Interested in being a torquer?
The deadline has been extended until 8pm Thursday 22 July. A few places are left, so get your application in today!
Use this application form to register your interest.
Look at the stimulus items you can choose from as inspiration for your application. Choose one which really interests you, and start drafting your responses. You’ll need to write the following TWO things:
- 500 words responding to one of the film clips and the questions posted with each one. You may write poetry or prose and your piece may be fiction or nonfiction.
- 300 words explaining what you like about writing and what you’d like to get out of this experience .
Are you finding the word limit a bit tight?
Which of these clips will you respond to in your application?
Ernest Hemingway’s guiding principle was “never to write anything the way it’s been written before”.
That’s what the torquers will be on about too.
Where do you begin when you want to write about something in a new way? We are looking for students who are up for the challenge of finding out. Torquers will join Mark Tredinnick for a week in August 2010 to experiment with different ways of viewing things and different words and forms through which a writer can express ideas.
If you’re ready to get started on your application, go for it! Write a draft – any draft – and just get your ideas on the page. Then come back to your writing a bit later and experiment with a few technical aspects. Think like a scientist: try a variation and then assess whether you like the results. Get to know how the meaning of a piece can shift when you do something fresh with one or more of these things:
- content (the topic or subject of a piece)
- vocabulary (the words you choose, the language you write in – or invent!)
- syntax (the order of the words)
- voice (the speaker or character, even if it’s a distant speaker such as for a nonfiction text.)
- form (the things which are usually found in that kind of piece; structure and layout might be involved, but there are often other factors. )
1. Seeing in the dark
How do you navigate?
2. City inside a cell
What do you think about the complexity which exists on such a small scale? What’s your take on the architecture of life?
(watch the TED Talk from medical animator David Bolinsky?)
3. Joining the dance
What’s fresh about this picture of people? What is your dance style, and who dances with you?
4. Empty space
If there is so much more out there, who are we? And how many other supposedly empty things might contain galaxies?
5. Changing the voice
Can anyone sing any song? And what do you think of this angle (and these angles) on making music?
6. The importance of syntax
Here’s whole car working as a different kind of machine. Have you ever thought about how something might work if you changed the arrangement of things?
7. The writer, the subject
Writing about writing … about …
Rewriting about writing in a new medium.
8. Structure
Angles, shapes, lines. What makes a strong structure?
9. Rhythm
What do you see as the place of rhythm in driving a piece of writing forward?
Click on this image, then on the link to play the clip on YouTube. And if you can’t hear a soundtrack to this clip, it’s OK – there isn’t one!
10. Editing
Editing is a good thing, right? Are there times with the rough draft is beautiful enough to be the keeper? What’s your take on beauty in writing?
admin
rintoul
clewett
offner
dixon
canute
Mae and Evangeline, thanks for your comments above. The application form is live now, so why don’t you refine what you’ve written above, expanding it to be about 500w, or write something new. Don’t forget to edit your work carefully; you might find it helpful to write in Word then cut and paste into the form. See you soon, Miss Rintoul.
Dancing is one of my favourite things to do and I know that millions of others love to dance as well. To see someone dancing and sending out a vibe which makes everyone else want to dance, it is truly amazing. This just goes to show what a powerful art form dance really is.
To be able to bring people together, when they have nothing in common except for the love of Dance!
Your right Evangeline it really is a inspiration to any and almost everyone>
What I want to get out of this experience and Why I want to do it.
I have been writing for a very long time. When I was little, and couldn’t read I made up stories using the pictures out of a book. Now I realise that I need to write about more serious stuff than just fairy tales or little cats that get lost. I need to take my writing to a higher level. When I grow up I want to be a journalist for a local paper, I have been writing a book just recently and when I am done my Mum is going to maybe send it to a publisher. I think participating in this opportunity will help me and my ability to write better.
This video clip really touched me. The freshness of the video clip and seeing the people of many culturals dance firstly by themsleves but secondly with other people. The many culturals that I saw in that video clip was amazing. To me it doesn’t really matter if you are Australian, American, Indian or even Mexican you can dance and by that you can show yourself for who you really are and not who the people want you to be. When I do ballet I dance with friends, my sister, my self and most impotantly my heart because I don’t really care who watches or dances with me I can be myself when I want and where ever I want when I dance I feel like I am free because to tell you the truth I actually am free whenever I dance.
By Mae Stace