Thursday, September 24, 2009
Barney Patterson - Assignment #1
Last weeks introduction to sound poetry was a real ear opener. Last year I learned about Nick Cage and I think it helped open me up to this kind of wild, tameless expression. The sound poets we listened to, such as Hugo Ball, showed me how much power rests in the voice alone. The kind of range of contrast in vowels and consonants that is possible in the voice blows me away. The voice is such an interesting platform for abstraction.
What really throws me off , and what also attracts me to this kind of abstraction of the voice, is how I already have such concrete predisposition to the way i think of speech. English has provided me with a rational structure of how to perceive sounds. However, it has simultaneously blinded/deafened (haha) me to the possibilities of sound making. Hugo Ball has an ability to see structure in sound, outside of the confines of language. For me, English has shaped of I make sound. Hugo Ball on the other hand, is able to navigate through sound in a way free of conventional grammar, and logic, yet so meticulously articulate that which he is saying. Although it sounds like a language I don't understand, I am still swept up by the emotion and rhythms in a way that engages me and interests me. The strange logic behind the construction of these sounds provokes me to follow the sounds, turn them around in my head, and some how make sense of what i am hearing. It is just as beautiful as studying the formal contrasts in an abstract painting.
More questions than emotion..
Having been exposed to the expression of sound poetry for the first time during class evoked more questions for me than emotions. Because it was something new to me, it was interesting to learn there existed a form of expression that seemingly blends the use of vocal patterns and sounds in the aim to do what traditional poetry did - that is poetry that involved language. Admittedly, there isn't much I know about poetry to begin with, but the tangent of sound poetry abandoning all sense of established language, at least from the material displayed below, was something that led me to many questions. Things like what the thought process behind this exploration of poetic sound was, or what is the specific meaning or intent that is carried in the string of phrases and vocals. Perhaps they are not all that different from my perception of what language poetry is or does? Maybe I will find more answers to more exposure, to learn more about what at the surface appears to be gibberish with rhythm.
The use of visual poetry was also something new to me, but seemed to be something I was more drawn to. Visual poetry such as Stéphane Mallarmé's "One Toss of the Dice Will Never Abandon Chance" seem to take advantage of word placement on the surface, incorporating a sense of artificial timing and rhythm completely dependent at how the eye will read, an interesting factor to consider in this type of poetry.
The use of visual poetry was also something new to me, but seemed to be something I was more drawn to. Visual poetry such as Stéphane Mallarmé's "One Toss of the Dice Will Never Abandon Chance" seem to take advantage of word placement on the surface, incorporating a sense of artificial timing and rhythm completely dependent at how the eye will read, an interesting factor to consider in this type of poetry.
Week 1 Response
The sound poets we listened to in class were amazing and thought provoking. I had heard some of the original futurists perform their sound poetry, but to hear a modern re-contextualized version of a classic/s was great. I think the many versions of the same poem is remarkable- it shows that this material is not stuck in any form and is open to many interpretations. It was like a trance listening to some of these poets speak this language- that kind of performance requires a strong technical and emotional connection. Those pieces are full of so much passion and drive (although they seem to be nonsense) that the real challenge in them is adding intent and meaning. To speak, or produce sound is such an immediate human action. These sound poetry pieces sound immediate and important, amidst their confusion and chaotic sounds. Mixing sound and word and image calls for a hybrid of these different forms to co-exist- this is exciting to me. I am beginning to think about how my own work can involve a mixed media like sound, image, word.
Poetry?
Miriam Webster dictionary definition:
1 a : metrical writing : verse b : the productions of a poet : poems 2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm 3 a : something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression b : poetic quality or aspect
Poetry. It is such a vast form of expression that appears to be ever developing, ever expanding. What then differs poetry from other writing? Or even from other art forms?
If we went with the first and second definition of poetry provided above, then pretty much anything that pertains to some measurement of time and evokes some kind of feeling or meaning. Would this then, not be considered poetry? Or this? Or this?
It is amazing how far you can stretch the boundaries of language, and just how much you can play with it. Compare Ball’s sound poetry with Young-hae Chang heavy industries ‘digital literature’ and Ligeti’s music. Just as Hugo Ball’s lack of comprehensible text brings attention to other factors such as tone, and overall concept, Ligeti’s poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes which lacks tonality, shifts the focus on to the relationship between the different tempos. Consider Young-Hae Chang’s work ‘Where’d all the smart guys go? was one of my favourites from the exhibition at LACMA. The combination of dissonant music and the emptiness of the black and white text juxtaposed with the robotic voice created a feeling of irony that complimented the text perfectly. There is something incredibly hilarious in a robotic voice feigning confusion and asking thought provoking questions.
All of these works are created in relation to time, and all trigger some kind of response, whether positive or negative, emotional or even physical. Every single one of them is poetry.
1 a : metrical writing : verse b : the productions of a poet : poems 2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm 3 a : something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression b : poetic quality or aspect
Poetry. It is such a vast form of expression that appears to be ever developing, ever expanding. What then differs poetry from other writing? Or even from other art forms?
