Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Jordyn


            I was interested in these typewriter poems because of the way the typewriter is used as a tool, allowing nearly all of the poems to become more about shape and form rather than actual language content. My favorite of these poems is “The Honey Pot” by Alan Riddell. It wasn’t until I read the title that I made the connection that the “b’s” were bees flying around the honey pot. Looking through these typewriter poems, I really enjoyed how the writers used language to create imagery; poems that have to be read visually instead of verbally.

            I chose this because I thought it was just simple and clever. It doesn’t serve a purpose, doesn’t accomplish anything, but it does say something about the things we pay attention to. If you ignored all flyers in general, you wouldn’t see even that one.

            After reading about how these “throat songs” were part of competition between Inuit women, they reminded me of a cultural variation of a freestyle rap battle. They are using their voices to create sounds and rhythms which at times actually sound like parts of songs. These women didn’t intend to create poetry, and even though there are no words involved, the sounds, tonality of voice, and vocal inflections create their own form of sound poetry.

            Reading about this sound piece, it is a giant sound machine that encompasses several rooms. I’m really interested in the idea of making a piece that the viewer is surrounded by. The experience of listening would be very different in person rather than through the computer. Experiencing it in the rooms, it would give the viewer more of a chance to react and respond physically.

            I really enjoyed listening to these, and it made me think about how music can be a form of poetry. With or without words, the music itself can evoke the same emotions that a traditional poem could. Instead of vocal inflections the rhythms and melodies set the tone of the piece that the viewer responds to.

            Reading over these Conversation Pieces, they reminded me of Yoko Ono’s Instruction Pieces, but these all relate to conversation. They ask the reader to focus on certain aspects of conversation, to do certain actions based on the conversation, but it struck me that if someone was attempting to follow these, they would likely become too focused to trying to remember what they were supposed to be doing that the conversation would be lost. I like the idea of instruction-type pieces, and following them could be considered a performance.

            What interested me most about these is that although they describe exactly what something is made of, it is basically impossible for the viewer to know what the item is. It also leaves the question of whether or not the compounds listed even make up a real substance or if they are just random lists.

            I was interested in these because they are essentially one-word poems like the ones we created, but they are real words. By making them large, three dimensional objects, the artist gives them weight and importance. The viewer can confront the words physically, and have the reaction to the imposition of the word itself.

            These interested me as a new form of poetry because I read it differently while the animation was going than when I went back and read it after it was finished. While the animation was happening it was hard to keep track of what should be read in what order, but after it is done the viewer can decide how they want to read it. Making something that can be read it many different ways like this is definitely a divergence from traditional poetry, which is organized line by line.


            This piece reminded me of the idea of a child writing something on the chalkboard over and over. By writing the same thing again and again it reinforces the idea, giving it more importance. I liked this as a form of poetry because it is a personal declaration, simple and repeated.

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