Turning the tides
A series of four workshops for 14-18 year olds at Rumpus Room Studio Glasgow.

March-April 2025

“…And I don't regret all the years and the standing in the cold and the petitions signing, because my attitude always was, if people asked you, will it dae oney good? I said, everything you do makes a difference”
( Isa Porte)

What does a tide of change look or feel like? Collectively when we come together, what can we offer to alternative futures that others can’t? Turning the Tides was a series of workshops using experimental, collaborative approaches to explore excerpts from the women in Communism Archives held at National Library Scotland’s Sound Archive and how we turn the tides towards a better World.

Together we listened to voices of women involved in many years of activism to think about ideas held within them which are still relevant and important today - education, knowing yourself and finding your people, building solidarity, putting theory into practice, creativity as action, and how to grow from disappointment and defeat.

Archiving is considered as conversation, as scattering, as finding a collective voice through scrapbooking, effecting found and scavenged materials, repurposing, sharing, re-editing, resharing, and revoicing each other’s words. Who gets to speak whose words and how do collective histories circulate through sound and material practice?