WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.670 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.670 --> 00:00:06.190 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:09.490 align:middle line:84% What you've read this evening-- is any of that in the books 00:00:09.490 --> 00:00:11.100 align:middle line:90% you have here? 00:00:11.100 --> 00:00:11.775 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:11.775 --> 00:00:15.580 align:middle line:84% The second poem-- all of it is in The Road North, which is-- 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:16.165 align:middle line:90% That one? 00:00:16.165 --> 00:00:18.233 align:middle line:84% Yeah, the bee stuff, I don't have, 00:00:18.233 --> 00:00:19.900 align:middle line:84% but they have it in the library, and you 00:00:19.900 --> 00:00:22.270 align:middle line:84% can order it be in the library [INAUDIBLE]. 00:00:22.270 --> 00:00:23.710 align:middle line:90% It's called Global Oracle. 00:00:23.710 --> 00:00:24.320 align:middle line:90% Great. 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:28.060 align:middle line:84% And the other thing is, where did you actually grow up? 00:00:28.060 --> 00:00:30.170 align:middle line:90% I grew up on a hillside-- 00:00:30.170 --> 00:00:30.670 align:middle line:90% But-- 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:31.960 align:middle line:90% --suckered by wolves. 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:33.470 align:middle line:90% I grew up in a-- 00:00:33.470 --> 00:00:34.430 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:34.430 --> 00:00:36.370 align:middle line:84% I grew up at the end of the Penguins, 00:00:36.370 --> 00:00:38.850 align:middle line:84% which are the hills that come out from Edinburgh 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:39.750 align:middle line:90% into the countryside. 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:40.250 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:44.740 align:middle line:84% So in the Scottish borders, near a little town called Biggar. 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:47.920 align:middle line:84% People from Biggar always say, London is big, 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:50.245 align:middle line:84% Dublin is Dublin, but Biggar is bigger. 00:00:50.245 --> 00:00:51.920 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.890 align:middle line:84% And so I grew up on that-- on-- really, in a very remote place. 00:00:54.890 --> 00:00:56.680 align:middle line:84% My father was a poet, and my mother 00:00:56.680 --> 00:01:00.440 align:middle line:84% helped him make a famous garden, and it was up a stony track 00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:03.820 align:middle line:90% called Stony Path. 00:01:03.820 --> 00:01:04.690 align:middle line:90% Anyone else? 00:01:04.690 --> 00:01:12.490 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.490 --> 00:01:15.790 align:middle line:84% Landscape forms a big part of your imagination 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:17.950 align:middle line:90% and informs what you write. 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:21.377 align:middle line:84% I'm curious about your experience of the landscape 00:01:21.377 --> 00:01:22.960 align:middle line:84% here in Southern Arizona, particularly 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:26.380 align:middle line:84% in Oracle, which is the town I live in, 00:01:26.380 --> 00:01:28.810 align:middle line:84% and how it compares to some of the landscape 00:01:28.810 --> 00:01:31.090 align:middle line:84% you're familiar with in Scotland. 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:31.960 align:middle line:90% I was going to-- 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:37.120 align:middle line:84% something I'll say about that is that last poem, 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:41.770 align:middle line:90% the Inverianvie, and this loch-- 00:01:41.770 --> 00:01:43.690 align:middle line:84% so I have a muscular condition that 00:01:43.690 --> 00:01:46.990 align:middle line:84% means I can't walk that far, so my relation to landscape 00:01:46.990 --> 00:01:49.330 align:middle line:90% is partly conditioned by that. 00:01:49.330 --> 00:01:53.020 align:middle line:84% So my poetry is sometimes about trying to reach somewhere I 00:01:53.020 --> 00:01:54.230 align:middle line:90% can't reach. 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:57.010 align:middle line:84% So that last poem was about failure. 00:01:57.010 --> 00:02:00.970 align:middle line:84% It was about the wish to reach this dark loch 00:02:00.970 --> 00:02:03.340 align:middle line:84% of the [INAUDIBLE],, and we'd gone nowhere near it, 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:04.060 align:middle line:90% and we gave up. 