SPILL Stings are a collection of commissioned critical writing on the festival by Theron Schmidt, Mary Paterson, Johanna Linsley and Madeleine Hodge. Our responses will be posted here throughout the festival – before, during, and after. As writers, we are interested in the way that this work gets under our skin: the sting of it, and its itch. This writing, then, is a kind of scratching…. Read Article

Johanna Linsley asks how artists respond to the biological analysis of infection or the medical experience of it. How does the metaphorical appropriation of its structure and process by cultural workers serve their politics and their poetics? Is infection a good teacher? Is it ever an ally? Read Article

“I imagine these four elements/living breathing/infecting bodies working together, operating the machine from the inside.” Madeleine Hodge talks with National Platform artist Nic Chalmers. Read Article

‘The narrative of Hamlet is mutating as it seeks new hosts for the story.’ Madeleine Hodge talks with National Platform artist Jungmin Song. Read Article

Over the festival, Mary Paterson and Theron Schmidt are writing to each other about the theme of infection, in relation to wider contexts of cultural politics, pedagogy, and economics. This is the first exchange. Read Article

Johanna Linsley continues her discussion of artists using infection as both theme and material. Here she writes about the Critical Art Ensemble and Steve Kurtz. Read Article

Responses by Madeleine Hodge, Mary Paterson, and Theron Schmidt to Ryoji Ikeda’s datamatics [ver.2.0] Read Article

‘The liquid looked so great. I wanted to get in it so badly.’ Johanna Linsley responds to Harminder Judge’s Do What Thou Wilt, 19-21 April 2011. Read Article

Mary Paterson and Theron Schmidt continue their written dialogue on the theme of infection in relation to wider cultural contexts. Read Article

‘These gaps occur not in darkness or emptiness, but in excess, in the too-brightness of the world.’ Johanna Linsley responds to On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God by Romeo Castellucci/Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, 21-23 April 2011 Read Article

‘Am I preconditioned to test or question the politics of participatory work? What are my criteria for this assessment?’ Madeleine Hodge responds to Glorious by Rajni Shah Projects. Read Article

Madeleine Hodge speaks with Lauren Barri Holstein in advance of her National Platform performance. Read Article

Responses by Theron Schmidt and Mary Paterson to In Eldersfield, Chapter 1: Elegy for Paul Dirac by Kings of England. Read Article

‘But that was imagined, not real.’ Mary Paterson responds to I guess if the stage exploded… by Sylvia Rimat Read Article

‘My skin crawls. For just three seconds. And then she stops and laughs.’ Theron Schmidt responds to Schrei 27 by Diamanda Galás and Davide Pepe. Read Article

‘Three days later, I am on a bus thinking about the National Platform, and there is a shudder across my knuckle as I realise that my blood is unable to forget this work.’ Johanna Linsley and Madeleine Hodge respond to the first day of the SPILL National Platform. Read Article

‘I am here, the action says. I exist. Even as she disappears within it.’ Mary Paterson and Theron Schmidt respond to the second day of the SPILL National Platform. Read Article

Mary Paterson is working as a writer with Rajni Shah Projects and Glorious. Here she reflects on the process leading up to the SPILL performances. Read Article

Madeleine Hodge reflects on performance, memory, and the idea of hope in relation to Helen Cole’s We See Fireworks installation. Read Article

The weather. The words. The sacred and the sublime. Looking back on the SPILL Festival, Johanna Linsley collects ideas and images. Read Article

The conclusion of a written dialogue between Mary Paterson and Theron Schmidt. Read Article