Brief histories of cleaning, 2014
Book, 20.3 x 12.6 cm, 194 p, publisher : MÅNGATA BOOKS (Diversions Publishing), ISBN : 9781500664718.
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2026/632).
Literary synopsis
For a year, Peter Lemmens cleaned his computer’s keyboard with a novel. As result: a narrative layer over an illegible text.
Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice
As part of his artistic practice, Peter Lemmens has been publishing small press editions. These publications often invoke different readings. Peter Lemmens sees amateurism as a productive mode. Here the accidental is installed as a narrative structure. For about a year, an indecipherable, ficitional language was produced by cleaning a computer’s keyboard. However, this mundane action is still legible as amateruristic writing. It simply demands a different set of parameters to read it, a system slightly apart from regular fiction.
Authorship: Anonymous Authorship, Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: Novel Writes Itself.
Genre: Automatic Writing, Invented Language.
Publishing: Print-On-Demand.
Theme: Accidents, Chance, Everyday Life, Performative Language.
Artist
> Peter Lemmens.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Ensemble: The Artist's Novel.