Halloo my low-fi friends:
At this point, in the second week of our nine-week adventure, you should have a clear idea of what your project will entail, and you should have begun laying the initial foundations for the work (the details of these foundations will of course be different for each student). Please post a report of your activities to the blog by Wednesday of next week, especially if you haven’t yet checked in with the group. And please share any concerns or technical difficulties you’re having with the rest of us. One person’s challenge is another person’s no-brainer, and you should all feel free to use each other’s knowledge and experiences as resources.
I wanted to remind you of the commitments we made to each other initially. This is a repeat of information you already have—just as reminder of what we’ve agreed to do.
First, some very basic specifications of what this group study entails:
1. Check in with the blog (that means both reading other students’ posts and adding a post or comment of your own) at least once every week.
2. Make a low-fi book or book-ish project.
3. Write a brief reflective text about your experiences and process.
Any questions? Let me know.
Here are the broader guidelines:
+ The dates of our group study are from October 29 to December 31—that is, right now, this very instant!
+ We will “meet” once a week online to discuss progress, concerns, questions. We will check the blog at least a couple of times at different points on Wednesdays, possibly spilling into Thursday or Friday as needed, so that we can all participate in the conversations happening there, and continue to respond to one another (hence the need to check in more than once).
+ Open sharing of resources. Please feel free to ask for technical or researching help. It’s very likely that if you have a question, someone else in the group either shares the same question or has a possible solution.
+ Commit to sending a copy of what we create to everyone else in the Group Study.
+ Commit to donate a copy of what we create to the Goddard Library and BFA Program.
+ Write a brief reflection on how the experience of this Group Study project informed our thinking and practice this semester. Please include information about what you found especially useful and/or ways this Group Study might be improved.
On the topic of documentation: from the responses that have been posted to the blog, it seems that most people are interested in exhibiting our book projects at the art show during the Spring Residency. Dee Talentino is the curator of the show. Would someone please volunteer to contact Dee to ask about making a space for our work in the show? My sense is that a table or other flat surface (rather than, say, mounting on the wall) might make the most sense as a display space. That way our work can be held and actively read by folks who visit the show.
People seem lukewarm about the idea of setting up a website. I think the idea of using our blog as a space for archiving projects makes sense. Can we all commit to scanning images of our work and posting our reflection notes on the blog at the end of this process? I think it would be great for our work to be easily accessible to any future students who participate in this group study, and it makes sense to me that this blog could function as a sort of clearing-house, a record of our work this semester. Is everyone cool with that?
As for my own project, I’m planning to continue to repurpose office supplies for artistic use as I’ve done in the past, and make a small hand-made book using familiar materials in unfamiliar ways. I think I’d like to write a manifesto about collaboration, which is a crucial aspect of my practice; my most recent book is an epistolary and poetic collaboration with my dear friend Patrick Durgin. He and I will be reading together at a festival in Chicago in mid-January, so I’m thinking that I can make books about collaboration for our group study, with a number of extras to give away at the festival. Now I just have to clear my mind enough to think some smart thoughts in small book form!
Hope all’s well for all of you, and I look forward to hearing more from each of you.
Sending warm thoughts through the windy weather,
Jen
P.S. A resounding HOORAY!! for the election results (the presidential election, anyway) -- and now the real everyday work of creating change begins... peace to you all...
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8 comments:
hey now. still in shock from the election, philly is straight up obama territory, we were out until 5-6 in the morning on tues dancing in the streets. couple hundred near where i was, plus 6 or 7 other places that had hundreds. it's been a wiiiiiilld week. i'm not the biggest obamaniac, politically i'm much closer to cynthia mckinney and rosa clemente in the green party, but still, it felt good. beyond good.
anyway, i have been thinking about my original project and i just don't know if i will be able to physically do it. i'm walking, but the idea of walking, or even riding a bike, all throughout the city doesn't seem possible, at least not until february or so.
so instead i will be reworking a children's book that i wrote and illustrated last year as a christmas present for the kids in my family. my wife wants me to re-work it as something she can use (she's a homebirth midwife) as a gift to her clients. i did the book in a rush, in about 3 days. i am still very pleased with the art (though it is sloppy), but the writing is very off, as i had never written for kids before.
fortunately i was able to read the book to some of the kids in my family and that definitely helped me to see some of the places that it needs help.
so my new plan would be to rework this book, which i had gotten bound at Kinko's originally but i would now like to find some kind of handbound thing that works. i have more time to put into the wording, which is good; i tend to write long rambling sentences like this one and kid's books are more like haiku than anything else.
also, in my regular work this semester i am looking at incorporating different styles of writing into my fiction, including a more fairy-tale style of narration, and playing with conventional forms of structure. so, this would be something that would be good as a project, but it would have both real world application (as something that my wife could use), but also impact my other studies this semester.
anyway, that was a lot to write in one post. i haven't thought too much on the ways that we can use this blog etc. but i will weigh in on that soon.
good luck to you all.