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.610 align:middle line:84% And that's one of the wonders of poetry, 00:02:06.610 --> 00:02:09.580 align:middle line:84% that you can reclaim an experience 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:12.670 align:middle line:90% and write about your failures. 00:02:12.670 --> 00:02:17.695 align:middle line:84% And I guess I'm interested in how what we know-- 00:02:17.695 --> 00:02:20.720 align:middle line:84% what we see in the landscape comes from our mind. 00:02:20.720 --> 00:02:22.780 align:middle line:84% And so what I understood in Oracle 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:26.680 align:middle line:84% came very much from being with Gary and Laura 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.340 align:middle line:84% and hearing the names and reading Larry Evers 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:35.140 align:middle line:84% translations, reading Indigenous peoples' views 00:02:35.140 --> 00:02:36.820 align:middle line:90% of the landscape. 00:02:36.820 --> 00:02:39.100 align:middle line:84% It's very difficult to access a landscape 00:02:39.100 --> 00:02:40.070 align:middle line:90% when you're new to it. 00:02:40.070 --> 00:02:43.310 align:middle line:84% And I think mostly we do it by parallel. 00:02:43.310 --> 00:02:47.840 align:middle line:84% And that's a hard parallel between Scotland and here. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:51.700 align:middle line:84% But for instance, you do have a dispossessed Indigenous 00:02:51.700 --> 00:02:54.490 align:middle line:84% population, so you have that kind of tension, which 00:02:54.490 --> 00:02:58.280 align:middle line:90% is very interesting for me. 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:01.510 align:middle line:90% And I adore the landscape. 00:03:01.510 --> 00:03:04.600 align:middle line:84% Our landscape at home is so green and soft. 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:08.800 align:middle line:90% And here, it's just so opposite. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:12.040 align:middle line:84% But then, mountains are mountains. 00:03:12.040 --> 00:03:17.570 align:middle line:84% We talk about the Blue Hills, here and at home. 00:03:17.570 --> 00:03:19.575 align:middle line:90% They have the sense of-- 00:03:19.575 --> 00:03:20.950 align:middle line:84% one of the things I explore would 00:03:20.950 --> 00:03:24.610 align:middle line:84% be color codes between, say, white American 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:26.920 align:middle line:84% and what I grew up with, and Gaelic people 00:03:26.920 --> 00:03:31.540 align:middle line:84% have a different color code to lowland Scots 00:03:31.540 --> 00:03:32.650 align:middle line:90% or English people. 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:35.190 align:middle line:84% And Native Americans have different color codes 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:36.950 align:middle line:90% for those kind of things. 00:03:36.950 --> 00:03:41.635 align:middle line:84% So it's hard for me to say, but the "Bee" poem-- 00:03:41.635 --> 00:03:45.220 align:middle line:84% it didn't have an ending until I heard the bees. 00:03:45.220 --> 00:03:49.300 align:middle line:84% We were just here late enough to hear them coming out 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:51.100 align:middle line:90% for the first blossoms. 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:54.730 align:middle line:84% And so those kind of moments, when you tune into a season-- 00:03:54.730 --> 00:03:57.610 align:middle line:84% but I'm someone that needs names. 00:03:57.610 --> 00:04:01.870 align:middle line:84% It's names that really help me get into a landscape. 00:04:01.870 --> 00:04:03.520 align:middle line:84% And a lot of your names, I think, 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:05.740 align:middle line:90% have been lost and not given. 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.650 align:middle line:84% If I was here, I would be making more maps 00:04:08.650 --> 00:04:11.020 align:middle line:84% with Native American names on them. 00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:13.330 align:middle line:84% A lot of the work I do in Scotland 00:04:13.330 --> 00:04:14.980 align:middle line:84% has been with Gaelic place names. 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:18.459 align:middle line:84% And you've seen some of that here. 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:22.450 align:middle line:84% So I'm a stranger to the names where I grew up. 00:04:22.450 --> 00:04:24.910 align:middle line:84% And I've had to learn that landscape 00:04:24.910 --> 00:04:27.560 align:middle line:90% through the Indigenous culture. