Writing, Performance, Landscape and Myth-Work

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O'Sullivan, Simon D.. 2025. 'Writing, Performance, Landscape and Myth-Work'. In: Digital Ecologies 3. Bath Spa University, United Kingdom 24-25 July 2025. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Official URL: https://digitalecologies.org/digital-ecologies-3/

Abstract or Description

My paper will present three recent book projects, all of which are concerned with writing, performance, and landscape – and all of which might loosely be brought under the banner of Myth-Work. Myth-work is also a name for the claiming of narrative and for practices of self-determination – as well as for practices that move us beyond the fiction of the self. I will offer up some examples from contemporary art of this kind of practice, attending specifically to those that are performance-based and/or involve a turn to the past as a resource for imagining other presents and futures. I will also introduce my own performance based collaborative practice – or ‘performance fiction’ – that deals with some of these issues. Lastly, I will link the above with previous work I have done on fictioning, or the materialisation/enactment of fictions within reality. In particular I will be concerned here with drawing out the implications of fictioning for a critical/creative writing practice and also in developing an idea of fictioning in relation to landscape – especially, with the idea of props and devices for time-travel (or what I will call archaeofictioning). At stake in all these projects and lines of enquiry is a turn towards care and repair – of ourselves and the worlds we inhabit – as well as the affirmation of values and practices that are often at odds with the status quo.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Keynote)