Reader/Scribes

During Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E, reader/scribes were an ongoing presence in the galleries, giving sociability to the often silent and solitary act of reading. Although reading at different times of day and from different pages, individual reader/scribes were connected to each other through the acts of reading and writing from a shared text. The first project book—read from October to February—was The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. The second was Mercè Rodoreda’s novel Death in Spring, read from February to the close of the exhibition in April.

Reader/scribes selected a comfortable place to read out loud to the animals—represented both in images and materially present in the cultural artifacts on display. As they read, they transcribed selections of text from the project book that had personal significance. Each book and scribe log—thirty copies each—accumulated the marks of individual reader/scribes to become a physical record of the collective activity.

Many participants found serving as a reader/scribe to be a profound experience. Arts writer Elissa Favero shared her experience in the Henry blog. And in this video, we recorded University of Washington graduate student Anna Wager as she read from The Peregrine.