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.470 align:middle line:84% So it's hard for me to sum it up, but just that-- 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:34.810 align:middle line:84% I guess my access was through culture, Larry Evers, 00:04:34.810 --> 00:04:37.720 align:middle line:84% and through wonderful people like Gary and Laura, 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:41.330 align:middle line:84% who could just show me how the landscape worked. 00:04:41.330 --> 00:04:44.350 align:middle line:84% You know, your seasons are very different to ours. 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:47.440 align:middle line:84% You grow vegetables at times we don't have any. 00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:49.750 align:middle line:90% And so all of those things. 00:04:49.750 --> 00:04:53.530 align:middle line:84% I think for any poet, it's just a great treat. 00:04:53.530 --> 00:04:55.510 align:middle line:90% But you still have to listen. 00:04:55.510 --> 00:05:00.400 align:middle line:90% I say all knowledge is local. 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:03.520 align:middle line:84% And you can then-- the poet's gift is to compare knowledge. 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:06.460 align:middle line:84% But you do not get to come to a place in two months 00:05:06.460 --> 00:05:09.370 align:middle line:84% and think that you can write its poetry. 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:10.990 align:middle line:90% You cannot do that. 00:05:10.990 --> 00:05:14.825 align:middle line:84% You can access it through your own. 00:05:14.825 --> 00:05:15.325 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:15.325 --> 00:05:18.070 align:middle line:84% I'll tell you one other story about that. 00:05:18.070 --> 00:05:20.390 align:middle line:84% Scottish people have a terrible, terrible habit, 00:05:20.390 --> 00:05:24.010 align:middle line:84% which is summed up by the film star called Ewan McGregor, who 00:05:24.010 --> 00:05:26.350 align:middle line:84% was one of the Star Wars-- the Star Wars 00:05:26.350 --> 00:05:28.840 align:middle line:90% that no one really likes. 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:33.910 align:middle line:84% He did a bike-- a motorbike trip from Scotland to Mongolia. 00:05:33.910 --> 00:05:35.770 align:middle line:84% And on-- somewhere on YouTube, there's 00:05:35.770 --> 00:05:39.520 align:middle line:84% a lovely series of clips of Ewan McGregor standing 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:42.130 align:middle line:84% in a wilderness by his motorbike going, 00:05:42.130 --> 00:05:43.645 align:middle line:90% oh, it's just like Scotland. 00:05:43.645 --> 00:05:46.060 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:49.660 align:middle line:90% We do have that habit a bit. 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:52.120 align:middle line:84% But I think that's a really revealing comment 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:54.290 align:middle line:90% about what we all do. 00:05:54.290 --> 00:05:58.090 align:middle line:84% And my wife Daisy was teasing me, because we say, for a poet, 00:05:58.090 --> 00:06:01.225 align:middle line:84% anything is eternal and forever if it happens twice. 00:06:01.225 --> 00:06:02.310 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:02.310 --> 00:06:05.860 align:middle line:84% So you see, oh, we always eat this here. 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:09.336 align:middle line:84% We always-- because we did it twice. 00:06:09.336 --> 00:06:12.670 align:middle line:84% So those are-- that's the best answer I can give you. 00:06:12.670 --> 00:06:16.750 align:middle line:84% But I do very much treasure your landscape. 00:06:16.750 --> 00:06:18.735 align:middle line:84% But I think, like the Gaelic landscape, 00:06:18.735 --> 00:06:21.040 align:middle line:84% it is a traumatized landscape, and we 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:23.680 align:middle line:90% have to be honest about that. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:25.125 align:middle line:90% Any last questions? 00:06:25.125 --> 00:06:27.250 align:middle line:90% Huh. 00:06:27.250 --> 00:06:28.460 align:middle line:90% Or last two. 00:06:28.460 --> 00:06:30.405 align:middle line:84% If Wendy has a question, I want to hear it. 00:06:30.405 --> 00:06:33.080 align:middle line:90% 00:06:33.080 --> 00:06:36.290 align:middle line:84% Out of curiosity, the bookmarks that you have in your exhibit-- 00:06:36.290 --> 00:06:38.210 align:middle line:84% I know you said there were barcodes on those. 00:06:38.210 --> 00:06:38.710 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:06:38.710 --> 00:06:40.140 align:middle line:90% Do those hold any significance? 00:06:40.140 --> 00:06:40.640 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:44.960 align:middle line:84% So one of the things I've installed in the exhibition 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:48.950 align:middle line:84% here is a hundred bookmarks, which Wendy and her team 00:06:48.950 --> 00:06:51.620 align:middle line:90% will hide in library books. 