Synnwyr/nonsynnwyr [Sense/non-sense]
Llinos Anwyl, Dylan Huw and Talulah Thomas
Ar gyfer rhaglen hydref 2022 Pegwn, treuliodd Llinos Anwyl, Dylan Huw a Talulah Thomas gyfnod yn Stafell Ddarllen Platfform 2, wedi’u hamgylchynu gan ei lyfrgell eang, olion blwyddyn o weithgaredd Casgleb, a synnau a symudiadau gorsaf brysur. Eu tasg oedd i greu rhyw waith casglebol newydd, gan ddefnyddio fel cychwynbwynt cyn raglenni Pegwn a’u profiadau personol o ddefnyddio iaith fel offeryn celfyddydol a gwleidyddol.
Roedd diddordeb gan yr artistiaid archwilio sut mae rheolau cymdeithasol a systemau o (hunan)heddlua a (hunan)surveillance yn cael eu hadlewyrchu yn eu perthynas gyda’r Gymraeg. Sut gall arbrofi’n gasglebol gyda ‘non-synnwyr’ fel ethos — chwarae a dychmygu gan ymwrthod â disgwyliadau o ‘gywirdeb’ a ‘synnwyr cyffredin’ — gynnig rhyw fath o ryddhad?
Daeth y cysyniad o gyfyngiadau yn ganolog i’w proses, fel strwythurau creadigol i’w defnyddio a’u gwthio’n erbyn. Dewisodd yr artistiaid ddeg sbardun thematig a deg cyfyngiad strwythurol/ffurfiol, gan gyfuno nhw ar gyfer deg ymarfer sgwennu awtomatig pum munud o hyd. Beth byddai’r fath gyfyngiadau’n datgelu am ein perthynas gyda natur hylifol iaith, annigonolrwydd iaith? A sut byddai cyfleu’r dull ymchwiliol, safle-benodol hwn o gynhyrchu sgwennu newydd fel ‘gwaith’ i’w rannu?
Dilyniant o dri fideo yw Synnwyr/nonsynnwyr sy’n dogfennu’r broses hon ac yn rhannu pytiau o sgwennu’r tri. Mae wedi ei gyfansoddi bron yn gyfan gwbwl o ddeunydd a gynhyrchwyd yn ystod y dyddiau rheiny yn Platfform 2. Mae’r tri pennod, pob un wedi ei olygu gan artist gwahanol, wedi eu henwi ar ôl rhai o’r sbarduniau thematig.
For Pegwn’s autumn 2022 programme, Llinos Anwyl, Dylan Huw and Talulah Thomas spent a few October days in the Platfform 2 Reading Room, surrounded by its library of books and pamphlets, physical traces of a year’s Casgleb activity, and the sounds and movements of the busy train station platform. They were there to see what new work might emerge between them from a starting point of reflecting on previous iterations of Pegwn and sharing personal experiences around the use of language as an artistic and political tool.
They reflected on how societal rules and structures influence relationships to language: from anxieties around being corrected or punished for mis-speaking and the bogeyman of ‘heddlu iaith’ (the language/grammar police), to the ubiquity of AI translation. Could working collaboratively in the name of nonsense-making — play and collective imagining beyond pressures associated with linguistic ‘correctness’ or common sense — suggest something like freedom?
The idea of constraints became a guiding principle in how they approached making work, creative structures to work both with and against. From initial conversations, the three artists chose ten thematic prompts and ten formal constraints, which they then combined for five-minute automatic-writing sessions. What could such constraints reveal about our most intimate relationships to language, its fluidities, its points of collapse? And how to convey this propositional (and site-specific) method of generating new writing together as shareable ‘work’?
Synnwyr/nonsynnwyr [Sense/non-sense] is a trio of videos documenting this process and sharing fragments of the writing it generated. It is composed almost entirely of material produced within the intensive collaborative environment of those days at Platfform . The three chapters, each edited by a different collaborator, take one of the ten thematic prompts as a title.
Mae Dylan Huw yn sgwennu’n ddwy-ieithog rhwng beirniadaeth gelfyddydol, ffuglen a phrosiectau cydweithredol. Mae’n datblygu gwaith newydd yn rhan o Gymrodoriaeth Cymru’r Dyfodol 2022-3, a roedd yn Sgwennwr Preswyl diweddar i Jerwood. Ers 2020 mae Dylan wedi gweithio’n rheolaidd gyda Peak, yn bennaf ar Pegwn. \\ Dylan Huw is a writer who works bilingually across art criticism, fiction and collaborative projects. He is currently developing new work as part of the Future Wales Fellowship 2022-3, and is a recent Writer in Residence at Jerwood Arts. Dylan has been working with Peak regularly since 2020, mainly organising Pegwn. dylanhuw.com
Mae Llinos Anwyl yn ymchwilydd creadigol a threfnydd llawr gwlad sy’n byw yn Aberystwyth. Mae eu gwaith yn ymrwymo i ddatgelu hanesion radical a gwrando ar gymunedau, ac maen nhw hefyd yn creu gwaith fel @henbapurnewydd. \\ Llinos Anwyl is a creative researcher and grassroots organiser living in Aberystwyth. Their work is driven by a commitment to unearthing radical histories and listening to communities, and they also make work as @henbapurnewydd. instagram.com/llinosanwyll
Mae Talulah Thomas yn gyfansoddwr a dylunydd sain o Langollen, sy’n bennaf yn gweithio gyda chynhyrchiadau theatr. Mae hefyd yn DJ ac yn preswylio’n Playtime Collective yng Nghaergrawnt. I ffwrdd o’r llwyfan, mae Talulah yn gweithio gyda thestun a’r gair llafar o gwmpas cysylltedd iaith a dyfodoliaeth. \\ Talulah Thomas is a composer and audio designer from Llangollen, mainly working with theatre productions. They're also a resident DJ with Playtime Collective in Cambridge. Away from the stage, Talulah works with text and the spoken word, exploring intersections of language and futurism. instagram.com/talulah.t