Reading Place Aloud (2017)

Finalist in the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture (2017) Design Concept Award for Crafting a City of Literature, supported by the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office. This project is in concept form only and has not been realised, as per the requirements of the category.

Reading Place Aloud is a public artwork that concerns the sharing of literature in urban public space. It is performative and inclusive and makes reference to the rich oral traditions across cultures, including multicultural Australia and Aboriginal Australian storytelling. Sound is three dimensional and fills space, and vocality adds a sonic dimension to a text that transforms reading into a shared spatial experience. While authorial readings occur at book launches and writers’ festivals, sharing contemporary writing in the public domain enables anyone to casually stop and listen.

The selection of writers will be gender and racially inclusive and the texts will be suitable for all ages. The texts have a strong connection to place, mainly Melbourne but also wider Australia, through Aboriginal writers’ deep cultural connection to this land (eg Tony Birch, Anita Heiss, with permission) and for those who have found asylum here (eg Sabrin Ahmed, Hani Abdile, with permission). I will perform the readings which will last 30 minutes each, one per day, three days a week. A biography of each writer will introduce each reading.