If we went with the first and second definition of poetry provided above, then pretty much anything that pertains to some measurement of time and evokes some kind of feeling or meaning. Would this then, not be considered poetry? Or this? Or this?
It is amazing how far you can stretch the boundaries of language, and just how much you can play with it. Compare Ball’s sound poetry with Young-hae Chang heavy industries ‘digital literature’ and Ligeti’s music. Just as Hugo Ball’s lack of comprehensible text brings attention to other factors such as tone, and overall concept, Ligeti’s poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes which lacks tonality, shifts the focus on to the relationship between the different tempos. Consider Young-Hae Chang’s work ‘Where’d all the smart guys go? was one of my favourites from the exhibition at LACMA. The combination of dissonant music and the emptiness of the black and white text juxtaposed with the robotic voice created a feeling of irony that complimented the text perfectly. There is something incredibly hilarious in a robotic voice feigning confusion and asking thought provoking questions.
All of these works are created in relation to time, and all trigger some kind of response, whether positive or negative, emotional or even physical. Every single one of them is poetry.
I find it very interesting to see poetry altered for a more visual and auditory form, possibly content. There are many different forms of visual poetry that even the content of the pieces appear entirely different. Is there a greater connection to all of the pieces besides being labeled within the genre of visual poetry, communication, and use of words/letters?
Most of the contemporary sound poetry I find here are gibberish with sound effects. Although Dada use gibberish to prevent anyone using their pieces as war propaganda but do contemporary sound poets use the same content today? Would any care if sound poetry be considered music or part of it? Some of them sound musical or lyrical, like the Schwitters piece.
On a different topic, I was afraid that (modern) visual and sound poetry would be more eurocentric. It is a good thing that ubuweb refer to non-western types of poetry which I find myself particularly drawn to. Their forms with the modern version are similar to make the link at least.
Most of the contemporary sound poetry I find here are gibberish with sound effects. Although Dada use gibberish to prevent anyone using their pieces as war propaganda but do contemporary sound poets use the same content today? Would any care if sound poetry be considered music or part of it? Some of them sound musical or lyrical, like the Schwitters piece.
On a different topic, I was afraid that (modern) visual and sound poetry would be more eurocentric. It is a good thing that ubuweb refer to non-western types of poetry which I find myself particularly drawn to. Their forms with the modern version are similar to make the link at least.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Gabriella Rhodeen, Post 1
I am still having trouble seeing the emotional or political drive behind this work. The ability and agility in sound poetry is incredible. The image poetry is like graphic design--focused on aesthetic balance and contextual importance or focus. I wonder what the image poetry does to the actual content of the poem, the text. Does that matter? Is that the point? Does the meaning, as in sound poetry, sort of...leave the picture? The sound poetry effects me in a very physical way, I find myself leaning closer, closing my eyes, smiling. My body becomes entirely engaged in the experience because my mind isn't really able to grab on to anything. Because it's such a new medium to me I struggle to connect to the work in a way that stays with me. The visual poetry is attractive and intriguing and the sound poetry is impressive--I wonder, what is their capacity for change, growth and social impact? In my own work these are the questions I focus on most passionately and often I find myself asking those questions about other mediums or metiers. I'm interested to explore it and also open to the idea that this medium may not be centered in the artistic values I've come to attach myself to.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Week 1
For Class Week 1 - 09 24 09 - Post a Blog Response by 2pm the day of class to the materials shown below - many of which we looked at and talked about in class...
Visual Poetry:
Early Visual Poetry - http://www.ubu.com/historical/early/index.html
Stephane Mallarme - http://www.ubu.com/historical/mallarme/index.html
Guillaume Apollinaire - http://www.ubu.com/historical/app/index.html
sound - http://www.ubu.com/sound/app.html
Sound Poetry:
Sound Poetry 1914-19 - http://www.ubu.com/historical/sound/index.html
Hugo Ball - http://www.ubu.com/sound/ball.html
Christian Bok - http://www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html
particularly his version of Seepferdchen und Flugfishce (Seahorses and Flyingfish) and the Ursonate
Jaap Blonk – http://www.ubu.com/sound/blonk_flux.html
particularly his version of Seepferdchen und Flugfishce (Seahorses and Flyingfish)
Die Sonata in Urlauten - Ursonate:
Kurt Schwitters - http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html
Ursonate - http://www.ubu.com/sound/ursonate.html
particularly the versions by Jaap Blonk, Christian Bok and Adachi Tomomi
of further interest...
