This presentation is concerned with the relationship between creative processes and the incomplete, broken, or hidden. We’re going to explore how creative processes can remain unstable, deploying the kinds of scrutiny that don’t destroy. If we were watching a particularly uneven horror film together (a good metaphor for this talk), we might call this “suspension of disbelief”. We’re going to examine brokenness that refuses repair or recovery, and how this articulates a collective creative imaginary. We will look at the politics of that articulation, and what it means to allow gaps, shadows, and breaks. We will look at a lot of horror films.
Reading
"The Criminal Child" by Jean Genet and the short "Notes on" which was anonymously included with the text's first translation. https://archive.org/details/TheCriminalChildByJeanGenet
The translation of Genet is available to download from the same link, but as it misses off the publisher's essay we have the copy here.
Biography
I’m Uma, a disabled artist, writer, and award winning game designer interested in animals, horror, and queer feminist literature. Everything I make is about some combination of love, grief, hallucination, and an excess of joy. With Belladonna Paloma I make video games about the divine and occult providence of transfemme existence. I live in Gateshead, UK.
Recent projects include “The Speculative Dismemberment of Agent Leon Kennedy” for Market Gallery (Glasgow, 2022), "Hinterlands" at Baltic (Gateshead 2022), “The Joy of Destruction” for Backlit (Nottingham, 2023), and my first solo exhibition “Earth A.D.” co-commissioned by and touring across Wysing Arts Centre (Cambridge, 2022), FACT (Liverpool, 2023), and Quad (Derby, 2024).
For more information on our group and the CDI please visit our website.