In his book Orality and Literacy, Walter J. Ong writes about the potential of orally based cultures to develop and transmit "wisdom". This differs from the "closely reasoned, linear analysis" common to written, print and electronic cultures.
Ong categorizes human cultures into primary oral (no knowledge of writing), chirographic (writing or print based) and secondary oral cultures (radio, television and internet based). Today, most Western countries are moving towards secondary orality. The internet allows for ever increasing dissemination of information through sound-clips and videos in a new type of oral transmission.
There are places like Achill Island however, where the vestiges of a primary oral culture have not yet completely disappeared. The screen prints below attempt to explore this residual orality. Songlines inhabit derelict space, returned emmigrants and steamships emerge from the shadows...
