Written on the Body: An Interview with Shelley Jackson

By Scott Rettberg, 21 May, 2011
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Abstract (in English)

The interview focuses on the role of the body in Shelley Jackson's work, in particular in her distributed narrative project "Skin," which was tattooed on the bodies of volunteers around the world, one word at a time.

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I continue to be amazed that I exist. Or that I seem to; the question is not settled to my satisfaction. It seems highly unlikely that what asks the question is made of matter, grey or not. The very fact our matter thinks makes its credentials as matter suspect.

The existence of the author is a necessary flaw in this (every?) story. But this project makes me keenly aware that I am not the only, or even always the dominant voice in it. I recently took great pleasure in watching three "words" coach a fourth, nascent word through her first tattoo: "Have you eaten anything? Here, have this apple. Do you want us to hold your hand?" My presence was a comfortable irrelevancy to them at that moment.

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