Stolen Voices is now called typeFACE! This is the genius naming by Emily . who wrote in an e-mail: ( edited version )

‘ There are so many great aspects to this project. As I ask other artists to participate with a description of an image they can’t describe, I’m finding that this aspect of uniting artists and talking - at various stages of life, artistic development and working in myriad ways - is becoming a really exciting aspect of the project. Wouldn’t it be great to build of a great archive of these stumbling/articulate/uncertain/strident/humorus/intelligent statements with corresponding facial expressions and typeface? [AH! Maybe we can call it typeFACE …… Emily Candela 16 june 2010

Imagine linking the 500 year old technology of letterpress, shaping the spoken words by the artists in to posters, then projections of their silent, but talking heads next to the prints…As alway s I am not quite sure where this wil take us/ me- but it feels as if the project is opening up something to something greater- like a vista of play.

Amos Kennedy’s work inspires:

” the world is big- full of connections and
ideas to be made. ”

Don’t forget it!

For the full effect of the stolen voices - go to Emily’s blog; http://emilycandela.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/pale-voce/

- and check out our moving heads. In the end these will projected on to our posters ( what is seen here is a rudimentary start up version.

A new project has started to sneak in - about the use of English in Higer Education. I am working with Emily Candela adn we will combine our expressions- printmaking , letter press and video. Language can be used as a tool for exclusion ,and in the UK it seems to be linked to the obsession with the class system. we call it stolen voices- still looking for the latin translation , playing on the academic term ‘Viva voce’ which is an exam carried out through talking - and not writing.

Emerging and older, more established artists will collaborate with us in an experiment to develop ways of thinking and working at the intersection of linguistic and visual representation that addresses the challenges faced by many artists in the area of language. Together we will create a series of text-based prints, therefore bringing language to tangible form.The artists will be filmed- as in a series of moving video portraits. These will be shown projected on the prints in a final exhibition. We also aim to produce an article in the end- returning to the written word.

The artists will collaborate with a group of artists who either experience difficulty with the linguistic requirements of their course or are being forced to speak about their practice in an academic art theory language which is alien to them. At our first meeting, each artist will bring with them an image that they believe defies simple description. The artist will be invited to speak freely about the images. We will then introduce a template for speaking about the images that mirrors the conventions of academic composition. The artists will be asked to use these to present verbal representations of the images, but will be encouraged to amend or disregard the template as they see fit. In this way, they are actively contributing to an experiment in generating a framework for synthesising image and text. The artists’ verbal descriptions will be recorded and transcribed. Selections from these transcriptions will provide the text for a series of typographic prints, created with the artists at the second meeting with them. The prints’ format will be based on the templates mentioned above, and will reflect the artists modifications to these templates.

Background:

This artwork takes as its starting point a central issue in fine art higher education: the difficulties experienced by many art art students in the linguistic articulation of their ideas (Hudson, 2009). In our own experiences working with students, we have witnessed the anxiety, self- doubt and frustration caused by requirements to apply academic language to visual artistic work. We - ourselves as foreigners,one american and one Swede, have found it challenging to modify our language to the British English academic conventions. Many practitioners are examining alternatives to conventional academic writing within art and design higher education (Candela, 2009; Orr et al, 2004). This parallels a larger conversation concerning the relationship between image and text, impacted by postmodern cultural theory (Barthes, 1977) and by 20th and 21st century artists experimenting at the interface of visual and textual representation.

This project is unique in its invitation to artists to experiment with formats for linguistic representation.The resulting prints will represent a record of dialogue and negotiation towards a new conception of the roles of linguistic and visual representation in the world of the fine art establishment.

We are not Sorry for sounding like ourselves.