Speaking The Matter is a skill-building and reference book for artists developing oral histories and interview-based projects.
This workbook approaches the practice and application of oral narratives as a co-constructed creative endeavor rather than reparative ‘truth’ work. Resisting the idea that a recorded interview is a neutral historical document, this skill-building workbook instead shares perspectives on listening, remembering, gossiping, questioning, and framing, with the aim of telling our stories not as fixed subjects but as artists who are alive and breathing.
Collected together here are methods and models for experimentation and collaboration in oral history projects or interview-based works. Included are usable and customizable documents created by LACA for individuals or working groups, and approaches to the artist interview by East of Borneo. the design of outlines and + interviews, consent, transcription, and the annotation of oral history records. The intent is that artists can refer to these documents to create new works and explore the meaning-making processes by which our practice is guided.
--Adriana Widdoes
