Between the Center and the Periphery, the Text and the Edit

This project explores the intersections of writing, editing and listening practices as tools for critically navigating the dynamics of globalized projections—between what can be framed as north to south, center to periphery, natural to urban, text to edit. Situated within the collaborative frameworks of UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture and Wits School of Arts (WSOA), the initiative examines how an expanded practice of writing and sounding—acts of assembling, revising, and adapting —can be reimagined as methods for engaging with decoloniality, climate justice, and critical spatial praxis.

Rooted in the concept of the "edit" as both metaphor and methodology, the project seeks to challenge entrenched knowledge hierarchies and practices. By bringing together students, academics, and interdisciplinary practitioners, it aims to create a dialogical space that speaks back to the politics of decolonial knowledge production, the shifting landscapes of global inequality, and the urgent demands of climate action on a global scale, approached at a localised pace.

Through a series of hybrid workshops, in-person exchanges, and public-facing events, the project will foster cross-cultural collaboration and critical dialogue. Anchored in the practice of site writing and situated modalities, such as sonic practices, participants will collectively explore the dynamics of center and periphery in relation to their lived contexts . These engagements will culminate in the editorial and publication of a special issue of the ellipsis journal built over time from a series of field notes, showcasing the co-produced insights, writings, and creative outputs.

At its core, this initiative calls for rethinking the boundaries of writing as a situated practice, where the body/the city/the environment become textual, inscribable, translatable. It offers a platform for collaborative experimentation and situated learning, envisioning writing as a form of action—grounded, responsive, and deeply interconnected with global challenges through concepts of place and the people who shape it.