Experimental writing is only private action.

This title sums up a mainstremist (?) prejudice and shallow attitude toward writing that interrogates the formal arrangement of language. I speak to this as not a new phenomenon or attitude but as an observation directly relating to my own current practice as a young writer.

I recently developed a piece of writing that experimented with sentence formation for Sam Rountree-Williams solo exhibition currently showing at Newcall Gallery. I had expressed doing writing for the studio-based collective as I saw them in keeping with some of the things I am doing in my own practice. Sam approached me to write for the show, and I feel our pairing worked really well in terms of the proximity of some of our ideas and ideas for articulating them (in paint and in writing). My piece specifically emerged from a series of discussions with Sam as well as the writing/language studies I am currently undertaking and poets I am reading. (I would undoubtedly cite Leslie Scalapino as my main influence - spurring these thoughts and how I could consider writing them - but there are so many others).

The writing was described by one funded art blogger as "waffly" and "impenetrable." I differentiate Hurrell's blog from his other writing because I am not familiar with it and assume there is a difference in terms of critical content and form. While I understand that my writing is difficult to "digest wholly" (assuming that's what readerly penetration does and highlighting that in fact my piece purposely resists that), he offered no commentary on why he thought this - as if it explained itself. I am interested in what constitutes as "waffly" and what the referent is precisely in my piece - he does not talk either of these things.

It's not that I expect I won't receive remarks like this, but want to point out the way in which his comment denigrates and voids my writing as a valid interpretation and experience of Sam' work. It also blatantly assumes clarity is both always being "self evident" and that isn't something we should be interrogating.

Hurrell finds my writing frustrating in its refusal to offer a singular meaning for a reader(?) It slides deliberately to configure multiple meanings and senses of Sam's work (as in I could not write that in a straight forward way because I wanted the reader to actually experience that in the writing - so it had to be distinct from the normative way of communicating with people). This textual openness I agree is so unlike the majority of art writing that legitimises an art experience via one's ability to categorically situate the work or connect it to "movements" and other practitioners (describing the viewer's experience to them?)

It surprises me also because I am directly speaking about an idea that has been articulated by so many (phenomenologists, quantum physics, Zen, Cage...) and I focus on that particular thing throughout the piece - it is not divergent in that sense I am talking about many different things. So I am both sustaining attention and versioning the same points (so in a way what I say does not change, but also changes) allowing the reader "to get a hold of" what I am saying without tying them down per se.

Sam's show runs from 15 October - 1 November. Copies of my piece are available from Newcall Gallery and on their website.

Lounge 4 Reading ...

... was great!

These lovely people read their poetry:

Sarah Broom
Jay Granger
Tony Green
Pip Howells
Ted Jenner
Olivia Macassey
Lydia May
Sam Sampson
Lisa Samuels
Michael Steven


In case you missed it - it's happening again in a month's time

LOUNGE 5 READING
Old Government House (University of Auckland)
Princes Street & Waterloo Quadrant
5.30-7 PM
Wednesday 29 October

With readings from:

Jen Crawford
Kartika Ditirta
Shardae Grenfell
Mike Johnson
Karishma Kripalani
Andrew Pasley
Emily Perkins
Emma Phillipps
Gareth van Sambeek
Richard von Sturmer

xE

Each other, floating & glancing - writing about writing

Chap*books features a review of Winterling Series One (my two self-published chaps) - in the chapbooks 26 post. This wonderful blog is dedicated to chapbooks - a really important form of publication for emerging writers. The author of the blog (Steven) writes entries tracking his thoughts about chapbooks he collects (or is given). I happily facilitated a great chapbook swap with Steven - the observations of my writing are interesting and of course, I appreciate the encouraging, supportive comments. Thank you! xE

let thermal expression be syntactical. The natural is what

Two committal - bore, and

"held there"





storage


There was him, as if in front - not unlike sensed
them






small spots, more blotchy (that is like spiky-edged)
across the way
assigned - overlaying them



small triangular - like motions,

of one (them?) stepping forth / from out
or underneath it.




