SOUND & VIS/POETRY: A NEW COLLABORATION WITH CRAIG STEWART JOHNSON

In April 2024 I collaborated with Gateshead-based sound artist Craig Stewart Johnson to create a new artwork exploring the notion of language beyond traditional understandings and expectations of the written word. Presented as a work-in-progress live performance captured on duel video, [untitled] was recorded and filmed over two consecutive days at Gallery North in Newcastle upon Tyne, where it later featured as part of the WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH? exhibition and events programme from 22 April to 11 May 2024.

Bringing together our distinct and overlapping research interests to explore and celebrate the lived-body experience of perception, [untitled] combines the experimental practices of asemic writing (visual poetry) and sound art to develop a set of actions that can be explored, transcribed and reinterpreted to produce an audio-visual language that challenges binary understandings of semantic meaning.  

Curated by Matthew Hearn, WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH? brought together practice-based research from staff and PGRs at Northumbria University alongside collaborations with invited creative practitioners including David Bellingham, Kate Liston, Lesley McIntyre, Speaking in Tongues, Degna Stone and many more.

Both videos featured in the exhibition are available to view below.

[untitled] - video #1

[untitled] - video #2

Craig Stewart Johnson is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Gateshead. His work revolves around experimental sound and visual artforms alongside a preoccupation with DIY cultures and methods of production, threads which influence both his artistic and research output. 

Madelaine Culver is a writer and visual poet currently studying for a practice-based PhD on contemporary British horror cinema and intertextual poetics at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her debut vis/poetry book, The Second Dream, was published by UK indie poetry press Steel Incisors in March 2024.