kino residency: encyclopedia press release

Hello, my name is Henry Ireland and what I am doing is writing an encyclopedia of things I know off by heart. I will sit in the basement of Cafe Kino between the hours of 9am and 5pm from monday the 13th to friday the 17th of February under exam conditions and attempt to write everything I know onto A4 sheets of lined recycled paper. I will take a 30 minute lunch break and will look away from the page every 15 minutes in order to prevent eye strain and repetitive strain injury to my wrist. You can contribute to this project by adding an illustration. There will be an illustrator’s seat with full instructions.

I’m doing this for a few reasons. Firstly, I’m interested in the ways in which we choose to store information, like the difference between oral and written histories, finding a compromise between flexibility, accuracy and longevity. I’m also curious about what I actually know, what I’ve mis-remembered, where the holes in my knowledge are largest and what things I associate with each other. Finally I’m doing this because I spend about 7.5 hours a day reading at my usual job. I thought it would be interesting to reverse this and spend 7.5 hours a day putting out information rather than taking it in.

The writing of this encyclopedia is a performance and when it is finished, I will take it home, type it up, alphabetise it and present it in an exhibition at the end of this year, bound with your illustrations.