Covering placing - there is - range.

while staying reticent, unspoken

This is all,



as occurring, alongside the expansion of:





figures in brief

to pupate periphrasis



relationally slept on




intended, generative


a drift stooped
birth heard aging

torn pages, rewritten face, (a face is interesting).

Concerning into dry, they're - Collaged Poetry

Concerning into dry, they're is a series of five collaged poems I have completed - one of which appeared in an earlier post. I used found text, image and pen markings. I have no conceptual statement fully articulated yet - but I think they are perhaps largely explorations in mixing different understandings of size and representative scale.

- E xx

The brave and the bold...

Occurences, which deeply affected me over the past three days - there were a series of things, I will not address them directly as events or as they occurred.

1. Pathologising non-normative writing and ways of seeing language. So, taking your writing somewhere else is what you do.

2. Organising "things" in the world depends upon external systems, good organisation depends upon using those systems and their "making" sense to us - what follows: "information" is that which makes sense to us, as if non-sensical (that is everything deviating from sense) is not information-meaning. (As if, making value judgments was all that ever mattered). Perhaps information and meaning are not the same thing, there is something here. What's more alarming: the interrogation of that which makes sense to us, these systems - cannot occur (?). There was also the assumption that language always accurately communicates what it means to say. Because language is always meaning/saying something - and not including nonsense words because they are not language (?). That is outside, and not the same action.

Sous Rature

Issue 1 of Cara Benson's new journal, Sous Rature is now online.

How it is, raining...

... a lot in Auckland.

My window, perpetually, looks like this.


Am (re)reading these wonderful books ...

Keeping happy with these lovely bits ...

I found the charming Dancing Girl Press. It is so wonderful, focused on independently publishing chapbooks by emerging female writers - this girl, Kristy Bowen, certainly keeps herself busy! Not only handling this project, she edits an online journal, Wicked Alice and makes her own paper arts and beautiful jewellery, and collects vintage objects and other delightful items - making her etsy shop a storehouse of enviable, delicious treats. (Kristy keeps a lovely blog here too).

Spelling ( ) Bound (Ellectrique Press 2008) is a poetic collaboration between Cara Benson, Kai Fierle-Hedrick, and Kathrin Schaeppi and looks like a wonderful project - I certainly hope to get a copy.

The projects exhibited in the New Media section in the latest issue of How2 equally much - I thought that Rosheen Brennan's Motion was particularly beautiful.

Reading a manuscript too. Not mine. An energetic surge, sustained. Practically inhaled it.


Making things: some new packettes for chapbooks -



Large handmade envelopes, hand stitched together to create a visible seam and using the same illustration as the last packette experiment.

I have been working on a few different collages/visual poems (that genre)...

Here's one I have completed (though have not titled yet).

- E xx

Snap Happy in Europe

Here are a few pictures of some of the wonderful places I visited on my holiday... (Too many to post!) I flew to Rome and then moved north to Milan, stopping in Florence, Monselice and Padua, and then travelled up and across to Marseille, spending some time in Aix-en-Provence, and then much further north to Brussels and Paris, crossing La Manche to London, which was my final destination.

The Pantheon

Looking down across the Roman Forum, Colosseum in the distance

Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli

Pompei

Florence

Scrovengi Chapel, Padua

Monselice (Venetian countryside)

Mont Sainte-Victoire, Aix-en-Provence

Creme-brulee!

Marseille

Brussels

The Seine

La Rive Gauche

Centre Pompidou

Eiffel Tower - looking very twinkly...

View from the Eiffel Tower

More writing and art posts soon!
Emma X

Leaving here for awhile...

I am off to travel the Continent tomorrow.

Looking forward to getting out of Auckland and away from campus for awhile. I finally have some time for relaxing (proper) and traveling.

