In this workshop, Michael Lawton wants to share the methodology he developed through his doctoral research so that we all write fictions for artworks (or other objects, things, vibrations, actors, agents, inspirations.)

This methodology can be broadly separated into the following six techniques that will form the basis of the workshop:
1. Personal Narrative
2. Metaphor
3. Speculative Fictio
4. Intimacy
5. Thing
6. Collage

This workshop is designed to give people some tools and techniques for approaching a subject and the time and space to write intensively, as well as space for some feedback and discussion. During the session Michael will read from his own work and the writing of others he admires.

Participants can use these methods as a starting point for shorter texts or to stimulate ideas for longer pieces or ignored altogether. The most important thing is to write.

Participants need to bring their own subject. Michael’s examples come from his own encounters with artworks or plants. Participants need to think which artwork(s) / thing(s) they would like to write for, though this is a methodology that can be applied to all encounters.

Schedule
12-1pm: talk
1-2pm: lunch
2-6pm: workshop

Michael Lawton was born in Sheffield in 1980. He studied Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University and Chelsea College of Art & Design before completing a practice-based PhD at the University of Kent in 2019. The hypothesis of his research was that the best writing to accompany an artwork is a work of fiction, a narrative that exists in the world the viewer enters when they encounter the artwork: texts written for paintings rather than about them.

Accessibility info
Due to factors beyond our control, this event is inaccessible to those with limited mobility. We can record parts of the session if there is a demand. Please send an email to info@openschooleast.org if you are interested.

Image credit: Michael Lawton