[Essaying Touch] - part of Reading for Reading's Sake

By Rachel Lois

I was invited to participate in Reading for Reading’s Sake; a three day event at Salford’s Islington Mill exploring radical reading or reading as an activity which is purposeful in itself.

Notes on RFRS

I devised a live residency or period of action research for the event entitled [ Essaying Touch ] which responded, gifted and exchanged with the community at Islington Mill.

[Essaying Touch] Index Card

[ Essaying Touch ] is a body of work developed from recent live readings such as FINGER and Re-. It moved through Reading for Reading’s Sake pressing on embodied acts of (w)reading and writing, finger(ing) texts and pointing to pointing to things. Documents were produced over the course of the three days. A selection of these documents are posted here.

Wreading Un Coup de Des (Performance)

Wreading Un Coup de Des (Script)

(W)reading The Crack-Up Fitzgerald, F. Scott from rachellois on Vimeo.

On Sunday I held a discussion about [ Essaying Touch ], showing the development of the work and documents that had been produced during Reading for Reading’s Sake. The presentation generated conversation on the muteness of physicality, the content of embodied language and the authority of touch.

At the end of the discussion, I lead the group in a physical scoring exercise in the main exhibition space. This collective non verbal gesture read the space at Islington Mill and marked the final session of Reading for Reading’s Sake.

Read an another description of [ Essaying Touch] on the Reading for Reading's Sake website here.

Rachel Lois Clapham is a writer and Co-Director of Open Dialogues; a UK based collaboration producing critical writing on and as performance.

READING FOR READING’S SAKE was curated by Maurice Carlin, Helen Kaplinksy and Megan Wakefield. It featured contributions from Aesthetics and Politics Reading Group, Ruth Beale, Rachel Lois Clapham, David Berridge, Katie Brandon, Patrick Coyle, Lowri Evans, Ella Finer, Royston Futter, Stephen Kingston, Fraser Muggeridge, Tamarin Norwood, Sam Playford, Lucy May Schofield, and Sebastian Willan.