Background Noise

Mairead Byrne's Bagdad piece stood out to me the most last week. It was a continuos trance of the turbulent times in the middle east as reported by our news sources. More specifically however, I related it to being almost like background noise. As if it was CNN being on in another room reporting on the latest bombing, attack or distress in Bagdad. From afar and every so often you would here these keywords of war, as Byrne's Piece seemed to echo, in a more concentrated form. Maybe it would be interesting to combing her exact words to sound bytes of the exact phrases as reported in the news.

The new meaning of Baghdad

Mairead Byrne poem on Baghdad was interesting and I found it relevant in todays situation. However, I feel her referencing Baghdad negatively almost seems like propaganda. Baghdad is a beautiful city and although I have never been there I have found the word to know have so many bad connotations. She plays off those to add drama to her poem yet does not really engage me as the listener. I was not able to relate.

Daniel Corrigan

Week 9

For Class Week 9 - 11 19 09 - Post a Blog Response by 2pm the day of class to the materials shown below - We're looking at two artists William S. Burroughs (near historical) and Caroline Bergvall (contemporary), continuing our seesaw comparison between contemporary work and historical contexts. The rest of the works cited here are short papers about concrete and material poetics - most refer directly to concrete or visual poetics - and touch lightly on sound poetry - though some address sound poetry more directly. These are all short papers and most by artists whose work we have looked at and talked about in earlier classes - be sure to read all of these and be ready to discuss them in class.

William S. Burroughs - Cut-up method of Brion Gysin
various cut up techniques on UbuWeb sound – esp. Breakthrough in the Grey Room - tracks 1-15
Film - The Cut Ups

Caroline Bergvall -
Via
Eclat

Max Bense
Concrete Poetry I
Concrete Poetry II

Eugene Gomringer
From Line to Constellation
Concrete Poetry
The Poem as Functional Object

Nogandres Group - Pilot Plan for Concrete Poetry

Paul de Vree - Manifesto

Öyvind Fahlström - Manifesto for Concrete Poetry

Roland Greene - The Concrete Historical

Derek Beaulieu - "an afterword after words: notes towards a 'concrete poetic'"

I enjoyed listening to Mairead Byrne speak her Baghdad poem. Each time she said "Baghdad" if felt like a break in the flow of the poem purposefully placed to remind the listener (or reader if that is how one comes across it) where they are, as it can be easy to shift attention in one's mind while listening to such a repetitive text. It helps to be shocked back every few seconds, especially with such a currently-loaded word.

It appears that most of these early sound poems are very similar to each other. It sounds very linear and almost structured while the words are either nonsense or comprehensible. It is almost more like a regular structured, rhythmic poetry in a different language. I would wonder how the audience first reacted to these new (in their contemporary) pieces. It sounds like a typical poem without the translation. They might be expecting a translation until it is just nonsense. Although I wonder if any might have somehow drew a connection with the nonsense to scat singing of jazz and (if any would know) pansori. The later sound poets listed, like Carlfriedrich and Cobbing have taken the audio form of poetry in a less structured way. It is almost musical, mechanical, or nature-like. It is less human in that sense that they are expanding sound beyond written words, or rather comprehensible words. I wonder when did that break from the typical structure occured? Dada Visuals, especially Marinetti's Manifesto pieces are rebellious to the academic styles, but the sounds are typical, if not including content. Would the content be like art for art's sake? Dada is, in a way, to save and rebel art and academics for sake of art. Does this idea continue beyond Dada as well?

Khlebnikov's Grasshopper sounds almost just like my Mongol Piece--the participation one.

Word as sound

Just as visual art is art created in space, audio art is created in time. This leaves purely audio-related art a limited number of things to utilize in expression: dynamics, pitch, tempo, rhythm, tone, timbre, texture, and articulation. What makes music or poetry interesting is the manner in which the above are selected and combined and used to affect the listener. Take Christian Bok, for example. Pitch does not seem to be a major concern to him, but he does utilize rhythm in ways which make his performances exciting. Despite the fact that his relentlessly aggressive utterances do not demonstrate distinct variations in tempo, his use of rhythm is what gives the poetry character. I would imagine that Bok would have been incredibly popular with the Zurich Dadaists. Rhythm appears at the forefront in Mairead Byrne's work as well. In "Baghdad", the repetition of the word "Baghdad" throughout the piece creates a driving rhythm not unlike the kind that Bok employs or even forces on the poetry he performs. Byrne's performances, however, seem to be on the other side of the spectrum in terms of the use of tone and volume in expression. This does not mean that it is expressionless, but that it allows the natural driving rhythm of the text to speak for itself. Having said all this, I find the work of both artists, with their very distinct styles, very enjoyable.

Week 8

For Class Week 8 - 11 12 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... and there are some repeats here from last week as there was too much to cover and I'd like us to linger with some of this work

Sound Poetry 1910s and 20s
Sound Poetry 1914-19
Dada For Now
Hugo Ball
Raoul Hausmann
Richard Huelsenbeck
Isidore Isou
Kurt Schwitters
Velimir Khlebnikov - Sound1 - Sound2
Vasilij Kamenskij

more recent historical soundpo
Carlfriedrich Claus
Bob Cobbing
Canadian SoundPo - especially the Four Horsemen and Bill Bisset

contemporary - these we've looked at a couple times - and I'm re-emphasizing here because there is much to be taken from these artists
Christian Bok
Jaap Blonk –
Ensemble Ordinature
Tomomi Adachi

Mairead Byrne
Baghdad - text - sound
Another Self-Portrait - unfortunately I can't find a recording for this