Ahoy There On Our Official First Day!!

Hiya --

I just wanted to say hello again, since it's the 29th -- our official first day of virtual group class.

As I put clean sheets on my bed this morning -- sheets that are vastly ink-stained, principally due to The 3:15 Experiment, info on which you can find at http://www.315experiment.com/ if you're interested) -- I thought with amusement of Nancy's comment about spilling Miskit on her comforter and pants. Perhaps we should start a thread titled "Spilled Substances and Other Lo-Fi Publishing Disasters"!!

Seriously, though, it would be lovely for each of us to share a bit about where our thinking is now, a few weeks after our initial meetings. Have you begun your project? If so, send a little report to the group, as Mónica and Nancy did (either in response to this post or in response to my other post). If not, let us know what your plans are (it's fine, by the way, if you have not yet begun -- now's as good a time as any!). Do you have questions at this juncture? Ask away!

My own project is still in the thinking/gestating stage. I know I want to make a small hand-sewn book using one of my typewriters. But I haven't yet decided what the contents will be. Hm...

I have a question. I'm wondering if we want to devise a schedule for development and production of our projects (other than our deadline, which is New Year's Eve). It's likely not going to be possible for all of us to work from the same template, since the tasks vary widely depending on the nature of the project. Perhaps it makes sense for each of us to devise her or his own schedule? And we can then post these on the blog, so we can learn from each other's different working styles? Alternately, we could try to come up with some shared guidelines we might all follow (however loosely). Opinions? Suggestions?

Hope everyone's doing excellently well. Here in Los Angeles it is the hottest October on record since the 18-somethings. I keep waiting for it to cool down -- and it does sometimes, to about 80 degrees!

Most best,

Jen

Welcome! and A Question Regarding Documentation: PLEASE RESPOND

Hi there!

Welcome to our Official First Post To The Blog—and (true confessions) my first blog post ever in all the world. I guess I had to join the 21st century at some point...

I wanted to start our conversation by raising the question of how we will document our low-fi publishing projects for ourselves and the larger Goddard community. Please respond to this post, even if it’s to say that you have no opinion about documentation—I want to use this as an experiment to make sure the blog is working and we all know how to work within it. Ok? Ok.

As for documentation: we are the first group doing these low-fi publishing projects through the BFA Writing Program, but there will be others—hopefully many others—and I think it would be a great idea for us to set some parameters for documenting and archiving our activities, so future BFA students can have access to the projects of those who have come before them.

Here are some ideas—please feel free to add to this list, or expand or revise these suggestions:

+ One or more of you might set up a webpage with archiving potential so future incarnations of this group study can consult our projects.
++ Images and text from the projects could be scanned onto the website.
++ We could potentially include some sentences or paragraphs from the texts we write about the process of doing these projects.
++ One or more of you might do this as part of your course of study—this work could be part of your packet work for the semester, as it certainly counts as “thoughtful action” and engages both critical and creative skills.
++ If no one in this group wants to create a web presence for the publishing group study and we think it’s a good idea to have one, we might come up with a proposal to share with everyone at the next residency and see if someone wants to take on the project of documenting the publishing group study.

+ A related idea: we might create a space for archiving on this blog (though a website may provide more flexibility—I’m not web-savvy enough to know which would be better).

+ We might set up an exhibition of our books/projects for the next residency, either as part of the student art show or separate from it.

+ We might propose to the editors of Guideword that they include images and/or texts from our projects in the magazine.

Obviously, these ideas are not mutually exclusive. We could decide we want to implement all of them! Or, on the other hand, we could do none of them: we could choose to consider other alternatives and do something completely different than what I’ve outlined above. What other ideas do you have about documenting our work for the larger Goddard community and for future BFA students? Please weigh in with your opinions, comments and suggestions.

I’ll post again soon with some guidelines for how to begin our activities for this group study. If any of you has already begun to work on your project, please post so we can all learn from your experiences!

Excitedly,

Jen