When: Wednesday 18 March at 1pm NZDT (UTC+13)
Where: Richardson Building 7N10 and online via Zoom
Watch live: Contact english@otago.ac.nz for the Zoom link

You can read more about Helen Varley Jamieson’s creative writing and creative projects on her website: https://www.creative-catalyst.com/what.html // https://www.creative-catalyst.com/did.html // https://www.creative-catalyst.com/expect/

Below is an excerpt from a neat article published October 2001, titled, From paper and ink to pixels and links:

Something is happening to text: letters, words and whole sentences are lifting off the page and flying through cyberspace. The security and permanence of the printed word has given way to text as an interactive and changeable medium. We copy and paste, publish and update our writing on the internet, travel by hyperlink and meet in chat rooms.

The digital age is changing the way we create, manipulate and interpret text. It’s opening up new environments for interaction between creators, performers and audience – on the web, CD-ROM and via email. These creative tools are not without oppresive male cannon or traditions; however, here women are pioneers, coining new terms and making up the rules as we go.

I was asked to write an article about how the internet and new “virtual” worlds were influencing text in relation to theatre and women – a very broad starting point. As soon as I began to research and write, I found myself, in true hypertext style, racing along distractingly fascinating side-roads and realising that (despite my role as the Magdalena Project’s Web Queen) I had only been aware of a tiny piece of the action.

So, rather than attempt to make any definitive statement about where all this text is flying off to and what it all means, I’ve chosen to swing a follow-spot across the digital stage and illuminate the work of a number of women. And you, also in true hypertext style, can follow the links that interest you, off this web page and across the screen, to wherever you may wander.

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