Celebrating Dr. Alice Dailey's Recent Publication: "Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations"

Dr. Alice Dailey developed a photography-writing project, titled “Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations,” in collaboration with her son, Adam Dailey. This past August, Tupelo Quarterly published this project in a folio on collaboration. 

Page 8 of "Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations"

Led by a fascination with creating analog spiritualistic photographs, Dr. Dailey found herself experimenting with several mediums outside of the process of photography itself. What started as a project to recreate Victorian spiritualist photographs transformed into her recently published photography-writing project, “Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations.” Dr. Dailey describes this project as originating from a desire to understand the creation of analog spiritualist photographs alongside the theory of embodied practice as a form of historical knowledge. 

“The project thus began with no writing or narration planned. I simply wanted to make pictures,” explains Dr. Dailey when asked about the creative process. 

As Dr. Dailey embarked on the journey of learning analog photography and darkroom printing, her son, Adam, was simultaneously discovering his passion for music. While initially unplanned, this parallel led Dr. Dailey to invite Adam to create alongside her. Serving as a model and contributing a piece of his own composition, Adam’s efforts in this partnership unveiled hidden insights about collaboration itself. Dr. Dailey describes this project as “not only a collaboration but a piece about collaboration and transmission.” Relating back to her interest in the field of performance studies, this piece as commentary on both collaboration and transmission explores Dr. Dailey’s initial interest in the theoretical argument that bodies transmit knowledge across history through repertoires of repeated action. 

When asked about the final project, Dr. Dailey states, “although the written components are mine, they were composed in conversation and process with Adam, an artist I admire and with whom I feel privileged to collaborate”. At its core, collaboration is the inspiration, process, and product of “Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations.” 

Watch the video form, or read the written piece, here: https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/editors-selections/love-poem-with-ectoplasmic-materializations-by-alice-dailey-adam-dailey/