_{^{Unseen Work and Hope as Keys to Understanding Octavia E. Butler's Writing}}

^{is a long-term project about Octavia Estelle Butler’s work and life. She was the first African American author to make science fiction her career. Feminist and visionary, she was born in 1947 and died in 2006 at the age of 58. It is intended to be both scholarly and artistic, at the intersection of literature and visual arts, Europe and the United States. It has been supported by L’Institut Francais (sur mesure +) and La Fondation des artistes in 2021 ; it is now the subject of a thesis in the framework of RADIAN (practice-led PhD in artistic research and creation), beginning in 2022 and ending in 2025. This project is supported by Au diable vauvert, publisher of Octavia E. Butler, located in the Camargue (south of France). Our collaboration will result in the publication of my research in the form of a full-length biography of Octavia E. Butler. My dissertation is entitled : Unseen Work and Hope as Keys to Understanding Octavia E. Butler's Writing.

My research unfolds in three simultaneous directions: her novels, her papers (housed at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles), and Butler’s legacy from Pasadena, where she spent most of her life, to Los Angeles County. This poetic and political investigation combines several typologies of printed and audiovisual documents (Images-memory : her archive, newspapers, Internet database / films and photographs : image’s documents from her life and novels / sound : daily records, radio, interviews / writings : her archives and novels, mine). They constitute a visual archive that is constantly expanding. These documentary resources will be shaped in the future realization of a film essai that retraces the experience of an encounter that did not take place physically, but through memories. A film conceived and built as an experience (inspired by Chris Marker) and a written biography. My dissertation is entitled : Unseen Work and Hope as Keys to Understanding Octavia E. Butler's Writing. This page is intended to show some of the documents I work with. It is updated daily
and will take on different forms over time.}

_{^{All rights reserved © Manon Recordon
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens © Estate of
Octavia E. Butler}}

_{^{Related events}}

^{CONFERENCE
January 29, 2025}

_{Forget luck, Forget inspiration. Who are you Octavia E. Butler?
A biographical and archival journey through the life and work of Octavia E. Butler}

^{Invited by Stéphane Sautour as part of the seminar : This is tomorrow. Art Sciences and fiction
École Nationale Supérieure d'architecture de Versailles

© Octavia E. Butler papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino.}

______________________

^{SOLO SHOW
Novembre 7 - 29, 2024}

^{Roses snatched from concrete}

(Link to exhibition page)

^{Esam (école supérieure d'arts et médias de Caen/Cherbourg)
The studio is a terrain of form-building, an intimate den where the creative process moves,
slips, and evolves within the expanded time of research. The exhibition, by contrast, unfolds in counterpoint,
like a snapshot of still images, offered up for viewing and reflection.
Where could the in-between of these two tempos reside? How might they merge, intertwine? Exhibition conceived with Isabelle Prim. Part of this project was made possible thanks to the support of Institut Français and Fondation des artistes}

^{______________________}_{CONFERENCE

October, 19, 2023}

_{The Archives of Octavia E. Butler}

_{Study Days : Archives, Creation, History, organised by Valérie Vignaux
IMEC (Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives) & University of Caen, france}
^{______________________

RADIAN, PhD in artistic research
and creation 2022/2026}

^{Thesis: The role of invisible work and

hope as keys to the reading of Octavia E. Butler's creative process.

Thèse : Le rôle du travail invisible et l'espérance comme clef de lecture du processus de création d’Octavia E. Butler}

^{______________________

Creation and research residency, Los angeles/California 2021/2022
INSTITUT FRANCAIS SUR MESURE + & FONDATION DES ARTISTES}

^{Take root among the stars}

^{Octavia E. Butler was the first African American author to make science fiction her career. Feminist and visionary, she was born in 1947 and died in 2006.
Her archives are held in the Huntington Library (San Marino, Los Angeles)}
_{© Octavia E. Butler papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino.}