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:54.980 align:middle line:84% And they come from a public artwork. 00:06:54.980 --> 00:06:56.570 align:middle line:84% And the public artwork is actually 00:06:56.570 --> 00:06:59.810 align:middle line:84% 50,000 bookmarks which are hidden away 00:06:59.810 --> 00:07:03.050 align:middle line:84% in books at Edinburgh University library. 00:07:03.050 --> 00:07:05.390 align:middle line:84% Public artworks are really problematic. 00:07:05.390 --> 00:07:07.760 align:middle line:84% Most people make big metal sculptures, 00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:10.490 align:middle line:84% and I wanted to find a work that suited a library, 00:07:10.490 --> 00:07:14.930 align:middle line:84% so I really like the idea that you would discover the artwork. 00:07:14.930 --> 00:07:16.760 align:middle line:84% And some of those unpopular books 00:07:16.760 --> 00:07:18.470 align:middle line:84% won't be read for a 10 years time. 00:07:18.470 --> 00:07:20.350 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:20.350 --> 00:07:21.290 align:middle line:90% 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:24.560 align:middle line:84% My wife actually treasured some of those bookmarks 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:25.910 align:middle line:90% before she met me. 00:07:25.910 --> 00:07:27.260 align:middle line:90% Didn't put her off. 00:07:27.260 --> 00:07:29.990 align:middle line:84% It happened to be a poem about daisies. 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:33.020 align:middle line:84% But the barcode is actually the poem. 00:07:33.020 --> 00:07:37.220 align:middle line:84% You can translate words into barcode. 00:07:37.220 --> 00:07:40.550 align:middle line:84% So what I love about them is just that rhythm 00:07:40.550 --> 00:07:42.570 align:middle line:90% is the rhythm of language. 00:07:42.570 --> 00:07:45.680 align:middle line:84% And the reason for it is if you look behind you at your window 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.320 align:middle line:84% here and you have these verticals. 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.960 align:middle line:84% In the library this was done for, 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:53.000 align:middle line:84% which is Edinburgh University, it 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.930 align:middle line:84% has very particularly beautiful blinds, which are actually 00:07:56.930 --> 00:07:59.360 align:middle line:90% just slats of wood. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.030 align:middle line:84% They're a little bit like something that Courvisier does. 00:08:02.030 --> 00:08:04.580 align:middle line:84% And I didn't use to even understand what they were. 00:08:04.580 --> 00:08:09.260 align:middle line:84% They were just these beautiful, rhythmic verticals. 00:08:09.260 --> 00:08:13.670 align:middle line:84% And that was what gave me the idea to use barcode. 00:08:13.670 --> 00:08:15.860 align:middle line:84% And the conceptual aspect of the barcode 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:17.900 align:middle line:84% is that the only way the librarians 00:08:17.900 --> 00:08:20.330 align:middle line:84% commit the library work is barcode. 00:08:20.330 --> 00:08:21.950 align:middle line:84% They don't know where the books are. 00:08:21.950 --> 00:08:23.150 align:middle line:90% The barcode does. 00:08:23.150 --> 00:08:26.870 align:middle line:84% So the barcode is the way the book travels around. 00:08:26.870 --> 00:08:29.300 align:middle line:84% So I was trying to find a way to translate 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.800 align:middle line:90% between human and technology. 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:33.179 align:middle line:90% Does that make makes sense? 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:36.260 align:middle line:84% So that-- hopefully there's always a reason. 00:08:36.260 --> 00:08:39.230 align:middle line:84% You should all go and steal a bookmark. 00:08:39.230 --> 00:08:41.809 align:middle line:84% And there are about 300 postcards over there, 00:08:41.809 --> 00:08:44.030 align:middle line:90% which are free to take away. 00:08:44.030 --> 00:08:46.190 align:middle line:90% Wendy? 00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:49.040 align:middle line:84% Would you tell us a little bit about how 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:56.210 align:middle line:84% you came to do public works in hospitals? 00:08:56.210 --> 00:09:01.730 align:middle line:84% And also, maybe a little bit about some of the installations 00:09:01.730 --> 00:09:03.710 align:middle line:84% we saw in the images that appeared to be 00:09:03.710 --> 00:09:05.840 align:middle line:90% installed in public parks? 