Blonk Organ - http://www.jaapblonk.com/Organ/blonkorgan.html
Maja Ratkje - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpPU-xQXfAg
shhhhhhhh op #1
Tomomi Adachi - http://www.ubu.com/sound/tomomi.html
Yumiko
Namahage-Mint
Minna no Uta (Song for Everyone)
Brian Kim Stefans - The Dreamlife of Letters
Scriptor - http://www.arras.net/?p=238#more-238
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries - Main Page
The Struggle Continues - click here
and their work in the show Your Bright Future currently up at LACMA
Visual Poetry:
Early Visual Poetry - http://www.ubu.com/historical/early/index.html
Stephane Mallarme - http://www.ubu.com/historical/mallarme/index.html
Guillaume Apollinaire - http://www.ubu.com/historical/app/index.html
sound - http://www.ubu.com/sound/app.html
Sound Poetry:
Sound Poetry 1914-19 - http://www.ubu.com/historical/sound/index.html
Hugo Ball - http://www.ubu.com/sound/ball.html
Christian Bok - http://www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html
particularly his version of Seepferdchen und Flugfishce (Seahorses and Flyingfish) and the Ursonate
Jaap Blonk – http://www.ubu.com/sound/blonk_flux.html
particularly his version of Seepferdchen und Flugfishce (Seahorses and Flyingfish)
Die Sonata in Urlauten - Ursonate:
Kurt Schwitters - http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html
Ursonate - http://www.ubu.com/sound/ursonate.html
particularly the versions by Jaap Blonk, Christian Bok and Adachi Tomomi
of further interest...
Blonk Organ - http://www.jaapblonk.com/Organ/blonkorgan.html
Maja Ratkje - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpPU-xQXfAg
shhhhhhhh op #1
Tomomi Adachi - http://www.ubu.com/sound/tomomi.html
Yumiko
Namahage-Mint
Minna no Uta (Song for Everyone)
Brian Kim Stefans - The Dreamlife of Letters
Scriptor - http://www.arras.net/?p=238#more-238
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries - Main Page
The Struggle Continues - click here
and their work in the show Your Bright Future currently up at LACMA
Syllabus
CS 328 : The Word as Sound & Image
Fall '09 Thurs 4 – 6 pm A217
Instructor:
Mathew Timmons
e: mtimmons at calarts dot edu
ph: 661 253 7716
office hours by appointment
Description:
Artists have long incorporated text into visual work and typogrpahers have taken text beyond simple inscription, while the spoken word has been used by artists like Burroughs and Gysin and composers such as Robert Ashley in ways that go far beyond the page. This class will look at modern uses of text in sound and image, especially in electronic mediums through sound collage and visually in flash and other programmed mediums. Dynamic vispo artists such as Brian Kim Stephans and Jim Andrews and organizations such as the Electronic Literature Organization have pushed beyond the hypertext and net art of the dot.com nineties, into a space less obviously 'cutting edge' and into a time when artists and writers have to seriously consider why something should be on the page and why not andor why on a screen and why not. This class will look into the tropes and techniques of the electronic medium, reflecting on earlier uses of the word as sound and image to discuss how much of the new is in new media and how much of the old. Using more general theoretical/practical texts such as N. Katherine Hayles and Anne Burdick's Writing Machines and Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type we will situate ourselves and the work we're looking at/listening to in a broader discussion of media and its effects and influences. We will look at anthologies such as the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume One for examples of work to be critiqued/discussed and as models for our own work. Students will investigate the possibilities that flash software and sound editing tools can offer them at even a basic level, and although they aren't expected to be programmers, they will be expected to take risks and see how far they can push a beginner or intermediate level of technical knowledge.
Goals:
To investigate the sound of words as well as their representation in imagery and how representation affects their reception as well as how to bend reception of the word through sound or image, typographically or sonically. We will work in a very practical lo-fi manner in a hi-fi, hi-tech realm and explore how much can be done with an introductory knowledge and general familiarity with available tools.
Attendance:
As this is a workshop/discussion class, attendance is essential and will be accounted for at each class meeting. Each student is allowed three absences. A fourth absence will result in a grade of NX.
Coursework:
Weekly reading/viewing and Artist's Responses handed in and posted to the class blog
(http://wordsoundimage.blogspot.com)
Two Workshop Sessions/Presentations in class
Mid term portfolio project
Final portfolio project
Grading:
10% Class Participation
20% Artist's Responses
20% Workshop/Presentation
25% Midterm Portfolio
25% Final Portfolio
Blog Responses:
Responses to the readings, when assigned, are due by noon on the day of class. Roughly 10 of these will be assigned—you must complete at least 6 to receive any credit. These should be short responses to the work we review each week that focus on a particular aspect of interest to you. Post your response to the class blog (http://wordsoundimage.blogspot.com) and print out a copy to hand in during class. You are encouraged to use the list of Exercises handed out in class as writing guides for these assignments. Also, you are welcome to do 'artists' responses—by posting media work to the class blog, or if you are doing something that isn’t easily presentable in blog format, arrange something with me beforehand and we will figure out a way for you to present work during class.
Workshop Presentations
Each Student will present their work twice during class for comments from class. These presentations should be at most 20 minutes and include 5 minutes for questions and comments from the class. For each presentation you should bring examples of one or two things you have found relevant to your work—you can pull from materials we have gone over in class or from work you have found on your own (if these things can be found on the web please post links to the class blog). All students will be expected to take notes during these presentations and to hand their notes to each presenter at the end of class.
