minutes writing
Prompt: From the corner of the eye.
Notating words (avoiding full sentences) about phenomena in our field of vision.
Location: Within the vicinity of Frauenplan Square, Weimar
Duration: 10 minutes writing
PART 2: After writing, gather as a group at the centre of the square and read aloud your text simultaneously.
Prompt: SAY IT AGAIN, SPHERE OF INTEREST
DETAILS: Write based on your bodily senses starting from a peripheral position in the square. Write for 5 minutes. Move forward towards the centre but stay midways. Write for 5 minutes. Move forwards to the centre. Write for 5 minutes.
Location: Frauenplan Square, Weimar: Periphery to centre
Duration:15 minutes writing
Shadows, gaps between shadows, frame edge, gaps between gaps, patches, buzz, buzz? The corner of my ear keeps creeping in and taking over, through carwindow muffled daytime radio. Eyes, come back to the eyes, light patches slowly becoming flattened out through cloud cover, opening again, this could be repeated, how far to the corners can I go before what? Seeing nothing? A horse!
Eyes close and sounds smack first shuttlecrack door thud pulses against the waves now of lacklustre birdsong seeps into human chatter heat soaked white light through lids filtered dappled brain pattern flickering woozy , a bit, not too much, don’t fight it, something doesn’t, [illegible section], but won’t go here to the flickers, [something crossed out], pores open to the breeze, sketching a line towards the centre as part of other lines, you can’t close your ears someone once said (but what about earplugs?) Bird human chatter drifts to edges, appreciated? [illegible section] there’s a horse somewhere, the horse in the room, [something crossed out], tree [something crossed out] lures gaze and it sticks, there, force between us, attentive for lure, gaze closer inspecting surfacescape patterned weather slide crack lures touch to surface, water.
Starting in the middle, 5 min
piel de gallina
gåshud
mina bara armar
två personer går raskt
en duva gör en vid båge tätt intill marken
den landar
den är inte mera i mitt synfält
en annan duva i nästan exakt samma båge,
den gör en högersväng, landar, lyfter och
flyger bortåt i en rak linje
en person bär två små paket på handflatan,
gissar på semlor eller kanske croissanter
Almost in the middle, 5 min
solen dyker upp
sitter på en bänk
låter ryggen nästan falla bakåt
värme
doften av solkräm
en strosande ringduva
en person tittar på sin telefon och sjunger
duvan lyfter
flyger med snabba vingslag
som jag urskiljer
tre personer på bänken
talar
samtalets volym ökar och avtar
roligt
solen bakom moln
och det blåser lätt
planterade silverpilar
tre stolpar runt ett ungt träd
och ett tjockt band i gummi runtomkring
Ending in the periphery, 5min
Lyssnar
fyrkantiga former
kullerstenar
rörelse
till höger en cykel
till vänster en duva
en vågrät linje bryts,
då jag flyttar blicken
stående personer
gående personer
vågräta linjer
ryggen
ryggfigur
en cyklist
en flagga
tygets yta
fladdrar
en gata
två personer
en person
en cyklist
en diagonal axelrem
skuggor
skuggan av en fågel
kvittrande
språkande
påstående
blåsande
dovande
hostande
kippande
rullande
knastrande
kvittrande
näbbande
hjulande
stegande
avbrytande
pågående
argande
munnande
runt omkringande
över
tystande
skrattande, skrattande
klip, klip
tvi tui tvi tui
skrö skrö skrö
atjo
wenn ich
hai
brrr rrr rrr
rrrr rrr
brö rröö
hej
krr-krr-krr-krrr-kri
to to too
titititititititi
kra kra kra kra
kra kra krax
glo glo glo
hör auf
ssssschfffff
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
knack
stri stri stri
stri stri stri
äääbä
he he he
mojn nejn
jaaaaaaaaa
nännäää
hu
täk täk täk täk täk
täk täk täk täk
schroo
bom bom
hallo hallo
see you later
tsrup
gri siri
klirr kli klirr klirr kli
skre skre skre skre
tak tak tak
kvi kvi kvi
tititititititititititititit
