middel voice writing workshop
Nida Art Colony
Lithuania 17-28 March, 2025
with “Dynamics of the In-between”
Study Course by ArtScience Interfaculty, Royal Academy of Arts and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in collaboration with Vilnius Academy of Arts (Photography, Animation, and Media Art)
Inspired by Jane Bennett’s discussion of the middle voice, in this workshop I encouraged to explore an alternative way of writing that situate the writer as neither the sole actor (active voice) nor entirely acted upon (passive voice), but rather as part of a shared process—’in the middle.’ Middle voice writing resists the human-centered tendency to dominate narratives and instead opens space for distributed agency, where humans and nonhumans co-create meaning. Bennett explains that the middle voice reflects activities where the writer is inside a process, influenced and influencing simultaneously.
Photo by Lewis Beal
Photo by Lewis Beal
Photo by Lewis Beal
The wind changed.
Letting go, getting hold.
The bark beetle called the end of one,
starting something new.
Holding up, leaning in.
Curious heads are reaching out.
Giving ground, giving free.
Who is touching whom?
Balancing out what’s still to handle.
Settle in, in the middle.
Weathering with.
Breathe in,
breathe out.