Hey all.
This is going to be a short version of my original post that I lost in the shuffle of posting for the first time. I am not happy about having lost it, but at any rate, what's done is done. I apologize for not having posted heretofore.
I have been reworking/revising old poems as well as writing new ones, with the intention that they will be included in my self-published volume, RADISH. I have found that with each time I read a poem aloud to an audience, I become further concerned with structure and sound, so I feel that with the knowledge that this volume will be seen as well as heard, I am experimenting with structure in a completely different way than I previously have. Also, by getting the poems to a point where I am comfortably with publishing them, I will (I assume) be at my utmost comfort with reading them aloud as well.
My next step is to decide on paper and a style of binding. I am excited about this, because presentation is an entirely new aspect to my craft that I have not yet seriously considered or honed. Wish me luck.
I will post again by Wednesday and hopefully will have settled on a binding method. I hope everyone else is satisfactory with their progress so far.
R.K.
Hi everyone. Jen - your idea of putting everything on the blog, a scan of final project as well as a short reflection of the process at the end, sounds good to me. So, yes, I'm in. Rick, I know how you felt about losing your writing during posting. I've done that, too. What a burn! It helps to write it in WORD first and then copy and paste it to the blog. You can't lose it that way. Your poetry project sounds great and I found your observation interesting about how what we write can be received differently when we hear it read aloud. Good point when making revisions. Good luck to you.
Martin - your project sounds wonderful, too. I can sort of visualize it and can't wait to hold it in my hands to enjoy. I've bound my previous chapbook at Kinko's, too, and this time I'm going to hand sew them with a thick tapestry thread I found at a craft store called Michaels. I hope to give them a home made and precious appearance. Good luck to you as your project sounds great to me.
Mine is coming along well. Working on the writing part now, shrinking it down and experimenting with different typesettings and fonts to make it fit well inside, but still be legible. Best to you all!
Hey everyone.
Well, I still haven't figured out how to make an actually new post on this blog, but meanwhile while that all gets figured out...
I am feeling really intimidated by my project today. I am gathering peoples' written and visual artwork for a collection I decided to call Ink.Wire or maybe (ink)(wire) or some variation on that. the driving question behind the collection is- how do artists use their medium to engage/inquire/participate in public issues? Or some variation on that :) I'm still working on the concept, but you get the gist. So I now have a complete list of everyone submitting work. I am receiving submissions from folks, and pestering people who said they'd submit but keep on flaking. The stuff coming in is really beautiful and interesting! It is about 50/50 visual and text, which makes me nervous about formatting. A friend freaked out at me today about how hard formatting can be, and offered to show me how to use In Design. I think I didn't forsee 50% of the content as visual art when I envisioned the project, which made me think it would be easier to lay out and format. Now I'm nervous. Someone else mentioned a local off-set printing press.... but if I do that, it's not really self-made work anymore! I'm not interested in throwing down the money for that, or for paying other people to do what I am trying to learn to do. So... I guess I'm gonna try In Design for lay out, then self-bind the books myself. Do people have other suggestions for layout/formatting? Also, resources for stitching techniques for self-bound books? I am a novice. I've bound some small books as gifts for people before, but nothing to this scale. So any words of wisdom are much appreciated.
All of your projects sound beautiful... chapbooks, children's books...sigh. Books books books, may the sky rain books over our heads, and when the clouds dry up, may we make them with our own two hands!!
Soon,
Monica
Monica:
I, also, am a novice when it comes to stitching a book, and share your worry/apprehension.
As my chap-book isn't going to have any visual art, I don't have to fret over layout so much, for which I am grateful. I'm more concerned with the materials I use and appearance of the completed 'publication.' I'm weighing the idea of using very mundane sources for the pages and cover of the chap-book, such as paper grocery bags, postcards, a phone bill, newspaper(?), and others. I like the idea of each copy being unique in its appearance but identical in content. I've yet to settle on a method of fastening the pages together.
As for the content, the majority of the writing is done, which is peculiar; having a project looming over my head that involves such little writing is somewhat bittersweet. I'm looking forward to beginning the layout process.
Anyway, I thought I'd address this to you because I identified with some of what you are doing. I hope that you are happy with your progress come this time next week. Don't know if you wanted feedback, but I prefer (ink)(wire).
R.K.
