I propose...

...to brief a number of Film/TV casting agencies to propose actors for the main character parts of a novel which has never previously been adapted for screen, and whose characters have never been portrayed in visual media before. I will then arrange a display for exhibition using the material returned by the casting agencies.

I am interested in looking at how the apparatus of film and cultural production helps to enforce existing narrative structures and potentially limit the reader’s image memory bank – how through the process of adaptation, text and suggestion are transformed into concrete image and archetype.

The choice of novel will be inspired by the venue in which the work would be presented - this proposal was originally written for the Bristol Diving School art space and the novel chosen was ‘The Deep Range’, a 1957 science-fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

The casting brief is taken directly from text descriptions of the characters as they appear in the novel. The installation of the work would be based around the material that is returned from the casting agencies – head shots and their CVs of their previous work.

The material will be displayed as a work in progress – pinned to a wall-mounted notice board or placed in files on a desk - allowing visitors to review the cast options as if they are part of the production team.

A number of paperback copies of the novel, each featuring a different cover illustration, will also be made available for visitors to take away or refer to.