In Other Motes, of Other Myths - Experimental Dickinson

Collaborators

Dr Nicole Panizza (Coventry University, UK)
Prof. Suzie Hanna (Norwich University of the Arts, UK)
Dr. Sally Bayley (University of Oxford, UK, independent scholar)
Dr. Hannah Sanders (independent scholar and performer, UK)

Featured poet/texts: Emily Dickinson

Featured publishers and institutions/organisations: University of Oxford (UK), ReLit Bibliotherapy Foundation (UK), FT Oxford Literary Festival (UK), Cité Internationale de Universitairé (France), Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS, USA)

This interdisciplinary collaborative performance, and an accompanying interpretative workshop, has been developed by Dr Nicole Panizza (Coventry University) Professor Suzie Hanna (Norwich University of the Arts) Dr Sally Bayley (Oxford University) and Dr Hannah Sanders (independent scholar and performer).

The project is supported by extensive primary research into the poet Emily Dickinson’s own musical world: her folio of solo piano music, balladry, folk music, and patriotic songs as well as a critical investigation of her poetic process - with particular focus on her ‘fragment’ poems, as featured in Susan Werther’s book The Gorgeous Nothings (2015). Notions of ‘feminine’ ballade form, in direct juxtaposition with ‘male’ hymn form (both favoured by Dickinson) are also explored - via the performance and workshop sessions, as key examples of the investigative process. Innovative aspects of this mixed-media performance development include the informed deconstruction and reimagining of the poet’s daily experiences - her domestic rituals interrupting and interrupted by her singing, piano practice and her writing, alongside the creation and performance of animated visuals (VJing), which reference materiality and metaphor in Dickinson’s poetry. The project seeks to expand and develop key areas of interdisciplinary research into Emily Dickinson’s life and work and contributes to broader debates on new forms of literary criticism and engagement.

This project was originally commissioned for the Emily Dickinson International Society Triennial Conference (Paris 2016), at which both the performance and the research/workshop were presented. Other performances, presentations and applied research workshops include invitations by ReLit (University of Oxford 2017), and the Oxford Literary Festival (Lincoln College, Oxford 2018).

A journal article is currently in development for publication in 2018/2019. This frames our original collaborative process as research - investigating and communicating new ways to contextualise evident themes of disruption, interruption, fragment, tactility, materiality and gesture in Dickinson’s prose and poetry.

List of Portfolio Contents
+ denotes *PO = primary output, SO = supporting output, *P = published output

- *PO *P - In Other Motes, of Other Myths: The Emily Dickinson Performance Project – ET101, Coventry University, May 2018 (Performance – HD professional edit) (1 video link, 1 folder)

- SO1 *P - Butterflies off Banks of Noon: The FT Oxford Literary Festival, Lincoln College, University of Oxford - March 2018 (3 links, 2 audio files, 1 folder)

- SO2 *P - In Other Motes, of Other Myths: The Emily Dickinson Performance Project, The ReLit Bibliotherapy Summer School, Worcester College, University of Oxford - August 2017 (3 links)

- SO3 *P - In Other Motes, of Other Myths: The Emily Dickinson Performance Project, EDIS Triennial Conference, Cité Internationale de Universitairé, Paris, France - June 2016 (1 folder, 1 link)