Page / Process / Proceed is a project that explores text-based instruction as a catalyst for process and generativity. The project has had several iterations including an exchange project, a publication and a launch event. The project features four Glasgow School of Art students; Jiyoon Lee, Ali Farrelly, Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe and Esyllt Lewis. The project is rooted in the idea of language as a raw material that can be manipulated, deconstructed and reconstructed. It focuses on the dual function of the printed page as a site of materiality and instruction. Using a generative methodology, the project explores the page as a space of potentiality.

A score can be seen as a proposal or instruction for action. The project seeks to explore how language can extend out from the page through the activation of a durational, text-based score, drawing attention to process and experience. Embracing experimentation, unknowing, mistakes and curiosity, it is a way for artists to engage in a specific mode of production without the pressure of creating fully realised work.

The first stage of the project began with a cardboard box containing three key items; a page of instructions (or a text-based score), a pouch of cut-up text and a disposable camera. Each artist had the same box for a week, where they were instructed to create and activate their own text by selecting a number of words, or ‘units’ from the provided cut-up text. Using a camera to record their process, six images were to be taken at specific prescribed times. After each artist’s turn, the box was collected and reassembled before it was passed on to the next person.

The publication Page / Process / Proceed is a site for the material generated by the artists during the box exchange. It is a space for interchange where the varying works created under similar constraints to come together. The publication contains the photographs produced by the artists and a text written by Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe. The publication was launched at Good Press, Glasgow on the 5th of August 2022.

Page / Process / Proceed is in a constant state of flux as it continues to be reimagined across multiple translations.