David Mann is a writer, editor, and arts journalist, and is the Writer and Communications Manager for The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

With a Masters in Creative Writing and having worked as a writer and editor for various South African art publications, Mann is interested in the role art can play in helping one make sense of the world, and one’s place in it. Specifically, it is in the act of writing alongside, rather than in response to, the artistic process that he finds a home for his practice. A background in journalism grounds his writing in a constant pursuit of certainty, while a keen interest in how text or language can perform outside of the conventional structures of writing and reading lends his work an incidental and experimental methodology.

Mann joined The Centre from Season 4, following a need for written documentation and reflection on the often-intangible processes and methodologies taking place in the space, and has been producing writing on its workshops, collaborators, staged performances, exhibitions, and other projects since. Being able to bare witness to the inception of ideas and follow their processes through the stages of ideation, rehearsal, and public showing, he works alongside the sound, film, and photographic arms of The Centre to provide an ongoing contextual archive of writing for a space that is in a state of constant change and experimentation.

In addition to his writing for the online project #FromTheArchive, which looked back at seven Seasons of work at The Centre in words and images, Mann is also producing writing for The Centre’s past and ongoing Seasons, as well as its various projects.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi