Rhyme or Reason

Rhyme or Reason is a five-day intensive programme that will investigate the role of notation, improvisation and score across the visual arts and other disciplines including music, writing and geography. Contributors include Giles Bailey, Struan Barr, Beatrice Gibson, Laura Guy, Will Holder, Anna McLauchlan, Conal McStravick and others.

What are the consequences of our provisional and private forms of language? How can these intimate instructions translate into forms of broadcast and communication? As a form of writing or sketching that is closely linked to musical scores and ideas of indeterminacy, notation thrives on personalisation and permutation. Rhyme or Reason will explore why and how practitioners are using notation and score when developing work today – thinking through the relationship between structure and improvisation, and the complex politics of working with or representing others.

Rhyme or Reason will offer a small group the chance to take part in a focused and discursive study programme led by practitioners including artists, designers, writers and teachers. The intensive programme will consist of workshops, lectures and seminars with a parallel public programme of screenings and recitals.

The programme is set against the backdrop of Crippled Symmetries, a new film by artist Beatrice Gibson, which uses American modernist William Gaddis’ epic satire JR as a score for its production. Co-commissioned by Collective, Grazer Kunstverein and FLAMIN (Film London Artist’s Moving Image Network) the film will premiere in Scotland at Collective in August 2015 as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.