Midterm Portfolio - Due November 5
The Midterm Portfolio is due in class at the Midterm. It is important to turn your portfolio in on time - each week it is late you drop a grade level for the assignment. Turn in a selection of materials you have been working on in the class up to this point in the semester. It is expected that you turn in more than just what you presented during the first round of workshops, but it is fine to turn in incomplete projects you are working on, and you should certainly turn in the original materials you presented in Workshop as well as any changes you made based on feedback from classmates. You are also expected to turn in a 750 word description/discussion of the materials in your portfolio that references at least two other artists we have looked at in class or that you have researched on your own.
Final Portfolio - Due December 17
The Final Portfolio is due in class on the last day of class. There will be no extensions of the deadline. Turn in any projects you have been working on during the semester for this class. You should certainly turn in the original materials you presented in Workshop Sessions as well as any changes you made based on feedback from classmates. Turn in one other project separate from the pieces you presented in Workshop Sessions. You are also expected to turn in a 750 word description/discussion of the materials in your portfolio that references at least two other artists we have looked at in class or that you have researched on your own.
Fall '09 Thurs 4 – 6 pm A217
Instructor:
Mathew Timmons
e: mtimmons at calarts dot edu
ph: 661 253 7716
office hours by appointment
Description:
Artists have long incorporated text into visual work and typogrpahers have taken text beyond simple inscription, while the spoken word has been used by artists like Burroughs and Gysin and composers such as Robert Ashley in ways that go far beyond the page. This class will look at modern uses of text in sound and image, especially in electronic mediums through sound collage and visually in flash and other programmed mediums. Dynamic vispo artists such as Brian Kim Stephans and Jim Andrews and organizations such as the Electronic Literature Organization have pushed beyond the hypertext and net art of the dot.com nineties, into a space less obviously 'cutting edge' and into a time when artists and writers have to seriously consider why something should be on the page and why not andor why on a screen and why not. This class will look into the tropes and techniques of the electronic medium, reflecting on earlier uses of the word as sound and image to discuss how much of the new is in new media and how much of the old. Using more general theoretical/practical texts such as N. Katherine Hayles and Anne Burdick's Writing Machines and Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type we will situate ourselves and the work we're looking at/listening to in a broader discussion of media and its effects and influences. We will look at anthologies such as the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume One for examples of work to be critiqued/discussed and as models for our own work. Students will investigate the possibilities that flash software and sound editing tools can offer them at even a basic level, and although they aren't expected to be programmers, they will be expected to take risks and see how far they can push a beginner or intermediate level of technical knowledge.
Goals:
To investigate the sound of words as well as their representation in imagery and how representation affects their reception as well as how to bend reception of the word through sound or image, typographically or sonically. We will work in a very practical lo-fi manner in a hi-fi, hi-tech realm and explore how much can be done with an introductory knowledge and general familiarity with available tools.
Attendance:
As this is a workshop/discussion class, attendance is essential and will be accounted for at each class meeting. Each student is allowed three absences. A fourth absence will result in a grade of NX.
Coursework:
Weekly reading/viewing and Artist's Responses handed in and posted to the class blog
(http://wordsoundimage.blogspot.com)
Two Workshop Sessions/Presentations in class
Mid term portfolio project
Final portfolio project
Grading:
10% Class Participation
20% Artist's Responses
20% Workshop/Presentation
25% Midterm Portfolio
25% Final Portfolio
Blog Responses:
Responses to the readings, when assigned, are due by noon on the day of class. Roughly 10 of these will be assigned—you must complete at least 6 to receive any credit. These should be short responses to the work we review each week that focus on a particular aspect of interest to you. Post your response to the class blog (http://wordsoundimage.blogspot.com) and print out a copy to hand in during class. You are encouraged to use the list of Exercises handed out in class as writing guides for these assignments. Also, you are welcome to do 'artists' responses—by posting media work to the class blog, or if you are doing something that isn’t easily presentable in blog format, arrange something with me beforehand and we will figure out a way for you to present work during class.
Workshop Presentations
Each Student will present their work twice during class for comments from class. These presentations should be at most 20 minutes and include 5 minutes for questions and comments from the class. For each presentation you should bring examples of one or two things you have found relevant to your work—you can pull from materials we have gone over in class or from work you have found on your own (if these things can be found on the web please post links to the class blog). All students will be expected to take notes during these presentations and to hand their notes to each presenter at the end of class.
Midterm Portfolio - Due November 5
The Midterm Portfolio is due in class at the Midterm. It is important to turn your portfolio in on time - each week it is late you drop a grade level for the assignment. Turn in a selection of materials you have been working on in the class up to this point in the semester. It is expected that you turn in more than just what you presented during the first round of workshops, but it is fine to turn in incomplete projects you are working on, and you should certainly turn in the original materials you presented in Workshop as well as any changes you made based on feedback from classmates. You are also expected to turn in a 750 word description/discussion of the materials in your portfolio that references at least two other artists we have looked at in class or that you have researched on your own.
