18
Jul
2019
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James Bridle [why artists write–when we write, we reconfigure the world.]

I got a Master’s degree in Computer Science by writing language rather than code – I didn’t submit any code in fact, I was terrible at programming. But I could write about it, I understood it, and I understood that both forms of writing were about thinking through problems, processing, building a framework and shaping information. Or, perhaps, both were about tone, transcendence and revelation. Which is why I went into publishing, and was terrible at editing too, but continued a love affair with language and meaning as texture and material. It took many years for my own writing to emerge from beneath the slush pile, which is what publishers call the heaps of unsolicited manuscripts received daily from hopeful writers. There are already a lot of words in the world; sometimes it’s better not to add any more. Or if you do, it had better be worth it. I came back to writing as a way of thinking and of thinking through, of occupying the space between things, and opening them up again. …

Writing, more visibly and unquestionably today than ever, is inherently networked. It begins and remains connected to its subject, and to everything else, becoming part of it. It acts. It does work. It lives. When we write, we reconfigure the world.

— James Bridle, 2016

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