Shadow Rounds:
diaspora
DIASPORA is the fourth group of texts in Shadow Rounds. The Spitalfields area has been home to immigrant groups for hundreds of years, but the term diaspora can be understood more broadly.
The Rodinsky and Stencl texts look at Yiddish in terms of its specific meaning for these texts but also for its fluidity of sound. Both texts deal with place and identity.
The Azad text deals, similarly, with place and identity but for the Bengali immigrant community. The rhythmic quality of the text is used for the sound.
The Severs text can be understood in terms of someone from another place finding a home - in this case an individual instead of a whole community. That home was not only a physical place but also an invented theatrical space that explored ideas about history and time.
The Sebald text relates in some ways to the Severs in terms of time, but in this case it is the only fictional character who looks at the area. The description of Liverpool Street station and Broadgate sum up the earth of this place, described by someone constantly passing through.
The final text is an email. This technologically random communication is comprised of fragments of texts that create a strange unity. The place of the virtual space opens out our sense of physical place and creates a written diaspora.