Final Portfolio - Due December 17
The Final Portfolio is due in class on the last day of class. There will be no extensions of the deadline. Turn in any projects you have been working on during the semester for this class. You should certainly turn in the original materials you presented in Workshop Sessions as well as any changes you made based on feedback from classmates. Turn in one other project separate from the pieces you presented in Workshop Sessions. You are also expected to turn in a 750 word description/discussion of the materials in your portfolio that references at least two other artists we have looked at in class or that you have researched on your own.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Workshop Schedule
CS 328 : The Word as Sound & Image - Workshop Schedule
First Half
Week 1 - 09 24 09
1. Kat Grode
2. Tom Curitore
Week 2 - 10 01 09
1. Adeline Newmann
2. Marcus Pontello
3. Aaron Carretti
Week 3 - 10 08 09
1. Gabriella Rhodeen
2. Jake Patterson
3. Barney Patterson
Week 4 - 10 15 09
1. Zac Ezrin
2. Eugene Moon
3. Carlos Romero
Week 5 - 10 22 09
1. Janell Hughes
2. Joseph Nivens
3. Zac Ezrin
4. Adeline Newmann
5. Shawn Allen
Week 6 - 10 29 09
1. Ingrid Lee
2. Casandra Scarlett
3. Nathan Phelps
4. Carlos Romero
5. Daniel Corrigan
Second Half
Week 7 - 11 05 09 - Midterm Portfolio Due
1. Jake Patterson
2. Daniel Corrigan
3. Eugene Moon
Week 8 - 11 12 09
1. Kat Grode
2. Adeline Newmann
3. Tom Curitore
Week 9 - 11 19 09
1. Joseph Nivens
2. Ingrid Lee
3. Casandra Scarlett
Week 10 - 12 03 09
1. Gabriella Rhodeen
2. Zac Ezrin
3. Aaron Carretti
Week 11 - 12 10 09
1. Marcus Pontello
2. Katherine Leipper
3. Barney Patterson
Week 12 - 12 17 09 - Final Portfolio Due
1. Nathan Phelps
2. Janell Hughes
3. Carlos Romero
First Half
Week 1 - 09 24 09
1. Kat Grode
2. Tom Curitore
Week 2 - 10 01 09
1. Adeline Newmann
2. Marcus Pontello
3. Aaron Carretti
Week 3 - 10 08 09
1. Gabriella Rhodeen
2. Jake Patterson
3. Barney Patterson
Week 4 - 10 15 09
1. Zac Ezrin
2. Eugene Moon
3. Carlos Romero
Week 5 - 10 22 09
1. Janell Hughes
2. Joseph Nivens
3. Zac Ezrin
4. Adeline Newmann
5. Shawn Allen
Week 6 - 10 29 09
1. Ingrid Lee
2. Casandra Scarlett
3. Nathan Phelps
4. Carlos Romero
5. Daniel Corrigan
Second Half
Week 7 - 11 05 09 - Midterm Portfolio Due
1. Jake Patterson
2. Daniel Corrigan
3. Eugene Moon
Week 8 - 11 12 09
1. Kat Grode
2. Adeline Newmann
3. Tom Curitore
Week 9 - 11 19 09
1. Joseph Nivens
2. Ingrid Lee
3. Casandra Scarlett
Week 10 - 12 03 09
1. Gabriella Rhodeen
2. Zac Ezrin
3. Aaron Carretti
Week 11 - 12 10 09
1. Marcus Pontello
2. Katherine Leipper
3. Barney Patterson
Week 12 - 12 17 09 - Final Portfolio Due
1. Nathan Phelps
2. Janell Hughes
3. Carlos Romero
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Writing Exercises
Most of these are from Bernadette Mayer...
Writing Exercises
1. Pick a story from the newspaper (or a magazine, whatever-usually something from a business or science text is good; the Tuesday Science Times section of The NY Times is particularly useful). Choose 20 words from the story that you have never used in a poem before: try to pick the most interesting words you can, the ones that seem to leap out at you for some reason. Write those words down on a separate sheet of paper (so you’re not looking at the original text anymore—if you want you can burn the original text, using proper fire safety procedures). Write a poem that is 20 lines long. Each line must use one of the words you wrote down from the article, and they must be used in the order in which they appeared in the article.
2. Select a particular time of day when you know you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes: early morning, lunch time, before going to sleep, etc. At that time each day, in a notebook begin writing down whatever happens to be going through your mind. Once you begin writing, don’t stop to think, fix your language, etc. This isn’t a poem, just write about ten lines or more, then put the notebook away. Do this for five days. It’s important not to do this on a computer, but handwritten in a notebook and you should keep the notebook with you, because you probably will find after the first day or so that you feel like doing this more than once a day, when you see something interesting or just have time to kill. On a day when you have a chunk of time to work on a poem, take the notebook and write a poem using only the lines (or parts of them) that you’ve written during these sessions.
3. Think of 50 titles, all of them for poems or short pieces of writing that you have no intention of writing. It’s a good idea to carry a notebook everywhere with you when you do this. Give the list to someone else in the class. Choose a title from the list you’ve received and write a poem.
