X=YOU

Locating ‘ ’ on the map

Discovering your creativity

XMasknoun1. a covering for all or part of the face, worn as a disguise, or to amuse or frighten others.synonyms: disguise, veil, false face, hide, conceal, disguise, cover up, obscure, screen, cloak, camouflage, veil,

Locating ‘X’ on the map, is a project aimed to bring out the creativeness in people. Some people are born knowing they are creative, and some other people just need encouragement, as they might not have seen that side to them yet.Masks are usually worn to conceal ones identity, but they can also be used to reveal another. In ‘Locating ‘X’ on the map, I have given people a platform of opportunity to be anything they want to be. I called on different people from different backgrounds and occupations, to submit a piece of creative writing, either one of their own, or a favourite poem or quote. I then turned their creativeness and imagination, into a series of masks, making it a collaborative project.

The masks might encourage them to see past their own perception of themselves, and to discover a new side they might have not known was there...

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View the world differently...

Imagination is that thing you get to use when you are six. And your mom is on the phone all the time so she isn’t ever paying attention to you, and the box that your hot water heater came in is now a submarine, and your stuffed raccoon is your best shipmate.

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“Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor illis.”

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Alex StevenPolitics student23

“In this place I am a barbarian, because men do not understand me.”

Trash and animal corpses littered the place

I felt like a stranger in this familiar place, walking down the frozen rock road to Aunt Chris’s house. It was curious seeing snowflakes piling in the warm air, I was wearing a jumper and I was not even cold. Ahead there was a family of 4, rocks stabbing into their barefoot cadence. I could feel my lips cracking, ears ringing as the wind shrieked by. I took the longest strides, miles long, but I could not get around the family, so I just fell into cadence behind the mother in the emerald dress. I tried to look up, and noticed moth-winged clothes draping their backs as the snowflake tears soaked them dry. But gravity was cruel and pulled our eyes to the ground. Without a thought their cadence broke, as if they had read each other’s minds. Sister son and father lined up to face the trash filled corn field. Gravity had been absorbed into my chest, their necks twisted to stare at me as I walked by. Just as suddenly as it had happened, their necks snapped back to stare at the cornfield. Trash and animal corpses littered the place. Their stares and silence sank into an aura of defeat. I looked to the right to see the mother petrified solid in front of their home that might have been. Her gaze fell onto their howling house and watched as it’s cracked mouth gave it’s final exhale. They both knew there was nothing left for it to say. The surrounding grizzlies nodded showing their teeth, closing their lids to cover their empty sockets in agreement. Her spirit was carried away with the homes last breath. Feeling the coldness thicken, I remembered that I was only wearing a jumper and sandals. My pace would have to quicken if I didn’t want to freeze to death. I considered calling my own father, to pick me up from this death cursed road. But my tired souls had worn my callouses thin. But the seal’s stuffed smiles were rotting in the paused winter. I could not call him. For then I’d wait. For then I’d sit. Letting my legs fall under my weight the ice floor makes my bottom raw, the blood freezes the two together. I’d have to wait for the air to warm again. I would admit to no one that this immobility was intentional.

Lauren Maureen DeavenArchitect student21

X

Trash and animal corpses littered the place

4

‘Choke’Awoke to the sounds of frog croak,closed the patio doors, nothing left to smoke,last night drank enough to choke,things will change now I hope,I’m tough, I know I’ll cope,chin up, head up, don’t mope,scrub myself up with soap,go down to the docks, and find a boat.

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Jasmine LucasTravelling chef23

Jasmine LucasTravelling chef23

1

3

A half dose does us and from there, it’s a glorious ascent.

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Hannah SherwoodFloral/Travel enthusiast

22

9

They tell me that I’m the happiest person they’ve ever met…But I guess they’ve never really met me.Stephen Madoc PierceIllustrator22

X

‘Superficial’Does personality matter anymore? People take more pride in their hair, cars and dogs. Hashtags allow people five words instead of twenty. IPhones are the new meet-and-greet. Everybody can be the same, with different colored phone cases. Individual life-tools create superficial desires, nobody notices what you say. Visual matter has obstructed the power of words. Actions speak louder than words; Facebook likes, twitter-favorites and a good old follow on Instagram. #help

Erica Stella TomsEnglish major22

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2

This is what this is about

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8

The frigid wind wrapped around him like steely arms of a hellish cuddle, tearing through his odd assortment of clothes, thieving his warmth with terrorising efficiency. if he let his eyes almost completely close, blurring his vision, he could summon her vague image: slender and smiling, innocent to the world, like he was back then. he remembered the day they swam in the river, soaking up the sun, free of worry and life’s weight. then a horrible rush of air whipped up and around him, slapping him from his dream, relentlessly driving the cold into his bones. with a shudder he gazed down the grey alley, through squinted yet bright eyes, scanning for trouble, wondering if the shrieking old man would be back again or if he was sufficiently hidden.

Matt HoggMotorbike adventureer 31

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6

“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.”

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Adam EardleyEarthly Powers by Anthony Burgess.

Every humanbeing in this room

…must be worth a great novel.

YOU