TEXT2SPEECH: Room & Book

The Piracy Project Reader (published by AND)

TEXT2SPEECH is a friendly and informal facilitated reading group that aims to provide a platform for broad discussion around recent contemporary art theory. No prior knowledge of the subject is required, but an interest in contributing to debate always enriches the sessions. The group is targeted at the widest possible public, but may be attractive to students and recent graduates who seek an incentive to read new material with others, also offering an opportunity to meet like-minded people.

The precept of our seventh meeting is to read an art-based publication back-to-back and to use the magazine or journal as a platform to explore and discuss contemporary issues of 'writing as practice', art publishing and art writing in a broader realm.

The reading group will be an open discussion surrounding the functions and relationship between art publications and art writing. It seeks to conduct a dialogue which considers the different realms art writing can exist within - and a larger abstract consideration of the curatorial nature and performativity of magazines, books and journals.

The session will also address: funding, editorial boards, the ‘essay as artwork’, the transcendence of subject matter, linguistic devices at play and even mundane questions such as aesthetic choice of colour themes and typefaces. By taking such notions into consideration, the aim of the reading group is to collectively question and rearticulate our predetermined ideas of the practice of art publishing and the different formats in which art can be written about. Quintessentially, the group will be encouraged to consider the magazines as art entities in themselves, and not just as platforms which house opinions about exterior artworks. The trajectory of considering writing and magazines as artworks allows the conversation to expand beyond each individual article, and permit the magazine to question its own artistic validation.

To support the discussion, a copy of Noon Magazine will be a continuous point of reference to explore the above questions. Copies of the magazine will be available at the reading group.

Secondary Reading: The White Review: What can an Art Magazine be?

This reading group has been programmed to respond to Room & Book Art Book Fair (22-24 May 2015) a three-day art book fair at the ICA which gathers the best specialist bookshops and dealers in the UK.

Event initiated by Student Forum members Jane Scarth and Hatty Nestor and generously supported by Noon Magazine.