4. Homolinguistic translation: Take a poem (someone else’s than your own) and translate it “English to English” by substituting word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line, or “free” translation as response to each phrase or sentence.
5. Homophonic translation: Take a text or poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate the sound of the poem into English (Ex: French ‘blanc’ to blank or ‘toute’ to toot).
6. Lexical translation: Take a poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate it word for word with the help of a bilingual dictionary.
7. Acrostic Chance. Pick a book at random and use the title as an acrostic key phrase. For each letter of the key phrase go to the page number in the book that corresponds (a=1, z=26) and copy as the first line of a poem form the first word that begins with that letter to the end of the line or sentence. Continue through all key letters, leaving stanza breaks to mark each new key word. Variations include using author’s name as code for reading through her or his work, using your own or a friend’s name, devise alternative acrostic procedures.
8. Tzara’s hat. Everyone in a group writes down a word (phrase or line) and puts it in a hat. The text is composed according to the order it is randomly pulled from the hat. (On your own, pick words or lines from books, newspapers, magazines, your own work.)
9. Burrough’s Fold-in: Take two different pages from a newspaper or magazine, article or book, and cut the pages in half or thirds vertically. Paste the mismatched pages together.
10. Write a text with words cut somewhere in the middle and recombined with the beginning parts following the ending parts.
11. General cut-ups: Write a text composed entirely of phrases lifted from other sources. Use one source for a poem or other text and then many; try different types of sources: literary, historical, magazines, advertisements, manuals, dictionaries, instructions, travelogues, etc.
12. Cento: write a collage made up of full-lines of selected source poems, or texts.
13. Substitution (1): “Mad libs”. Take a poem (or other source text) and put blanks in place of three or four words in each line, noting the part of speech under the blank. Fill in the blanks being sure not to recall the original context.
14. Substitution (2): “7 up or down”. Take a poem or other, possibly well-known, text and substitute another word for every noun, adjective, adverb, and verb; determine the substitute word by looking up the index work in a dictionary and going 7 up or down, or one more, until you get a syntactically suitable replacement.
15. Substitution (3): “Find and replace”. Systematically replace one word in a source text with another word or string of words. Perform this operation serially with the same source text, increasing the number of words in the replace string.
16. Serial sentences: Select one sentence from a variety of different books or other sources. Add sentences of your own composition. Combine into one paragraph, reordering to produce the most interesting results.
17. Alphabet poems: make up a poem of 26 words so that each word begins with the next letter of the alphabet. Write another alphabet poem but scramble the letter order.
18. Alliteration (assonance): Write a poem in which all the words in each line begin with the same letter.
19. Doubling: Starting with one sentence, write a series of paragraphs each doubling the number of sentences in the previous paragraph and including all the words used previously.
20. Collaboration: Write a piece with one or more other people: alternating lines (chaining or renga), writing simultaneously and collaging, rewriting, editing, supplementing the previous version. This can be done in person or otherwise.
21. Group sonnet: 14 people each write one ten-word line (or alternate-Write a text trying to transcribe as accurately as you can your thoughts while you are writing. Don’t edit anything out. Write as fast as you can without planning what you are going to say)
22. Dream work: Write down your dreams as the first thing you do every morning for 30 days. Apply translation and aleatoric processes to this material. Double the length of the dream. Weave them together into one poem, adding or changing or reordering the material. Negate or reverse all statements (I went down the hill to I went up the hill, I didn’t to I did). Borrow a friend’s dreams and apply these techniques to them.
23. Write a text made up entirely of neologism or nonsense words or fragments of words.
24. Write a text with each line filling in the blanks of “I used to be ---, but now I am ---.” (I used to write poems, but now I just do experiments; I used to make sense, but now I just make poems.)
25. Write a text consisting entirely of things you’d like to say, but never would, to a parent, lover, sibling, child, teacher, roommate, best friend, mayor, president, corporate CEO, etc.
26. Write a text consisting entirely of overheard conversation.
27. Nonliterary forms: Write a text in the form of an index, a table of contents, a resume, an advertisement for an imaginary or real product, an instruction manual, a travel guide, a quiz or examination, etc.
28. Imitation: Write a text in the style of each of a dozen poets or writers who you like and dislike: try to make it as close to a forgery of an “unknown” work of the author as possible.
29. Write a text without mentioning any objects.
30. Backwards: Reverse or alter the line sequence of a poem of your own or someone else’s. Reverse the word order. Rather than reverse, scramble.
31. Write an autobiographical poem without using any pronouns.
32. Attention: Write down everything you hear for one hour.
33. Brainerd’s Memory: Write a text all of whose lines start “I remember …”
34. “Pits”: Write the worst possible poem you can imagine.
35. Counting: Write poems that conform to various numeric patterns for number of words in a line or sentence, number of lines in a stanza or paragraph, number of stanzas or paragraphs in a work. Alternately, count letters or syllables. Use complex numeric series or simpler fixed-number patterns.
36. Write a text just when you are on the verge of falling asleep. Write a line a day as you are falling asleep or waking up.
37. List poem: Write a text consisting of favorite words or phrases collected over a period of time; pick your favorite words from a particular book.
