Temporal Forms Unite! A Conversation between Victoria Stanton and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood

One sunny afternoon in July 2006, while chatting on the phone with my friend Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood, I mentioned that I was working on an article about spoken word and performance art. It would be an exaggeration to say I was stuck, but I was certainly talking (more like writing) myself in circles. This is when Susanne suggested we meet in person to continue this conversation, just to see if we could “un-stick” what it was I was trying to say. Susanne, a performative lecturer and literary translator, is infinitely interested in process, in process-based and time-based arts practices and how these interact. We also have a history — not only of discussing such topics but of actually collaborating on performance pieces. What follows is a transcription of our discussion: the recorded performance of the interview process. Instead of synthesizing my thoughts with Susanne’s questions to produce a seamless whole (where the interviewer is markedly absent), together we decided the interview — left intact — more authentically represents our approach to these issues and is more aligned with our respective research, academic and performance practices.