Hankyō was comissioned as a creative response to The Mitori Project, a comparative study exploring end of life issues in the UK and Japan, led by the University of Glasgow (2019-2020).
Inspired by writer and composer John Cage, Hankyō uses a process known as ‘writing through’ to generate ‘mesostic’ poems in English and Japanese. Chance techniques determined which poems became script and where they fell within the film.
Scoping the boundaries of ‘experimentation’ within academia, Hankyō swaps one set of rules and guidelines designed to maintain order and academic rigour for another designed to break apart and entirely rearrange meaning.
An exercise in process.
An excavation.
A distillation.
An echo of the original.