Here at Anomalous we have been hosting a particularly engaging workshop that we would love to share with you. The Inflection Point is an interdisciplinary space and writers collective, created by Selin Uyguç. As a scriptwriter myself, my ears pricked when I heard that Selin was conducting fortnightly writing workshops in our studio space, so we met up to discuss her collective.

Since she began the workshop, it has flourished; now including podcast episodes and an upcoming writers retreat in the summer. Here at Anomalous, we have encouraged community leaders, creative minded folks and wellness practitioners to use our space, so it has been wonderful to see Selin’s workshops thrive.

Selin very kindly invited me along to one of the sessions, where the prompt theme was: The Lighthouse. We also watched some of the documentary ‘Sunless’ by Chris Marker (1983) as another writing prompt. The group from the session said they liked the cozy, comforting ambience of the studio, and it was a very safe and relaxed atmosphere when people shared their work and thoughts between writing. The discussions were constructive and encouraging; it was delightful to be such a welcoming creative space.

A few days after the session I met up with Selin to discuss what I had seen, and what her thoughts and dreams were for the workshop. I found her to be a voraciously free-spirited, eclectic and thoughtful practitioner, with her members at the heart of everything she selects. The story behind the creation of IP (The Inflection Point) and her own creative journey is fascinating, and gives a unique insight into how one person can be a prolific luminary in the writing community.

Selin in The Studio- Image provided by Selin Uyguç.

Have a read below of our conversation to see for yourself. Blue quoted text is the opinion of Selin Uyguç (marked SU) and the rest is Aislinn Furlong (marked AF).

(AF) How would you describe the workshops that take place in our space?

(SU) IP is effectively an interdisciplinary community that is primarily focused on writing. We come together in Anomalous space fortnightly to– first of all, do some writing, but also to draw inspiration from each other and a variety of other mediums. We do screenings in the space and also come together in a circle to be in our own space and do our writing. We have flexibility to focus on independent work from the session. It's effectively a space to channel creativity and spontaneity, and centre on your craft without worrying about an end result necessarily. It doesn't have to be polished, it doesn’t have to be striving towards perfectionism of any kind. It’s just about getting into an energy together and kind of seeing what comes out.

(AF) How did the idea for The Inflection Point come about?

(SU) I guess it’s actually a very long term thought process for me. It didn’t materialise in the exact form that it came about last November- when I founded IP officially. When I moved here in 2018 I felt a real lack of community in writing; my background is in Turkish publishing. I was running a couple of political magazines there, so I have more of a journalism background. But when I moved here I started writing in a different language, and it took me a while to really find my feet with that, and just think about my artistic identity in writing in a different language…because translation is reinterpreting yourself in some ways. I think that apart from translation, origination in a second language takes a while to feel natural. At first my words felt a bit hollow. I think that was also exacerbated with the lack of community I was feeling.

With a writing group you draw inspiration from each other so much and you see the ways other people are using the language- and that can be really helpful. So I guess those were the feelings and ideas that were behind needing a community, I just came to a realisation where I just wanted to make that community myself, bring people together. And I also have been quite interdisciplinary in my practice over the years. I’ve always drawn inspiration from mediums like film. For example; I have a very visual mind, and I was thinking about what could be a format where we’re incorporating music, film, even sculpture and other visual arts into how we think about writing and how we channel themes, ideas and concepts. So that was really the catalyst and the thought process behind IP. There just became a point where I was like, I’m gonna do it…it's been cooking for a while.

(AF) Were you part of any other writing group when you were in Turkey? How did they compare to your workshop?

(SU) I’ve done quite a lot of different workshops over the years. And most of them have been good for community and to share work and ideas, and meet new people. But I felt a rigidity in a lot of those workshops. It was kind of like a teaching dynamic where you had a tutor, almost. So it didn't feel truly collaborative or spontaneous. I guess to feel truly supported in a space like that, to me, felt really important rather than being taught something. So that was the main difference I was leading with, and forming the ethos of IP as well. With the ones that I had done previously there was sort of a pressure to share your work. When you did actually share your work; this question of is it good enough or not? IP is free of all of that.

(AF) When I was there the sense of comfort was really there for me and everyone was so nice and chatty…

(SU) I find that the emphasis on creative play is sometimes missing from writing workshops. Just being something light and fun, because I think it’s quite difficult to get into writing and get yourself to write in the first place. When you have this pressure that it needs to be good, it creates this additional stress that makes the practice a bit more difficult. So I think I was hoping that people felt safe enough and very flowy, to just go with their inspiration and kind of frolic around a little bit. That's very key to IP’s identity, it’s frolicking.

(AF) How hard was it to find and build the community to come to your workshops?

(SU) It was relatively difficult in that building a community from the ground is always a lot of effort. I found it really interesting that people responded to it really well; I think because I drafted the initial manifesto and it was very clear in its thinking and philosophy, and what the space was, ie. What we’re tryna do, why we’re tryna do it, who makes up the collective. I think that CTA really resonated with people, when that was paired with a really effective marketing strategy (because I have a background in marketing and I sort of know my way around socials and things like that.) It just gave me a good base to build from the ground up in an effective way. I think it was a lot of effort, but I didn’t feel a heavy sense of friction.

(AF) What was your aim when bringing all these people into the space, how did you want it to feel? What feeling were you aiming for?