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:07.220 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:09.710 align:middle line:84% I came to do it because I needed to pay my mortgage. 00:09:09.710 --> 00:09:11.630 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:11.630 --> 00:09:14.030 align:middle line:84% I'm a poet and an artist, and I often 00:09:14.030 --> 00:09:16.160 align:middle line:90% use poetry to make my art. 00:09:16.160 --> 00:09:18.270 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, the poetry will be the art, 00:09:18.270 --> 00:09:20.000 align:middle line:84% but also sometimes, the poetry might 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.290 align:middle line:84% be a way to describe a project I want to do. 00:09:24.290 --> 00:09:28.250 align:middle line:84% I won that commission in a hospital 00:09:28.250 --> 00:09:32.120 align:middle line:84% without necessarily having experience. 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:33.770 align:middle line:90% You always have to start. 00:09:33.770 --> 00:09:37.730 align:middle line:84% And then I've done four projects in hospitals. 00:09:37.730 --> 00:09:43.040 align:middle line:84% I've done three with cancer, one with brain tumors, one tumors-- 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:44.480 align:middle line:90% just general cancer. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:47.420 align:middle line:84% And I did one which was a memorial for tissue and organ 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:49.413 align:middle line:90% donation. 00:09:49.413 --> 00:09:51.830 align:middle line:84% I also make work with renewable energy [? in ?] [? lots ?] 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:52.330 align:middle line:90% of things. 00:09:52.330 --> 00:09:56.360 align:middle line:84% And I always explain that you don't train in these things. 00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:58.880 align:middle line:84% You train to listen, so you train 00:09:58.880 --> 00:10:02.010 align:middle line:90% to be open to a situation. 00:10:02.010 --> 00:10:04.010 align:middle line:84% So what you're trying to do in a hospital 00:10:04.010 --> 00:10:07.100 align:middle line:84% is find a way to make work for people 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.270 align:middle line:84% who are sitting in seats like you are, who are very anxious, 00:10:11.270 --> 00:10:13.040 align:middle line:84% and maybe about to hear that they're not 00:10:13.040 --> 00:10:14.240 align:middle line:90% going to live for long. 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.490 align:middle line:90% So that's your first thing. 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:21.440 align:middle line:84% Or when you're making a memorial for tissue and organ donation-- 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:24.380 align:middle line:84% I always said, your first audience 00:10:24.380 --> 00:10:27.320 align:middle line:84% is the mother that's grieving for her daughter that 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:29.840 align:middle line:84% died a year ago, and she's still angry. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:31.980 align:middle line:90% And you start with that. 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:36.800 align:middle line:84% So they're very interesting, context-specific situations. 00:10:36.800 --> 00:10:40.280 align:middle line:84% Very scary, but you meet the nurses and doctors, 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:43.220 align:middle line:84% and you meet people, and it's a wonderful situation 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:44.750 align:middle line:90% to make work. 00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:50.210 align:middle line:84% And usually, I have a feeling that simple use of words 00:10:50.210 --> 00:10:52.340 align:middle line:84% can touch people in those situations. 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:57.044 align:middle line:84% And that tends to be what I gravitate towards. 00:10:57.044 --> 00:11:00.290 align:middle line:84% What's very interesting is that between different hospitals, 00:11:00.290 --> 00:11:03.110 align:middle line:84% that have a very different relationship to language. 00:11:03.110 --> 00:11:05.090 align:middle line:84% I worked in one hospital where they 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:10.190 align:middle line:84% wouldn't let us do poems that had helicopters, crows, 00:11:10.190 --> 00:11:13.850 align:middle line:90% a scythe, or a knife, and-- 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:16.640 align:middle line:84% because those were apparently scary words. 