Hello, people. So, I am kicking off my collaboration this Sunday night with a meeting for the four writers and I. I am giving them 3 weeks to write the scenes, then we will have roughly one month to direct them. I am planning the performance for Saturday, January 3rd, with the books of course completed by the 1st. My writers make a diverse group, ranging in age from 22 (that's me!) to like 50 something. Among us we have a window washer, fire fighter, theatre technician, art gallery owner. One man, a bag pipe/accordian player who began writing during a stint in prison, has already written his scene and wants to hand it off to a director. Another man wants to write and direct his scene as well as use his 'connections' to find his own space. This has presented my first collaboration issue as he will not tell me where this space is until its owners have agreed to let us use it. While I understand his concern, his lack of communication is frustrating on several levels. So, I'm waiting it out. As far as spaces go, I have:
1. The Boiler Room (non-profit coffee shop)
2. An alternative high school
3. An unused retail space located off the also unused underground railroad (why the retail space isnt used is beyond me)
4. A church located on a hill just above downtown.
5. Steve Arbuckle's mystery space.
If Arbuckle doesn't come through I've got a few options for him, though I can't promise him somewhere enchanting and cool like an underground shop or a cryptic church.
I'm trying to keep this low-budget but I do have to pay to use the church and possibly the retail space. I have written a kind of artist statement that I'll probably include in the book, basically saying it's a community event and why don't you let me use your space for free? The church folks are total capitalists and don't care. I'm working the others.
The rules for the scenes are: 5 characters or less, minimal props, write about an issue that holds importance and not just for crummy entertainment value, and use one line that has yet to be decided (I've got options but hope to come up with one democratically at the meeting). I'm gathering my actors and ideas for scenes of my own. I'm using the church, and lots of candles. That's all I know.
I'm going to have to refresh myself on the art of book binding. I wish I could supply resources, but a friend taught me last year and I certainly wasn't taking notes. I have a vague understanding of the basics, like what a signature is and how to tie a square knot and something about...no, I lost it.
While prepared for all sorts of disasters and mishaps that come with the theatre, I'm really optimistic about this project, and all my writers and actors are excited as well. I think it just might work...
Hey everyone! I am having so much trouble with this blog, not technical trouble, just I-forget-its-here trouble.
Right now I've been working on getting together enough work to put into my little chapbook-cigarette boxes. The hardest part so far has been collecting the boxes, as people seem to always forget not to throw them out.
I have to say I'm a little bit nervous about not having enough work to put into these little boxes. Also, I haven't yet decided how to paint the boxes, or perhaps to sticker them? I think I have a trip to the local craft store in my very near future.
One very cool thing is that I have friends who go to college pretty much all over the country, and have agreed to pass out the chapbooks once I get them done, in their respective campus areas.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Hello All-
After purchasing forty feet of paper, cutting a few kitchen length strands for paper dolls and finding no true passion for what I was doing, plans have changed and I hope that is ok with everyone.
As a writer, Appalachian mountain native and young aspiring ethnomusicologist, I am immersed in the study of Old Fort Mountain Music; a nearly fifty year old music hall, open every Friday night that is hidden in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Large “Appalachian music” do not see the venue as “authentic Appalachian music” and it has little documentation other than a spiral bound book made to commemorate the 1,000th consecutive Friday night. I do not have the time or resources to document OFMM as I would like, but I would like to produce something of quality.
There is a large wall in the building. As a small child the wall had a few 8x12 photographs and I assumed it was a wall of fame. The wall is actually portraits of self taught Appalachian musicians who have passed away and are honored, rightly, beside the stage. As one man said last Friday night, “Please bear with us, we had a real good bass player for forty one years and she’s not with us now, but that’s her picture right there on that wall.” He was speaking of his wife. The wall on which her portrait hangs is now almost completely full of people who stories will not be told.
For my *new* project I plan on scanning these portraits, with the permission of the family. I also want to include my own personal reflections about Old Fort, from the forth generations perspective, how I grew up there, return there, etc.
The book will be sewn. I have been practicing with my new (to me) Singer sewing machine! For the cover I would like to do something nice as well, I am working on that detail. I plan on scanning over Thanksgiving break. Please let me know how this sounds along with ideas, changes, etc.
I have been considering selling the books at OFMM and donating all proceeds above cost- keep the books below 5 or 6 dollars. I already sell screen prints from which I donate everything above cost to help pay water, electricity, etc. In addition, McDowell County only has two junior highs and I would love to donate copies to the library of each.
So, to do, unless anyone sees other needs:
1.scan photos
2.find data/information and personal essays
3.layout of book
4.sew and distribute!
Thank you!
Jordan
Jen, I have been reading the route and cannot wait to hear more about the process.
Martin, I too am getting over the shock- entire streets were closed off in Asheville for public celebrations :-)
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