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Women Sitting at the Machine, Thinking


Stereo mix of 5.1 audio, 2018-2020. 13.30 minutes. 
Adapted from the poetry collection Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking by Karen Brodine.


Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking is a collection of ‘work poems’ by typesetter, activist and poet Karen Brodine. Published posthumously in 1990 as a reflection on her life
 as a typesetter, union organiser and lesbian, this series of ‘work poems’ chronicles labour struggles, both personal and collective.


Extracts of Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking and image of Karen Brodine reading at a radical women literature festival all reproduced  courtesy of Red Letter Press.


Women Sitting at the Machine, Thinking; Essay by James Clegg 2020

Aideen Doran's Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking: 'Attention has been postponed.'Essay by Siuán NiDhochartaigh, 2021



As installed in the Lavish and Judicious at CCA Derry/Londonderry 2018

The image shows the sound work Women Sitting at the Machine, Thinking as installed at CCA Derry-Londonderry in 2018. It is a blurry mid-shot of a person resting on their back on a blue carpeted platform, their head resting on a blue bolster pillow. It is very dark and they are illuminated by a diffused spot light shining from the right. The image shows the sound work Women Sitting at the Machine, Thinking as installed at CCA Derry-Londonderry in 2018. A blue carpeted platform is in the centre of the image, around 120cm high surrounded at the back by a wide dark curtain that hangs in a semi circle from the ceiling. They are situated in a white gallery space. Around the plaform there are five speakers on stands arranged in a circle. Three blue bolster pillows lie on top of the platform. The image shows the sound work Women Sitting at the Machine, Thinking as installed at CCA Derry-Londonderry in 2018, the bottom third of the image shows the surface of a blue carpeted platform, with three blue bolster pillows resting on it. A wide black curtain hands in the background. It is dimly lit, with a diffused spotlight shining from the right onto the surface of the platform.