Into Territory is a body of work that stems from the ongoing project WrittenSpoken. The project explores the nature of text and how to remodel it into raw material for aesthetic research. This means enacting other modes of reading that activate texts and, perhaps, grant them additional layers of meaning. In past iterations of the series, I have employed texts from printed and digital news media outlets. In order to question forms of representation and the undercurrents that influence first who articulates the narrative and second how it is constructed, particularly in regards to situations of conflict.

For the Into Territory edition of the project, I’ve changed the process by this time compiling passages from the influential book Orientalism by Edward Said. In his book, the author broke ground on how we examined, thought about, and studied colonialism. As a result, setting the stage for what would become a field of academic research and, perhaps most importantly, a mindset. Thus, we can view an extensive gamut of human activity (past and current) from multiple perspectives. Consequently, from these perspectives emerged critical thinking, re-positioning of thought, and reimagining the state of the world.

In the book, Said cites primarily from memoirs, studies, and treaties, written for the most part in the 19th century. For Into Territory, I focused on the texts that are specifically excerpts of cites by the author (in essence citing what the author quoted). The charged nature of the texts prompted me with a sense of poignancy. As a result, keeping an accompanying log of citations whilst reading the book—focusing on words and short sentences that could function on their means. Searching for texts that alluded to a narrative but also evoked the imagination.

Essay