Part of my holiday time means some time for reading...

The Journals of Anais Nin - diary writing is my literary indulgence, I love confessional writing.

How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers - have not read any of his yet... a book my partner lent me... Thank you!

The Public World / Syntactically Impermanence by Leslie Scalapino - (who is incredibly amazing) I am writing a paper on this book so I cannot leave it behind. I am actually really looking forward to spending some more time with it - it is an extremely difficult and wonderful critical book.

The White Fire of Time by Ellen Hinsey - a book another friend lent me... Thank you!

Androgyny Magazine - I'm not much of a magazine person, in fact, I have not even read this publication before - but I decided I needed a travel treat - it looks very pretty...

...I am also taking some photocopied selections from Susan Howe's The Midnight... delight.

Of course, I am too, looking forward to perusing the new How2 issue.

So, I will be out of blogging action for about 4 weeks. Please feel free to email me re chapbook swaps and art trades - bearing in mind I will not be able to do your mail out until the end of July.

Emma X

naming my press; Winterling

I came across the word ‘Winterling’ in Literature Nation by Maria Damon and Meikal And.


How to recognise: a/the/such as, "winterling".


Suffixing winter with-ling, makes the "winter": pejorative, diminutive, small or refers to a person described in the/as "winter".


I am moving beyond botanical drawings, seasons, or a creature.



Winterling: is not like when something breaks, but more, it is, as distance (smallness, diminuation) - but always locatable. "Affect", and when, there is sound. It is something material, like object. Registering. It also comes before there is sound, much like splintering something, broken in fragments and simply left - sounds - like words. With sound and as though, with or not, -ling, a long trembling and feeling like "facing down" or "looking away". But looking toward the splintering, but occurring not before it.

Dusie: Kollektiv Participation, My Next Big Project...

Illustration from Dusie : 3

Dusie du...

The wonderful Susana Gardner who facilitates Dusie, the journal, press & many other writing projects, kindly invited me to participate in the Dusie Kollektiv Chapbook Project for this year. I'm so greatful to be a part of this and really excited about this project!

How it works... Susana has divided the group into partners, or rather created a kind of chain where, for instance, I will be giving writing to another in the Kollektiv for them to publish, and someone else will be giving me their writing to publish. Things are very much in beginning/organising stages at the moment, but I will keep you updated on the project here. I can say at this stage that I am so lucky to be paired up with such inspiring, experienced, wonderfully supportive writers...

Winterling and other things...

I originally had plans to make more chapbooks of my own writing this year (self-publication was a good place to begin and test things out), but now I can see that is probably not going to happen - not only because I realised how long it takes to make a chapbook, but also because I want to work on other writing projects, i.e. I do not think everything I write has to be "chapped" necessarily and I have also realised that would love to publish others' writing. So Winterling Press as a chapbook series will include my own writing but I am hoping to mostly publish others' work.

So... I think I will make some more copies of there is always the impossibility of being able to move sideways and As For We Who Love, At the Instant As Being Entirely Different From It for more chapbook swaps and art trades this year. Writing that I have done for the forthcoming Anathema ... chapbook, is no longer going to be "chapped" (well not by Winterling anyway) - I think it will be reworked into more self-contained sequences - which I then plan to send out into the world - my first time submitting for publication in journals. I have decided I will make two new chapbooks at the end of the year, after Dusie, over the summer - and I will be publishing another's writing for each, I am very excited about this - such a great way to diversify and move Winterling along.

Emma X

"Generosity As Method"

I am so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity I have experienced conducting chapbook swaps so far - the giving and gifting that occurs is productive on both distributive and communicative levels. Not only has this given me a chance to expand my "readership" (or rather start), swapping has allowed me to share in the creative processes and publishing activities of many wonderful writing communities and independent presses, here in Auckland and on the other side of the world. I often experience a lot of anxiety, as a beginner - writer and publisher - so being in contact with very inspiring, experienced and dedicated people has alleviated much of this. I feel chapbook swapping will positively influence, open up and diversify my practice more - not only as others support my activity through the exchanges, but as they share their own writing and publishing experiences with me. Thank you! I hope to continue to do more swapping.