38. List poem 2: Write a text consisting entirely of a list of “things”, either homogenous or heterogeneous (common lists include shopping lists, things to do, lists of flowers or rocks, lists of colors, inventory lists, lists of events, lists of names, …).
39. Chronology: make up a list of dates with associated events, real or imagined.
40. Transcription: Tape a phone or live conversation between yourself and a friend. Make a poem composed entirely of transcribed parts.
41. Canceling: Write a series of lines or rhymes such that every other one cancels the one before (“I come before you / to stand behind you”).
42. Erasure: Take a poem of your own or someone else’s and cross out most of the words on each poem, retype what remains as your poem.
43. Write a series of ten poems going from one to ten words in each poem. Reorder.
44. Write a text composed entirely of questions.
45. Write a text made up entirely of directions.
46. Write a text consisting only of opening lines (improvise your own lines, then use source texts).
47. Write poems consisting of one-word lines; of two-word lines; of three-word lines.
48. Synchronicity: Write a text in which all the events occur simultaneously.
49. Diachronicity: Write a text in which all the events occur in different places and at different times.
50. Visual poetry: write poems with strong visual or “concrete” elements-including combination of lexical and nonlexical (pictorial) elements. Play with alphabets and typography, placement of words on the page, etc.
51. Write a series of poems or stanzas while listening to music; change type of music for each stanza or poem.
52. Elimination: cut out the second half of sentences.
53. Excuses list poem: Write a text made up entirely of excuses.
54. Sprung diary: write a diary tracking and intercutting multiple levels of thoughts, experiences, anticipations, expectations, from minute to major.
55. Make up more writing experiments
Combine any two of these experiments. Rewrite and recombine, collage, splice together the material generated from these experiments into one long ongoing text.
Writing Exercises
1. Pick a story from the newspaper (or a magazine, whatever-usually something from a business or science text is good; the Tuesday Science Times section of The NY Times is particularly useful). Choose 20 words from the story that you have never used in a poem before: try to pick the most interesting words you can, the ones that seem to leap out at you for some reason. Write those words down on a separate sheet of paper (so you’re not looking at the original text anymore—if you want you can burn the original text, using proper fire safety procedures). Write a poem that is 20 lines long. Each line must use one of the words you wrote down from the article, and they must be used in the order in which they appeared in the article.
2. Select a particular time of day when you know you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes: early morning, lunch time, before going to sleep, etc. At that time each day, in a notebook begin writing down whatever happens to be going through your mind. Once you begin writing, don’t stop to think, fix your language, etc. This isn’t a poem, just write about ten lines or more, then put the notebook away. Do this for five days. It’s important not to do this on a computer, but handwritten in a notebook and you should keep the notebook with you, because you probably will find after the first day or so that you feel like doing this more than once a day, when you see something interesting or just have time to kill. On a day when you have a chunk of time to work on a poem, take the notebook and write a poem using only the lines (or parts of them) that you’ve written during these sessions.
3. Think of 50 titles, all of them for poems or short pieces of writing that you have no intention of writing. It’s a good idea to carry a notebook everywhere with you when you do this. Give the list to someone else in the class. Choose a title from the list you’ve received and write a poem.
4. Homolinguistic translation: Take a poem (someone else’s than your own) and translate it “English to English” by substituting word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line, or “free” translation as response to each phrase or sentence.
5. Homophonic translation: Take a text or poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate the sound of the poem into English (Ex: French ‘blanc’ to blank or ‘toute’ to toot).
6. Lexical translation: Take a poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate it word for word with the help of a bilingual dictionary.
7. Acrostic Chance. Pick a book at random and use the title as an acrostic key phrase. For each letter of the key phrase go to the page number in the book that corresponds (a=1, z=26) and copy as the first line of a poem form the first word that begins with that letter to the end of the line or sentence. Continue through all key letters, leaving stanza breaks to mark each new key word. Variations include using author’s name as code for reading through her or his work, using your own or a friend’s name, devise alternative acrostic procedures.
8. Tzara’s hat. Everyone in a group writes down a word (phrase or line) and puts it in a hat. The text is composed according to the order it is randomly pulled from the hat. (On your own, pick words or lines from books, newspapers, magazines, your own work.)
9. Burrough’s Fold-in: Take two different pages from a newspaper or magazine, article or book, and cut the pages in half or thirds vertically. Paste the mismatched pages together.
10. Write a text with words cut somewhere in the middle and recombined with the beginning parts following the ending parts.
11. General cut-ups: Write a text composed entirely of phrases lifted from other sources. Use one source for a poem or other text and then many; try different types of sources: literary, historical, magazines, advertisements, manuals, dictionaries, instructions, travelogues, etc.
12. Cento: write a collage made up of full-lines of selected source poems, or texts.
13. Substitution (1): “Mad libs”. Take a poem (or other source text) and put blanks in place of three or four words in each line, noting the part of speech under the blank. Fill in the blanks being sure not to recall the original context.