00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:19.490 align:middle line:84% And in another one I was allowed to talk about death, 00:11:19.490 --> 00:11:22.970 align:middle line:84% and anything I wanted, apart from one poem that 00:11:22.970 --> 00:11:25.910 align:middle line:84% mentioned my chiropodist, because you weren't allowed 00:11:25.910 --> 00:11:27.700 align:middle line:90% to talk about profession. 00:11:27.700 --> 00:11:30.320 align:middle line:84% The nurses and doctors didn't want emotion 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.600 align:middle line:90% connected to their profession. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:36.800 align:middle line:84% So you're in a completely different situation as a poet. 00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:40.220 align:middle line:84% You're-- I make those works out of my own illness. 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:41.648 align:middle line:90% I was very ill that winter. 00:11:41.648 --> 00:11:43.190 align:middle line:84% It was actually why I came to Oracle. 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:46.310 align:middle line:84% I had been in bed for a few months with a lung condition. 00:11:46.310 --> 00:11:49.880 align:middle line:84% So you just use that, and you try and imagine 00:11:49.880 --> 00:11:53.000 align:middle line:84% that essentially, all illnesses are unique, 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:54.510 align:middle line:90% and they're all the same. 00:11:54.510 --> 00:11:58.820 align:middle line:84% They all involve strangeness, feeling strange. 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:00.620 align:middle line:90% They change your map. 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:02.490 align:middle line:84% They give us new words, new names. 00:12:02.490 --> 00:12:07.310 align:middle line:84% They're-- you know, what's terrifying is some of the names 00:12:07.310 --> 00:12:08.330 align:middle line:90% you're given. 00:12:08.330 --> 00:12:10.790 align:middle line:84% So it's just by being open to that. 00:12:10.790 --> 00:12:15.000 align:middle line:84% And sometimes, I would just sit in a waiting room, 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.990 align:middle line:84% and I didn't feel able to talk to anyone, because I 00:12:17.990 --> 00:12:21.620 align:middle line:84% knew what they were waiting for, and I just watched. 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:25.280 align:middle line:84% So you-- it's very context-specific work, 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:27.560 align:middle line:84% which I find very helpful, because I'm not 00:12:27.560 --> 00:12:30.140 align:middle line:90% that interested in myself. 00:12:30.140 --> 00:12:35.600 align:middle line:84% And it's an incredible pleasure to possibly be even 1% 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.350 align:middle line:90% helpful in that situation. 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:41.210 align:middle line:90% The most recent one I did-- 00:12:41.210 --> 00:12:43.400 align:middle line:84% people are getting chemotherapy, so they're 00:12:43.400 --> 00:12:46.380 align:middle line:84% in a waiting room for eight hours. 00:12:46.380 --> 00:12:48.260 align:middle line:90% So I made them a library. 00:12:48.260 --> 00:12:50.930 align:middle line:84% I made some little [? texts ?] on walking sticks. 00:12:50.930 --> 00:12:52.700 align:middle line:90% And the book is actually about-- 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:57.530 align:middle line:84% uses place names, place names as an analogy for journeys, 00:12:57.530 --> 00:13:02.150 align:middle line:84% so journey through light to dark, a mountain to shelter. 00:13:02.150 --> 00:13:03.950 align:middle line:90% Very simple idea. 00:13:03.950 --> 00:13:07.520 align:middle line:84% And I just thought, well, rather than just looking 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:10.460 align:middle line:84% at their phone screens, books do tend 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.870 align:middle line:84% to help people relate to each other. 00:13:12.870 --> 00:13:14.900 align:middle line:90% They also help people hide. 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:19.580 align:middle line:84% You know, some people just are reading a book. 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:21.700 align:middle line:90% So you can work in quite a-- 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:26.030 align:middle line:84% you can be quite modest in yourself in that kind of space. 00:13:26.030 --> 00:13:27.770 align:middle line:84% It's always depressing that you're not 00:13:27.770 --> 00:13:30.530 align:middle line:84% allowed to make the environment itself nicer, 00:13:30.530 --> 00:13:35.060 align:middle line:84% so you have to try and work with that situation. 00:13:35.060 --> 00:13:36.950 align:middle line:90% Parks is about vandalism. 