God's Little Cow & An Argument for Hybridity

This practice based PhD thesis asks questions and explores creative practice related to the production of a multi-modal work. Part One is the creative writing project, God's Little Cow, a book of texts containing manually typed pages and a language-based sound and object installation as part of the final reading. This project serves as a practical reading experience of multi-modal work necessitated by an understanding of language that demands to be seen in all its materialities. Part Two comprises of a close reading of Anne Carson's multi-modal work, Nox, as an exemplar of work using the form of the Artist’s Book to explore issues in relation to language, translation and the use of source materials. I outline elements of process that are pertinent to work that deals with the materialities of language and the visual-verbal relationships, the materialities of the text and the production of meanings. The conclusion outlines how Anne Carson informed my practice and shows how this critical exploration influenced my approach to the work God's Little Cow. It argues for the visibility of hybridity in creative practice and articulates the ways in which the language-based installation operates as a conclusion to thinking of the book as a four dimensional phenomenological experience