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

^{This long-term artistic and scholarly research project explores the life, work, and creative process of Octavia Estelle Butler (1947–2006). It examines the unseen work through which her writing took shape—drafts, routines, self-addressed notes, and practices of persistence—and approaches hope as an affective, political, and creative force running through her work. Butler was the first African American woman to gain widespread recognition as a science-fiction writer and the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

Situated at the intersection of literature and the visual arts, Europe and the United States, the project was initiated in 2021 with support from the Institut français—Sur Mesure +—and the Fondation des Artistes. In 2022, it became the basis of a practice-led Ph.D. within RADIAN, a doctoral program in artistic research and creation, with completion scheduled for 2027. My dissertation bears the same title: 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.

This page is intended to show some of the documents I work with and events related to my research. 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
November 7, 2025
Université de Toulon}

^{Colloque RESCAM

“Documentations et archives dans les thèses de recherche en création : enjeux et statuts des traces”}

_{De la mémoire dormante à l’archive spéculative : expérience d’une activation documentaire}

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

______________________

^{CONFERENCE
January 29, 2025

École Nationale Supérieure d'architecture de Versailles}

^{Invited by Stéphane Sautour as part of the seminar : This is tomorrow. Art Sciences and fiction}

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

^{I

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

______________________

^{SOLO SHOW
Novembre 7 - 29, 2024

Ecole supérieure d'arts et médias de Caen, Esam, grande Galerie}

^{Roses snatched from concrete}

(Link to exhibition page)

^{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

Université de Caen}

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

_{The Archives of Octavia E. Butler}

^{______________________

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.}