b. 1982 in Somerset, UK
http://www.edwardclive.com

Here are some words on Embassytown by China Mieville

I am reading this book right now. A sci-fi book that takes place on this planet at the edge of the universe that is inhabited by creatures that can’t lie. They are bivocal: they have two mouths and all their words are two words said together. But the words have to be accompanied by a thinking subject who conceptualizes the reference in relation to a real concrete thing: a thing that exists. For the humans to communicate, they have to raise ambassadors who are twins/clones of each other and taught to think as one person, so they can imagine the thing they are saying when they speak and make themselves understood. It isn’t even an inability to lie, it is an inability to imagine something that isn’t real. They create similes so they can say certain things: there is a rock that is split in two and cemented back together so they can say, it is like the rock that was broken and put back together. The ability of the humans to lie is what fascinates these creatures: the ability to conceptualize or imagine that what doesn’t exist. I am not sure how they imagine the similes and their purposes: perhaps they just have things happen and then after those moments are brought into Language and then become meaningful. The conflict of the book is lying; the catastrophe of learning to vocalize the non-existent when that is an impossibility.

Soynopsis by Jane Frances Dunlop

Still from ‘This Is A Story About The Future’ (2011) digital video, 12 mins

‘Storyboard for ‘The Preservation Paradox’ (2011) request and permission letters, polystyrene heads dipped in plaster, wood, steel, & other media

‘Goth or Hip Hop’ (2009) Section of damaged sculpture, used kitchen foil (with burnt vegetable oil), metallic sphere, fake radioactive wound & other media