I also would like to take the opportunity to showcase such wonderful gifts - from three wonderful wee presses:

Michael Steven's Soapbox Press

Click here to be directed to Michael's wonderful poetry blog

Lovely to find other small press activity right here in Auckland... Soapbox publications are stocked at Parsons and Jason Books, or alternatively you could email Michael (you can find his contact email on his blogger profile).

Carrie Hunter's ypolita press

Carrie sent me two beautiful chapbooks - Gothenburg from Three Geogaophies: A Milkmaid’s Grimoire by Arielle Guy ...

... and ypolita's latest chapbook, Easter Sunday by Barbara Jane Reyes.

I love the beautifully illustrated covers.

... take a look inside Easter Sunday.

Juliet Cook's Blood Pudding Press

to be administered in spoonfuls...

Juliet, also very kindly, sent me two chaps! Ectoplasmic Necropolis - great title! Love the binding - making use of different kinds of ribbon-ish materials - and the brightly coloured paper too ...

... back cover illustration surprise!

... and The Laura Poems - am looking forward to reading this very much...

... Twin Peaks is such a great series, and as Juliet's poems are, I'm sure.

If anyone would like to do a chapbook swap - and remember I am keen to trade for any other lovely bits - please be in touch!

More soon! X

More Winterling Packettes...

For my next set of chapbook swaps I wanted to create an alternative cover/sleeve. I decided to make simple large envelopes - without seal or adhesive, these may be opened and closed by the tie at the top.

I decided to pare the collage for these covers right down - the back of the envelope looks very similar. I am basically working with part of a map/some kind of numerated diagram image - so cutting up found material and then using a basic computer illustration program to erase most of it, aswell as the evidence of my cut up procedure.

I think I will keep generating more ideas and possibilities for these packettes and try to establish a kind of loose aesthetic 'feel' for the Winterling project. Please be in touch if you would like to do chapbook or an "anything else" swap! (There is a link to my email on my profile). Thank you so much for those who have responded so far - your packettes will be posted at the end of the week. I hope you will enjoy them.

More soon! X

P.S. I was not sure if the US Postal Service would let me send thank-you-note-twigs from New Zealand - so I made a little collage and printed it on handmade paper instead!

Infoaesthetics & Data Visualisation: The Expressivity of 'Virtual' Matter Itself

Information Aesthetics: Form Follows Data - Data Visualisation & Visual Communication (Infoaesthetics) is a blog dedicated to exploring the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualisation. Inspired by Manovich's definition, infoaesthetics relates to a series of new conceptualisations of form - emergent, distributed representation that is never fixed, within the set of parameters within software. (Data is to informationalism, what abstraction was to Modernism).

Bus Routes Data Sculpture - a 3D data sculpture of the Sunday Minneapolis / St. Paul public transit system, where the horizontal axes represent directional movement and the vertical represents time.

Infoaesthetics functions like an exhibition or art space, a project that has collated many different data collections & representations, such as the virtual mapping of human movement through space. As a blog, it is interested in data representations that acknowledge the importance of the emotional experience of users as information access is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our daily lives and therefore new approaches are required for information presentation which consider user engagement and visual aesthetics.

greenpix zero-energy massive LED display - the largest color LED display worldwide, & the first photo-voltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China. the display requires zero external energy, as the facade harvests solar energy by day & uses it to illuminate the screen after dark.

Following a Deleuzian populist approach to art - artistic production, extended to include all forms of expressivity and creativity, is a capability of many more things in the world than humans or a specific group of humans - atoms, molecules, geological phenomena, animals. It also includes the expressive representations of visual data and the circulatory or distribution processes that create these emergent forms.

Wifi Geographical Mapping - a set of "semi-abstract" circular visualizations of the WiFi encryption levels while traveling through the cities of London, Vescemont, Belfort & Barcelona.

Not All Bloggers Are Human...

Written by artist Eugenio Tisselli, JB Wock is PHP script who likes to keep a blog.

Posting nearly as regularly as each day, JB Wock's decision to post is determined by a random vairable, not disimilar to human bloggers who post based upon contingent factors or establish ritualistic posting procedures, often based upon contingent factors.

JB Wock finds phrases on the internet and manipulates this found text, 'twisting' it into something different - but still derived from a source text. The readers of this blog leave comments that riff off the short, poetic lines JB Wock posts. The recursiveness of leaving comments on others' blogs, as an intrinsic part of any blog's functionining, is heightened in this project.

I wonder if We Feel Fine has picked up on how this alogrithm is 'feeling'?

"It Must Be Free & Downloadable": Internet Art Communities As Flourishing Gift Economies

Art constitutes a non-rival material good if it is shared - the giver and the receiver would enhance the welfare of the artistic or creative community they both are a part of. This idea of sharing / gifting art would expand and diversify sites of access, collection and dissemination of art and associated writing or reponses. The web with its potentiality to circulate art works, projects and texts (widely and quickly) can massively expand artistic and creative communities.

Members of these online creative communities are producers (creating internet art or contributing to its creation in some way) as well as consumers (people are able to access the art works easily), as this system is about open, fluid and reciprocal gifting and exchange. It offers us an alternative to the prevailing art market or dealer economy (characterized by the impersonal exchange of commodities, or more specficially art, for money) as it is based on sharing and community building.

A gift economy is defined as “an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange for goods and services is to be given without an explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo.” It is distinct from the market economy in that it does not exchange commodities, the PennSound project is a good example. The mp3 sound files available at PennSound are not commodities that can be exchanged for money. Bernstein asserts that their will be no problems with rights (all are given to the poet) and there is no profit to be gained - because they can be accessed and downloaded by anyone who has been granted access to the Internet for free. They are gifts given by the poets to PennSound (given permission to use the sound material), an organization that then gifts to the Internet - using public free and downloadable poetry sound files. The site asks its users to reciprocate by way of providing any bibliographical information they might have about the material – a request for direct reader input. This idea of reciprocity in part relies on users to proliferate the ‘message’ and disseminate the concept of poetry readings as a social enterprise as widely as possible.

The gift economy will flourish in a cultural context where there is an expectation of reciprocity, in this sense the gift is always moving. This creates a ‘feeling bond’ which works to establish a community. The gift economy that is fuelling an internet art or web-based art community is built upon the very notion of trying to create community, an environment where ideas may be freely expressed and shared.

Harrison’s essay, which particularly focuses on the emergence of web poetry communities, demonstrates how the internet allows for a successful operation of the gift economy, and illuminates the potentiality of creating an interconnected community where the act of writing is no longer isolated to the individual. Art can be continuously disseminated if we take advantage of the technology the web offers, in terms of it being widely and easily accessible (although there are still issues of the Digital Divide that may render this piece somewhat utopian) and offering creative potential. Hopefully the resistance to commodification will keep the goals of the community at the forefront and combat any issues regarding sustainability that may arise.

References: Joel Harrison 'Web Poetics & the Gift Economy'

Winterling Packette - Chapbook Exchange

I am very excited about the first chapbook exchange with Michael Steven - a wonderfully interesting poet and the creative mind behind Soapbox Press, an Auckland based small press initiative, Winterling is happily associated with! Click here to be directed to Michael's blog.

I decided to do an illustrated cover of sorts for the chapbooks - more like a sleeve to keep them in (although I'd like to do more thinking about the possibilities for these). I also wrapped a thank you note around a wee branch, in case you are wondering what that is all about! I love sticks, and Winterling is all about branching out.

- Emma X