The Text That Talks Back

“The Text That Talks Back” is my most ambitious of these experiment thus far. As the title suggests, my performance will consist of a direct dialogue between myself and the text displayed on the screen. The interaction won’t be entirely rehearsed, either, as the text will be coded to vary its responses at random. The text will ask me questions, challenge me, offer me advice, disagree with me, grow angry with me, and then ignore me altogether and address the audience directly. In shifting power away from the author, “The Text That Talks Back” will illuminate and challenge the very terms of the reader-writer-text relationship.