Approximately once a month from now until who knows when, I’m curating the Consulate Section of Joyland Poetry. I’ve just posted May’s feature. Here are the features since it began:
May 2012: “How to Write During the Consumer Age” by Vincent Tholomé
April 2012: Excerpt from “Капуста (Kapusta),” a poem/play in progress by Erín Moure
March 2012: “From my moist” by Ragnhildur Jóhannsdóttir
Waaay back in the mid-’00s (!!), the Impromptu Reading Series hatched in Toronto when visiting writers suddenly appeared in our neighbourhood. The series was formed as suddenly as our guests’ arrival, and provided a way for the guests to share their work and to encounter texts of interest to local readers and writers. Put another way, with last-minute notice folks were invited to gather and share one text aloud. We chose a picnic table that first night, with a lovely and engaged group of people up for the adventure. Since that initial event, I’ve organized a few other Impromptus in Toronto and Ghent.
On Sunday, we held the first Impromptu in Reykjavík for visiting Finnish poets and Tuli & Savu editors Mikael Brygger and Henriikka Tavi. Mikael and Henriikka were in town to install In large, well-organized termite colonies, an exhibition at Listasafn Íslands in collaboration with IC-98 as part of the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The book they wrote features a set of instructions for installing the exhibition, and the book-as-object is gorgeous in design.
As for the event, eight of us gathered to share texts in different languages — Icelandic, English, Finnish, German — and to chat about the writing scenes in our cities. And WOW! It was such a warm, inspiring event. I get itchy using the word ‘inspiring’ since it can be such a cliché when referring to arts, but I was seriously inspired by the spirit, interest, and engagement of our intimate group and particularly by the brilliant conceptual work of Mikael and Henriikka; it’s changing my creative impulses currently.
At our gathering, Henriikka introduced us to her current work-in-progress. She calculated that in order for a poet to subsist on royalties, the writer would need to publish twelve books in one year. She has set out to do exactly that in 2012, and has been producing one book per month. She read to us from her January – April books, which you can access in their entirety online here. February’s book includes the poem “V Mikä Kosketti Minua Tänään,” a fairly frightening though fascinating list comprised of all ingredients used in cosmetics she uses on an average day. The poem starts on page 37 of this PDF. The project overall includes a blog that tracks the writing process, as well as a series of performances directed by Lija Fischer based on each book.
Mikael read work from an English-language Spam-poetry book of his called Emily, which is accessible online here. This differs from some of the more Flarf-oriented treatments of spam, since Mikael has harvested spam material to recast it in a diverse array of lyric, constraint, and conceptual forms. His reading included a poem called “Wolf” (page 13 in the PDF), which reminded me of both Christian Bök’s line “wolves evolve” in Eunoia as well as my own lipogrammatic poem “Owlution vs. Wolvolution” in Echolology. Mikael also read from Valikoima asteroideja (Selection of Asteroids), online here, which foregrounds curious mathematical and diagrammatic movements between languages. His reading of the title poem (check it out on page 62) was super neat!
We have a bit of advance notice for the next Impromptu (early June), when Linda Russo will visit Reykjavík. I’ll create this as an invite-only event, so if you’re interested in attending, let me know.
Black Rider Press (in Perth, Australia) has released a saddle-stitched microanthology or pre-conversation or collage of work by poets residing in Australia and Canada. forward slash is co-edited by Jeremy Balius and Matthew Hall, with work by Louis Armand, Kemeny Babineau, Michael Farrell, Duncan Hose, Astrid Lorange, Jay MillAr, and me. Corey Wakeling launched the microanthology at yesterday’s Melbourne 2012 Poetry Symposium (focusing on The Political Imagination: Contemporary Postcolonial and Diasporic Poetries). Read his intriguing and generous contextualization here. I have a handful of copies; if you’d like one, backchannel me.
Finnish clown, actress, and haberdasher Elina Lajunen is in residency at Menningarverkefnið Hlaðan in Vogar, Iceland. Over the last few weeks, she has put together a weekend-long show called “Elinan Olohuone / Stofan hennar Elinu.” It opened last night, and will continue through tomorrow. Today, I’m thrilled to join the show to lead a sound workshop connected with Elina’s barn installation. 13-15. Free for all. Details here.
I am in Toulouse at Mix’art Myrys, working with more than twenty artists for one week to collaborate on the theme of PARASITE. Tonight, we will stage an experiment to repress meaning within corporeal sound. I wrote a quick and dirty explanation of the experiment’s raison d’être, and Florian Jouzel made a quick and dirty translation. Pour votre plaisir, s’il vous plait…
SONS SANS SENS
From where did the idea stem that we should use our vocal folds to form sound into recognizable units of meaning in order to communicate with other beings?
D’où vient l’idée que nous devrions utiliser nos cordes vocales pour transformer des sons en unités de sens reconnaissables afin de communiquer avec d’autres êtres?
My approach to the idea of PARASITE is to consider meaning as parasitic on language. The further humans as a species are inhabited by meaning as a beneficial parasite, the more estranged we become from the range of sound our bodies are capable of producing. I urge an action intended to free the body of meaning-based or meaning-carrying sound. I theorize that it is possible, through practice, for all of us to utter a common language by employing our bodies as sound-producers, without the intention of transmitting meaning through the conventional modes of our linguistic structures.
Mon approche de l’idée de PARASITE est de considérer la signification des mots comme parasite du langage. Plus les êtres humains, en tant qu’espèce, sont imprégnés du sens des mots [perçu comme un parasite bénéfique], plus nous nous éloignons de la gamme de sons que nos corps sont capables de produire. Je propose une action ferme destinée à libérer le corps de tout son basé uniquement sur le sens. Je théorise qu’il est possible, pour nous tous, et par la pratique, de formuler un langage commun en utilisant notre corps comme producteur de sonorités, supprimant ainsi la signification véhiculée par les modes conventionnels de nos structures linguistiques.
Languages throughout the world have been developed as a way to concretize vocal structures, but the effort to imbue with meaning (to turn these sonic phrases into symbol carriers) has taken over the innumerable ways to remix and reorder the sounds evident within these structures. We have as a species, in many ways, lost contact with the pure sound at the basis of all languages.
A travers le monde les langues ont été développées comme un moyen de concrétiser des structures vocales. Mais pour que ces phrases sonores deviennent porteuses de symboles, la façon de les imprégner de sens a pris d’innombrables voies, remixant et réorganisant les sons émergents au sein de ces structures. Nous avons, en tant qu’espèce, perdu le contact avec le son pur qui est à la base de toutes les langues.
I propose that meaning is a parasite that has taken over our relationship to languages, which could have initially existed as memorized and endlessly remixed extended sound palettes. Narrative is also a related parasite, perhaps a subspecies evolved from the meaning parasite. Since narrative is a later evolution of meaning, it is perhaps easier (though still deeply challenging) to repress its function temporarily.
J’affirme ainsi que le sens est un parasite qui a su détourner et se réapproprier la relation que nous entretenons au langage, qui aurait pu originellemet évoluer comme une palette sonore mémorisée sans cesse remixée. Le récit est un parasite en étroite relation, peut-être une sous-espèce qui a évolué à partir du parasite ‘sens’. Parce que le récit est le fruit d’une évolution ultérieure du sens, il est peut-être plus facile [quoique toujours profondément complexe] de brider provisoirement son effet.
While meaning may remain an incurable or unmovable parasite within our receptive systems, I urge experimentation with exercises that could temporarily repress meaning’s and narrative’s domination of humans’ relationship to languages (as extended sound palettes) so that humans can, again, experience this pure sound of the utterance.
Bien que le sens puisse demeurer un parasite incurable au sein de nos systèmes réceptifs, j’encourage l’expérimentation à travers des exercices qui pourraient temporairement réprimer la domination du sens et du récit qui guide habituellement les êtres humains dans leur relation aux langues afin que l’on puisse, de nouveau, expérimenter ces sons purs et originels.
My idea is neither novel nor new; indeed, throughout history there have been individuals who have come to this similar realization of our infestation by these parasites. Numerous strategies have been developed to temporarily repress the parasitic actions — to mean and to seek stories in the relationships between sounds. I offer a chance to experiment with these exercises to connect with our bodies through sound, to repress the parasite of meaning.
Mon idée n’est pas inédite, ni révolutionnaire; en effet, à travers l’Histoire, des individus sont également parvenus à ce constat commun, le diagnostic de notre infection par ces même parasites. De nombreuses stratégies ont été développées pour anihiler provisoirement les actions parasitiques; celles-ci formulent et recherchent les histoires dans les relations entre les sonorities, construisant alors la signification. A travers ces exercices, j’offre la possibilité de se reconnecter avec notre corps à travers le son, pour étouffer le parasite du sens.
During the first week of April, I’ll visit Toulouse to collaborate with twenty local and international artists via Mix’art Myrys on a theme of PARASITE. Marion Raievski and I will continue our parasite project which began last October in Poitiers. This may even net some new multilingual compositions (working with French, English, and Icelandic).
Habitat and ecosystem of the river the buildings and was the only meaningful measurement of the impact of structures to measure the return of adult fish in the river after the dam. The measurements showed invariably collapse of fish stocks. At best, could only proceed any mitigation the sensitivity of a few percentage points. Pass these express findings can engineers LANDSVIRKJUN not look with optimism shine in the eyes because now will use the newer and better technology than ever before and then added a footnote that it will be interesting to monitor the progress already has to activate and destroy most of the habitats in the river. LANDSVIRKJUN ambition to lead the world in developing technologies to dams and juveniles utilities is called Before destruction and will cost a pedestrian found in river life, whether the latest special effects prove something tangential, or as bad as all the others.
Source: Kvartsannleikur Landsvirkjunar
From February 7 to March 8, Maja Jantar and a.rawlings performed an experiment in extra-sensory perception, improvisation, and divination — resulting in a daily oracle aligned with one moon cycle. Everyday, we separately recorded what the moon told us from our geographically disparate locales — Maja in Gent and angela in Reykjavík. By the end of each day, we exchanged our files and then synced them to create the day’s oracle.
Oracles from February 7 to 26 can be listened to in their entirety here:
Oracles from February 27 to March 8 can be listened to here:
LUNALIA emerged in part as a solution collaborate despite geographic difference. We have previously experimented with improvisation performed in different locations (see example here, with Maja in Belgium and angela in Iceland), but LUNALIA offered us the chance to improvise and collaborate without having immediate sensory contact (visual or aural) with one another. Instead, our medium became the moon and, through focusing on this shared entity in our environments, we composed oracular utterances from lunar sensitivity.
The structure we established for ourselves at the outset was to create one recording of voice and soundscape per day with no fixed time allotment. The recordings ended up as roughly five minutes in length each, though the inexact timing prompted three strategies for syncronization: 1) start them at the same time, 2) end them at the same time, or 3) twin them at the heart. Maja intuited and enacted each day’s sync strategy. We also faded in and out the tracks. Otherwise, they remain in their original raw states.
While this daily moon oracle has come to an end, we will continue LUNALIA by posting one new oracle on each full moon. Instead of daily, LUNALIA will visit monthly!
Thank you to everyone who followed our process.
Maja & angela
Full moon over Reykjavík, 7 February 2012
I’m thrilled to announce my post as the 2012 Queensland Poet-in-Residence! From July through September, I’ll be in Australia to facilitate workshops, share performances, and participate in both the Queensland Poetry Festival and the Brisbane Writers Festival. My primary project while there will be the creation of a site-specific series for Sound Poetry and Visual Poetry – a project in synaesthetic counter-mapping connected to the area’s biodiversity.
Queensland Poetry Festival’s announcement lives here.
Arts Minister Rachel Nolan’s announcement can be read here.
In preparation for the project, I’m researching potential locations, sights, species, and sounds. Currently, I’m interested in learning from locals what, in the Queensland environment, has personal relevance for you. This is less a request as a foreigner to know what sites to visit, and more a request to know what resonates with you as ‘Queensland,’ ‘home,’ ‘real,’ ‘escape,’ and/or quintessential within the region. If you have time, please share your responses in the form below. Alternatively, you can also download a Word doc with these following questions and e-mail it to me; download and contact details are available on the Queensland Poetry Festival website.
I seek responses on the following:
Thank you!
If you’re looking for an online text workshop open to international participants in winter 2012, I’ll be facilitating this from January to April 2012.
The Text Workshop is designed for people in-progress on project or manuscript development and will be tailored to respond to concerns and interests of participants. We will spend time entering the worlds of each project that participants are constructing. We will consider how to shape a project, appropriate one’s own material, rework texts, and develop performance. Additional topics we will cover include project descriptions, publishing and materials, and why create a manuscript/project/text.
LANGUAGE: Workshop discussions will occur in English. If you’re working with other or multiple languages in your project, you’re welcome to join (with the caveat that feedback may not deal directly with the language of your project if unfamiliar to participants, but instead more with the conceptual framework, performance, structure/format, or sound of your project).
PROJECT FORMAT: The workshop is open to projects being developed in conventional textual forms (chapbook, book, etc.) as well as other performance, visual, sonic, inter- or multidisciplinary forms.
WHEN: The workshop sessions will occur every other Sunday from January to April. Workshop dates are: January 15, January 29, February 12, February 26, March 11, March 25, and April 8. Workshop sessions will be two hours in length. Since we’ll have people joining from different areas in the world, I propose this schedule:
San Francisco: 10am to noon
Calgary: 11am to 1pm
Toronto: 1pm to 3pm
Reykjavík: 6pm to 8pm
Paris: 7pm to 9pm
Workshop participants will also have the option to meet for a one-on-one consultation with me at some point during these months.
WHO: The workshops will be very limited in number of participants. All folks who register need to commit to the full workshop period.
WHERE: The workshops will take place in real-time audio/video conversation using Google+’s “hangout” widget, which allows up to ten people to chat using voice and video (for those with video capability). Participants in the workshops will need to use a computer that has dedicated internet access as well as audio capability; video is preferred but is not necessary for participation. We may also use Google Docs for exercises that require real-time collaboration or editing. We will also use DropBox to share in-progress work, documents, audio files, videos, images, or other material we share with the class. All workshop material will be kept confidential, though we may record (with permission of participants) some of the workshops for archival purposes.
COST: CDN$250. If you would like to propose some kind of alternative (trade, exchange, etc.), pitch it to me.
REGISTRATION: To register, please send me a reply letting me know you’d like to participate.
TECH ASSISTANCE: If you need any assistance setting up your Google+ account or using Google Docs, DropBox, PayPal, or e-mail money transfers, please send me a note.
QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK: I invite any and all questions or feedback you have about the process at any point. The more I hear from you, the better we will be able to adapt these workshops to suit your interests, needs, urges, dreams.
No slumber for volcanologists
