The Birmingham accent has been the subject for derision and criticism for years. It's distinctive rhythm and lyricism sets it aside from the ‘Queen's English'. Now Birmingham is a thriving multi-cultural city with hundreds of nationalities living together, and subsequently the spoken word differs from one person to the next, the result of which is a fusion of languages and oral histories.

During her residency with VIVID Katarina Zdjelar will produce a single channel video work which will explore and investigate notions of producing the perfect sound within the English spoken language. Zdjelar intends to work with both a native and non-native English speaker. The latter will be asked to recite stories, scripts and texts whilst focusing on the accurate pronunciation of each word. Each time the spoken word is pronounced incorrectly they are interrupted and instructed "Please repeat again". This continues until their pronunciation is considered satisfactory. This continued process of correction and accuracy distances and removes the act of speech from its orginal function, and ultimately the standardisation of the spoken word removes all traces of geographical and cultural identity. Ultimately Zdjelar's work asks whether a world devoid of accents and colloquial, deprived of multi-cultural communities would make the English language less interesting and distinctive.

The work will be researched and developed during a residency at VIVID running 6 October to 5 December 2008. During this time the public will be invited to meet the artist at three open studio days on 12, 13 & 14 November 2008
. A solo exhibition of Zdjelar's newly commissioned work will open on 3 December, 6-8pm (continuing to 20 December, Wed-Sat, 12-5.30pm).