14. Substitution (2): “7 up or down”. Take a poem or other, possibly well-known, text and substitute another word for every noun, adjective, adverb, and verb; determine the substitute word by looking up the index work in a dictionary and going 7 up or down, or one more, until you get a syntactically suitable replacement.
15. Substitution (3): “Find and replace”. Systematically replace one word in a source text with another word or string of words. Perform this operation serially with the same source text, increasing the number of words in the replace string.
16. Serial sentences: Select one sentence from a variety of different books or other sources. Add sentences of your own composition. Combine into one paragraph, reordering to produce the most interesting results.
17. Alphabet poems: make up a poem of 26 words so that each word begins with the next letter of the alphabet. Write another alphabet poem but scramble the letter order.
18. Alliteration (assonance): Write a poem in which all the words in each line begin with the same letter.
19. Doubling: Starting with one sentence, write a series of paragraphs each doubling the number of sentences in the previous paragraph and including all the words used previously.
20. Collaboration: Write a piece with one or more other people: alternating lines (chaining or renga), writing simultaneously and collaging, rewriting, editing, supplementing the previous version. This can be done in person or otherwise.
21. Group sonnet: 14 people each write one ten-word line (or alternate-Write a text trying to transcribe as accurately as you can your thoughts while you are writing. Don’t edit anything out. Write as fast as you can without planning what you are going to say)
22. Dream work: Write down your dreams as the first thing you do every morning for 30 days. Apply translation and aleatoric processes to this material. Double the length of the dream. Weave them together into one poem, adding or changing or reordering the material. Negate or reverse all statements (I went down the hill to I went up the hill, I didn’t to I did). Borrow a friend’s dreams and apply these techniques to them.
23. Write a text made up entirely of neologism or nonsense words or fragments of words.
24. Write a text with each line filling in the blanks of “I used to be ---, but now I am ---.” (I used to write poems, but now I just do experiments; I used to make sense, but now I just make poems.)
25. Write a text consisting entirely of things you’d like to say, but never would, to a parent, lover, sibling, child, teacher, roommate, best friend, mayor, president, corporate CEO, etc.
26. Write a text consisting entirely of overheard conversation.
27. Nonliterary forms: Write a text in the form of an index, a table of contents, a resume, an advertisement for an imaginary or real product, an instruction manual, a travel guide, a quiz or examination, etc.
28. Imitation: Write a text in the style of each of a dozen poets or writers who you like and dislike: try to make it as close to a forgery of an “unknown” work of the author as possible.
29. Write a text without mentioning any objects.
30. Backwards: Reverse or alter the line sequence of a poem of your own or someone else’s. Reverse the word order. Rather than reverse, scramble.
31. Write an autobiographical poem without using any pronouns.
32. Attention: Write down everything you hear for one hour.
33. Brainerd’s Memory: Write a text all of whose lines start “I remember …”
34. “Pits”: Write the worst possible poem you can imagine.
35. Counting: Write poems that conform to various numeric patterns for number of words in a line or sentence, number of lines in a stanza or paragraph, number of stanzas or paragraphs in a work. Alternately, count letters or syllables. Use complex numeric series or simpler fixed-number patterns.
36. Write a text just when you are on the verge of falling asleep. Write a line a day as you are falling asleep or waking up.
37. List poem: Write a text consisting of favorite words or phrases collected over a period of time; pick your favorite words from a particular book.
38. List poem 2: Write a text consisting entirely of a list of “things”, either homogenous or heterogeneous (common lists include shopping lists, things to do, lists of flowers or rocks, lists of colors, inventory lists, lists of events, lists of names, …).
39. Chronology: make up a list of dates with associated events, real or imagined.
40. Transcription: Tape a phone or live conversation between yourself and a friend. Make a poem composed entirely of transcribed parts.
41. Canceling: Write a series of lines or rhymes such that every other one cancels the one before (“I come before you / to stand behind you”).
42. Erasure: Take a poem of your own or someone else’s and cross out most of the words on each poem, retype what remains as your poem.
43. Write a series of ten poems going from one to ten words in each poem. Reorder.
44. Write a text composed entirely of questions.
45. Write a text made up entirely of directions.
46. Write a text consisting only of opening lines (improvise your own lines, then use source texts).
47. Write poems consisting of one-word lines; of two-word lines; of three-word lines.
48. Synchronicity: Write a text in which all the events occur simultaneously.
49. Diachronicity: Write a text in which all the events occur in different places and at different times.
50. Visual poetry: write poems with strong visual or “concrete” elements-including combination of lexical and nonlexical (pictorial) elements. Play with alphabets and typography, placement of words on the page, etc.
51. Write a series of poems or stanzas while listening to music; change type of music for each stanza or poem.
52. Elimination: cut out the second half of sentences.
53. Excuses list poem: Write a text made up entirely of excuses.
54. Sprung diary: write a diary tracking and intercutting multiple levels of thoughts, experiences, anticipations, expectations, from minute to major.
55. Make up more writing experiments
Combine any two of these experiments. Rewrite and recombine, collage, splice together the material generated from these experiments into one long ongoing text.
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