00:13:36.950 --> 00:13:41.580 align:middle line:84% What can you make that won't get stolen, you know? 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:42.890 align:middle line:90% And how can you-- 00:13:42.890 --> 00:13:46.160 align:middle line:84% most of my work is worrying how to share words, 00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:49.250 align:middle line:84% worrying how you get people words in public. 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:51.680 align:middle line:84% So the beehives and the nest boxes-- 00:13:51.680 --> 00:13:54.170 align:middle line:84% stuff I do around that, I like it 00:13:54.170 --> 00:13:56.030 align:middle line:84% because it makes the habitat better. 00:13:56.030 --> 00:13:58.760 align:middle line:84% And people like those objects anyway. 00:13:58.760 --> 00:14:01.370 align:middle line:90% Almost everyone likes a beehive. 00:14:01.370 --> 00:14:03.650 align:middle line:84% So if you add a poem to it, you're 00:14:03.650 --> 00:14:06.140 align:middle line:90% kind of not doing too much harm. 00:14:06.140 --> 00:14:07.088 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:14:07.088 --> 00:14:09.500 align:middle line:90% And that'll do me. 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:13.100 align:middle line:84% I don't like monumental sculpture so much 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:15.840 align:middle line:90% in those situations. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.860 align:middle line:84% I mean, the answer is that every situation is unique. 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:20.690 align:middle line:90% Every context is unique. 00:14:20.690 --> 00:14:24.440 align:middle line:84% And you bring to it what you can, 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:28.590 align:middle line:84% but also, you find there are always problems. 00:14:28.590 --> 00:14:31.200 align:middle line:84% You know, what you can't put on the wall, 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.100 align:middle line:84% the limit of the budget, the limit of time. 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:37.190 align:middle line:84% So you try and evolve an openness that 00:14:37.190 --> 00:14:39.230 align:middle line:90% allows you to solve problems. 00:14:39.230 --> 00:14:41.300 align:middle line:90% Mostly it's problem solving. 00:14:41.300 --> 00:14:46.280 align:middle line:84% And you use-- you're having to think about the fact 00:14:46.280 --> 00:14:48.410 align:middle line:90% that you do work in a park. 00:14:48.410 --> 00:14:51.920 align:middle line:84% Probably, there are people that walk their dog there every day. 00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:56.450 align:middle line:84% So you might want to make a text just that little bit cryptic, 00:14:56.450 --> 00:14:59.270 align:middle line:84% in a general way, that it might take them a year 00:14:59.270 --> 00:15:04.520 align:middle line:84% and go, oh, that's what that's about, for instance. 00:15:04.520 --> 00:15:06.920 align:middle line:84% So you kind of think about, well, 00:15:06.920 --> 00:15:08.840 align:middle line:84% how are people actually experiencing 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:11.990 align:middle line:90% language in that space? 00:15:11.990 --> 00:15:15.300 align:middle line:84% And in the hospital, it's like that, but different. 00:15:15.300 --> 00:15:17.420 align:middle line:84% You know, we did some embroideries that 00:15:17.420 --> 00:15:19.610 align:middle line:90% are in palliative care rooms. 00:15:19.610 --> 00:15:22.880 align:middle line:84% And you know the person isn't leaving that room. 00:15:22.880 --> 00:15:25.670 align:middle line:90% It's the last thing they see. 00:15:25.670 --> 00:15:28.220 align:middle line:84% So you just think, well, that's going to have 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:31.070 align:middle line:90% to be a very modest piece. 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:36.095 align:middle line:84% And well, that's all I can answer, that they're each-- 00:15:36.095 --> 00:15:38.610 align:middle line:90% each is their own thing. 00:15:38.610 --> 00:15:40.550 align:middle line:84% And in the best interviews, what they're 00:15:40.550 --> 00:15:43.610 align:middle line:84% looking for is openness, although sometimes 00:15:43.610 --> 00:15:47.190 align:middle line:90% they just want an easy idea. 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:48.028 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:15:48.028 --> 00:15:48.820 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much-- 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:48.967 align:middle line:90% 00:15:48.967 --> 00:15:49.800 align:middle line:90% --Alec [? Finlay. ?] 00:15:49.800 --> 00:15:52.550 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE]