Caroline Bergvall

is a French-Norwegian writer and artist, based in London who works across media, languages, and artforms.  Her work is concerned with mediated speech, language and perception, multilingualism, cultural performativity. She has developed books and textual pieces as well as audioworks, net-based pieces, live readings and installations in Europe, Scandinavia and North America. Collections of texts and performance pieces: Eclat (1996), FIG (2005), and the chapbooks: Cropper (2008) and the Norwegian output Plessjør (2008). Recent collaborations: sound-text installation with Ciaran Maher Say: “Parsley” (MuKha Museum, Antwerp 2008); arts residency w visual artist Rodney McMillian (Hammer Museum, LA 2009); printed matter The Die Is cast with writer Nick Thurston (information as material, 2009). Other presentations: Henie Onstad Museum (Oslo), MOMA (NY), PhonoFemme (Vienna), DIA (NY). Director of Performance Writing (1995-2000, Dartington College of Arts). Recipient of an AHRC Arts Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts (2007-2010).
www.carolinebergvall.com

Ride
MP3

I created this audiotext as a piece of writing. The audio recording allowed me to consider the actuality of the sounded or macro inscription of writing as it is taking place. It was a way of recording the physical and social but also intimate activity of writing. The emphasis was on exploring listening as a reclaimed aspect of writing. Gestures of writing as audible tracing. The piece itself deals with a verbal slippage between ‚writing‘ and ‚riding‘. Pronunciation is a reminder of the motivated hold between accent and cultural belonging. I use the oral, sounded phonemes ‚t‘ and ‚d‘ as my basic measure to signify cultural accent. They shift between the British dry ‚t‘ of the writer and the American wet ‚t‘ of the wrider. Like an action on and with another, writing the riding might bring up fantasies of desire. Ride is both ars poetica and love song.
Recording engineer: Birdie Hall. Production: Optic Nerve, 2004