Old French periferie Late Latin peripheria Greek peripheriaperipheresperipherein to carry or move round, traveller on a curving path. Infer, defer, refer. Peripherals step in, away, beyond. Look up, look out, look about.
What happens to words carried around, spoken or shown to others? What work is carried out by assembling texts that come through airports or arrive by bus and boat, train, car and tram? What is the circumference of that activity, revolving around a place and a time? What other places and times stand revealed by such acts? When will we meet again?
As part of Poetry & the Contemporary, a conference held in Melbourne 7-9 July 2011, eighteen New Zealand and Australian poets met at Carlton Gardens to make a collaborative work with texts brought specifically for the purpose but undisclosed beforehand. The collaboration took the form of a lunchtime walk around the gardens during which participants stopped the group in a place of their choosing to read and record. Some of the pleasure of walking, talking, looking and listening, of being performers and audience in a city enclave, is apparent in the video and audio presented here. Later in the day we recorded further readings at the Victorian Trades Hall and Kris Hemensley’s Collected Works Bookshop.
Michele Leggott
30 November 2011
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