Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores a transmedia project investigating the conceptual and mediatised location of a literary adaptation between two researchers, in two countries. It reacts to the proposition of adaptation not only as a creative activity but as a lifeworld.

Contribution long abstract:

I wish to propose a paper on the development of a transmedia project arising from the adaptation of Cafflogion, a dystopian science-fiction novella in the Welsh language by R. Gerallt Jones, published in 1979.

The project in its current form is a reaction to an original scheme to adapt the novella as an ecologically-themed horror film, the plans for which were disrupted – and comprehensively surpassed – by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The encounter with the virus led to a significant reorientation of the project away from a single output to a multiplicity of speculative documents, building a processual account of adaptation as taskscape and multilinear entanglement (Ingold, 2000, 2016), and an archaeology of practice (Pearson and Shanks, 2001).

The various outputs proposed and created so far include translations of the novella, interactions with AI, interactive scripting, 360o/VR filming, the creation of Korsakow documentation and experimentation with vertical filming. However, the specifics of these individual ventures are largely secondary to the creation of a discourse about the place of (the) adaptation in the two co-investigators’ own professional and personal lives.

The project is conducted by Roger Owen (Aberystwyth University) and Dafydd Sills-Jones (Auckland University of Technology), working collaboratively but separately in Wales and New Zealand.

Bibliography:

Ingold, Tim (2000) The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Dwelling, Livelihood and Skill. London: Routledge.

(2016) Lines: A Brief History. London: Routledge (Routledge Classics).

Jones, R Gerallt (1979) Cafflogion. Cardiff: National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Pearson, Mike and Mike Shanks (2001) Theatre/Archaeology. London: Routledge.