(SU) Being cozy was a big one. Welcoming, relaxing and elevated as well. And the space was all of that, and that’s why from day one it felt like this could be a permanent home from IP. I remember doing my second session ever of IP because I came across Anomalous in a very timely fashion. After my first session I was hoping to do IP at the same venue again, but it fell through at the last minute and so I came across Anomalous and thought ‘this is perfect’. I could just tell the vibe was really gonna fit what I was trying to do, you know the big windows- I just love the natural light that comes through and I think now that we're having lighter days, blue skies just create such an ethereal environment. Especially with the music I play, ambience is a very very big part of IP’s identity and what it does so it was really important I got that right and Anomalous made it possible.

(AF) So what’s your own particular favourite part of the sessions?

(SU) I would say the sharing is my absolute favourite, but especially in the second part of the session where we’re engaging with a visual prompt. That can be film, any sort of visual art really. We’re getting into sculpture more, for example, just looking at a piece and seeing what that brings up conceptually. Hearing what people take from that dynamic prompt is always so interesting, it is always something I could have never guessed. It's also a unique state of flow where people probably wouldn’t have it in the same way if they didn't come to IP, because the prompt in that moment, in the screening we all get into a specific energy and I think that's the power of the community and the moment that we create together. There’s a lot of feelings that come out at that point in the session as well, because people have warmed up by then, the first share has happened, and that’s more related to the first prompt and the theme. People just come up with really interesting stuff.

Image provided by Selin Uyguç.

(AF) On that, have there been any particularly memorable moments that’s happened within a session?

(SU) Yeah! This is my absolute favourite part of running these sessions because people have trusted me, the group and the space with such intimate and private emotional reflections sometimes. I just felt very, very honoured that they felt safe and welcome to do so. I remember in one session, one of the members was going through a really bad breakup and she had been struggling with it for a while, she had written a piece that was really evocative of that…And I just remember the stillness in the room of everyone listening very intently, as she was reading it she started crying, we did our best to make space for that and then we just had a big group hug- which was amazing. It’s like, thank you so much for sharing that and thank you for trusting us with that.

(AF) You’ve talked about your background a little bit, magazines and marketing, did you go to university for writing?

(SU) I actually went to university and did law. I think for various reasons relating to Turkey's economical and political landscape at the time, I was really drawn to a law degree. We have some lawyers in the family as well, so I wanted to try. But throughout my law degree I had the opportunity to structure my degree in a way that felt very interdisciplinary. So I was doing gender and sexuality modules, AI and law, art and law. So thinking about it in a very critical and academic way, rather than the commercial law route. Throughout that I was doing some writing for magazines around the university. I was a big part of the creative writing society. But like I said I was definitely figuring out my voice and I was trying to reform my relationship with writing at the time. So there were times where I stepped away from it, then came back, went into other mediums, started making music, and I guess it was just a time of discovering my creative identity.

(AF) You’re going to be doing a writers retreat soon aren’t you? Tell me a little bit about that.

(SU) Yes, we’re gonna be doing IP’s first ever writers retreat. It’s going to be in Norfolk in a grand mansion where William Cooper used to stay regularly. He’s one of my favourite poets as well so it’s a nice synchronicity there. It’s settled in about 12.5 acres of amazing nature, extensive grounds and it’s gonna be three days of highly curated workshops. Imagine IP in its current form, but on steroids. So I’m thinking about programming in a more extensive way. Also without making it overwhelming, there’s going to be daytime activities to do, and people can just chill out and do whatever they want. But it's going to be a really interesting creative programme that I'm working on. So that includes film and different types of art. I’m looking into collaborators as well that I can have for daytime workshops and events. That’s going to be three nights in September, I'm very excited.

Image provided by Selin Uyguç.

(AF) You also have a podcast don't you? You’ve got IP and this writer's retreat happening. You’re branching out a bit more. Do you see any other ways you’d like to expand?

(SU) There are absolutely several big plans. The reason why IP has branched out in these different areas is that I do want it to feel wider than necessarily a writing group, because of that interdisciplinary focus that I have and because I want different mediums and different types of artists to feel included in this space. That’s the next step for IP; thinking about our sessions in a way that can accommodate for different types of art to take place within the sessions. That’s a big priority I have on my mind. There’s also a potential way to connect members in a really unique way, so I’m in a few conversations about that. But growing the podcast is a really big priority as well because that’s basically our way of bringing visibility to all the amazing people who make up IP and all the reflections that we hear in the sessions. Because Inflection Point is what it is because of all the people who make it up. I think bringing visibility to their work and philosophy on creativity and community, especially in a city like London has been great and I want to do it more regularly and put more episodes out.

(AF) So if you could have your workshop in your most ideal place, no monetary restrictions- What would it include, what would it look like?

(SU) Right away I got a vision of a space, not a very big space but spacious with glass walls that look out onto an expansive sea view, just blue. I think that would be pretty amazing, either with a mountain view with the sea- that has more dimension. But I feel something with nature would be really cool, either that or the polar opposite- which is so me to say. I’m very sort of 180 sometimes. Either that or a really glorious cityscape. I think that would be pretty cool. Especially for evening sessions, sunsets…

Selin has managed to create a special space in a city that is teeming with talent. As she says, it can be hard to find and build community sometimes, even in a place as big as London. It's difficult to know where to start. But coming along to a session of something you're passionate about with like-minded people is always a good way to begin. From personal experience I can say it's a treat to be surrounded by those who would create those spaces for others.

Hopefully this has initiated some positive waves in your own mind about your own creative practice. I know I’m going to be digging out my copy of The Artist’s Way after this.

One of the pillars of Anomalous Space is our intention to build and uplift the community, and we are always looking for more people to partner with. If this is something you or someone you know might be interested in, please get in contact with someone on the team.

Written by Aislinn Furlong

THE INFLECTION POINT: How to curate and cultivate a thoughtful space for interdisciplinary writers.

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