Output details

Why I'm Here

Why I’m Here is the creative outcome of a piece of practice-based collaborative research conducted by the performance poet Lucy English and the professional photographer, Sally Mundy. It focussed on asking individuals in Somerset locations the question “Why are you here?” and producing poetry and images deriving from their presence and their answers. Several research questions went into the concept that produced the work. We wanted to explore how poetry might be “illustrated” within a creative dialogue, resulting in a cohesive relationship between words and images? Our aim was that the final selection of work would look as if it had been determined not by the words, but by the narrative content of the apparently accompanying images. Our method was to select locations in Somerset for their natural beauty, their literary connections, or their status as popular holiday destinations and everyday places for lunch breaks or coffee breaks. In these locations we began conversations with people before introducing the question of why they were there. Finally, they were photographed and the poetry produced was based on their responses. The project took place over three days in the summer of 2007 and we recorded more than 50 photographs and interviews. It resulted in in a book and a live performance with projected images. A selection of poems was performed at the Arnolfini in September 2008 for the Bristol Poetry Festival and the poetry has been featured at other literary events including The Hearings Festival in Berlin in 2012.