As part of the ‘Design for Change: Designing the world we want’ conference (11th-15th July 2022), we showcased the preliminary findings and progression of this ARC Discovery Project as part of an exhibition titled ‘Time to Listen’.
As part of the exhibition of the initial research findings, poetry, and interactive artworks and experiences, attendees were also invited to participate in a Found Poetry Workshop/pop-up, creating found poetry with submissions to the Royal Commission combining collage and concrete poetry techniques to create visual found poetry. The following is a selection of found poetry created as part of a ‘pop-up’ found poetry workshop at the ‘Time to Listen’ exhibition.
Process
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Typically participants would be provided with one or more entire texts (or in this case submissions to the Royal Commission) which they could read through and select words from. For this pop-up experience, we took a less intensive approach where participants were provided a set of words selected from three separate submissions (AWF.001.05431_0001, AWF.001.05520_0001, AWF.250.03492_0001) which were collated on a single A4 page (left) for people to cut out and arrange into a poem, taking into consideration techniques of concrete poetry (otherwise known as ‘shape poetry’) and/or combined with other visual material such as magazines to create collages of words and images.
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Many people chose to convey their poems through visual means – often through the creation of patterns of shapes using words, letters, and other typographical devices, as depicted in I was/I am, which used two sides of the paper to demonstrate the changing perspective of someone before and after experiencing aged care services. We Need Voices, demonstrates the argument for needing diverse voices in conversations about aged care by scattering disparate perspectives and concepts around the core message.
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A variety of magazines were provided to allow people to draw on existing imagery to assist in conveying the meaning of their found poem. In some instances, these were presented as an assemblage of various imagery (also known as collage) as seen in I am not dementia, whereas some used a singular image (Theatrics is Not Enough).
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While others were created using a combination of different techniques, including the use of illustration (Spend on Me & Systemic Failure creates regular Neglect), and also the use of tape as seen in the example above (The System is Broken) which demonstrates a fragmented and broken system through the use of a singular piece of paper, ripped apart, and held back together using the tape. In this example, the transparent quality of the tape is useful for symbolising the gaps in the system. This visual style is then applied to the words and images which each have been cut in half and held together, albeit still fragmented, by tape.
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