0. Arriving together
A first step is dedicated to arriving together as a group. It can happen in different ways depending on the context. One simple proposition consists in sitting in a circle and starting with a round of presentation before the facilitator gives the participants an overview of the process.
"Writing Weaves" is a workshop format designed to experience and experiment with writing as a process of weaving text material from various sources.
It consists of an iterative process that alternates individual and collective moments in five main steps. After reflecting collectively on the idea of text as a woven texture, we begin the weaving process itself. Here, the source texts that will be used as material play a crucial role. Depending on your setting and purpose, you may engage with a specific collection of books on a selected topic, books intuitively selected from a library's shelves, your own text material that you wish to activate in unforeseen direction, or with texts that have emerged from a previous collective practice...
The following score outlines the different steps of the workshop, which primarily aims to create a shared experience among participants. Based on previous implementations in higher education and transdisciplinary arts contexts, it is designed to be adaptable to other situations and settings. By doing so, it aims to contribute to the fostering of communities of practitioners engaged in writing as an aesthetic practice of research across disciplinary boundaries.
1. Embracing textuality
In this first step, participants are introduced to the idea that texts can be encountered and apprehended as textures woven from different sources, they are invited to critically discuss and collectively reflect on this idea.
In order to do so, the facilitator will have selected in advance text passages that develop this idea and printed them on cards or paper strips, that are now shared within the group.
Each participant is invited to pick a card or strip of paper and get acquainted with the text passage it contains. Then, during a collective reading session, each participant reads their text passage aloud.*
After listening to all the texts, the participants are invited to spontaneously react, comment on, respond to, and discuss the passages they have read and listening to. Questions of understanding, critical comments, resonances with one's own experience of dealing with texts are welcome. The facilitator may moderate the discussion by categorising the different types of intervention.
*As a possible starting point, you will find below a PDF with a selection of quotes from Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author" (1967), addressing the idea of text as texture. You might want to add other quotes from other authors.
The text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture.2
...we are now emphasizing, in the tissue, the generative idea that the text is made, is worked out in a perpetual interweaving...1
2. Navigating source texts & gathering text material
Participants are invited to explore the source texts, which might include a selection of books, publications and articles, depending on the particular setting and purpose of the workshop. They are invited to navigate the source texts intuitively rather than linearly, following their intuition and curiosity. From this process, participants select three texts that they would like to engage with more deeply.
They then find a place in the room to sit and spend some time sifting through the pages of their chosen texts. As in the previous step, they are invited to navigate based on curiosity and intuition, as well as their specific encounters with the text material. During this process, any short passages that catch the reader's attention are noted and gathered on cards or strips of paper.
Once this step is complete, participants exchange their source texts in groups of three and repeat the sequence of navigating and gathering text material, this time using texts chosen by someone else.
3. Share and Weave
Going back to their groups of three, participants read the text passages they have gathered from the source texts aloud to each other.
They discuss their collected texts, noting any echoes, repetitions, resonances or dissonances that may have emerged. Based on these discussions, they then compose a new text, weaving together the passages they have collected.
When introducing this step, the facilitator might suggest a few possibilities to inspire the participants to develop their own approach. For example, they could leave the text passages as they are or modify them as needed, such as reformulating, shortening, expanding or combining them.
Once this step is complete, all groups come together and share their composed texts, either by displaying them or reading them aloud. The sharing is followed by spontaneous reactions elicited by the sharing. Then the groups discuss how they have proceeded to compose their texts from the existing text material.
5. Echoes & traces
The sequence concludes with each participant selecting a passage from the texts that have emerged during the process, writing it on a card, and placing the card in one of the text sources. In this way, textual traces are left for others to discover and interact with, and the ending becomes a new beginning.
In preparation of the workshop:
– gather a selection of quotes to distribute among the participants in step one (see PDF above as an example),
– select the source texts to be engaged with in steps two and five of the process.
4. Re-write & reflect
Each participant returns to the text composed with their group, and re-writes it individually – here again, each decides how to proceed, based on the examples discussed in the previous steps. They might want to change the perspective from which the text is written, to change the pronoms, to complete the text by writing before, after or in between the passages...
After this sequence, the resulting texts are read aloud and reflected together – the reflection addresses mainly how the process of rewriting unfolded, which interesting aspects or difficulties were encountered. Again, particular attention might be given to echoes, resonances, differences between the different experiences.