titititi
Starting in the periphery, 5 min
då jag skriver böjer jag på nacken
skriver stående
trycker anteckningsblocket mot magen
mittemot mig står någon
som
läser en skylt på väggen bakom mig
Goethes Wohnhaus
till höger solen
gavelhusens skuggor på kullerstenarna
klapper
någon rullar in i synfältet
en grupp stannar framför mig
tar några steg
någon stryker en hästs mule
en annan person i ryttarhatt
ett mjukt ljus sprider sig över platsen
Frauenplan
Almost in the middle, 5 min
vinden stryker
några långsamma steg
avmatta röster
klackskor i takt
flip flops
anteckningsboken vilar på en stolpe
ett par axel mot axel
nu
delar de på sig och går förbi mig på var sin sida
snuddar
hästarna har med sig stallet
en hastig parfym
en ringklocka
en klänning i mönster med klara färger
en rutig skjorta
ett snabbt nynnande
cykel på kullerstenar, skakigt
en till
In the middle, 5 min
klapprande
steg över en sandplan
svart cykel
röda rosor
runt omkring oss en vid pergola som är täckt med humle
linden tree
linden tree
running water
city well
beton block to sit on
not a café table
not a café chair
many chairs
blue and white chairs
wooden chairs with metal legs
running water with a stony sound
laughter on the right
people walking
clouds in front of the sun, suddenly
running water, with a stony sound
behind me to the left
beton or concrete block
good height to sit on
probably not clean
running water, stony sound
birds chirping –
can you hear from the corner of your ear?
the sound of a horse cart [undecipherable]
tourist trip perhaps
the sun is back, hot
sound of running water
from the well, stony
somebody leading a bike across the playground
The [undecipherable] that
is covered with [undecipherable]
what kind of [undecipherable]?
“lianen”, large
leaves
big poplar tree behind
the arches
green arches,
poplar tree and
more trees
silvery trees in [undecipherable],
planted recently, or
a few years ago
more linden trees
The ground on the square
made of cobbles
square cobble stones
rectangular cobble stones,
remains of dry leaves
between them
[undecipherable] made by
cobble stones
running water, stony
sound
sound of running water
waiter placing
cushion on chair
lunchtime soon
different chair for
different cafeterias
important information
for customers,
how to choose a chair?
what if you don’t choose a chair?
Now a small cloud
again relief,
and gone again
sunshine, heat.
Asia-bistro
Fleischerei
Behind me more and
more sound of talking
mostly German
Emma walks this way
end!
They are all standing. Turned, I can’t see them but I sense them through a slight change of pressure in small hairs on the back of my neck, through peripheral vision and through their increased [illegible], which is more imagined than anything anyway, projected from my own [illegible]. Our body here words collective ripples traversing its surface, shared sounds passing at cross-angles. Cut. Stained sheen rock face, ‘Entschuldigung’ sie sagt, breaking my attention, ich sage nur ‘uh’, ‘entschuldigung auch’ denke ich ein bisschen spaeter aber nicht im moment. Indifferent to us it appears from under an abandoned one-pronged plastic fork and scuttles for leaf cover each moment reaching a stone a decision, left or right, decided in a instant, in it [illegible] of territory, what happened in that instant, what’s that, oh wow it’s the rest of the mangled fork.
Traversing. Hum attracts step towards, calls surge through hum field, larynxing, guttering between words, hesitationing, speech exhaustioning,, on verge of breakdown, until it is lifted, named as words, identified, and dies. It shifts across the group, through and beyond them, through the fading away of a chirp, the _rp, and it picks up into a broader growl, these waves could be repeated, pierced through song then collapsed, [illegible] flatten to crchnchslpchsplgrrdeinebrchmamychsh.