I believe we are witnessing the evolutio…
I believe we are witnessing the evolution of a unique form of poetry, a form which was barely recognizable 50 years ago, a new form of “visual poetry” which has survived the leap from the page to the screen, a form that is so intriguing and new that its definition, its features, characteristics, categories, its very NAME is being questioned — videopoetry.
Tom Konyves (forum thread at Read Write Poem, now offline)
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Dave Bonta is a poet, editor, and web publisher from the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania.
This is an example of a Quote post. (Also a nice quote, of course.)
It is a new, unique form of poetry. Unfortunately, the mainstream lit community ( the MFA po-biz) refuses to acknowledge that it even exists. The likelihood that it will die an infant death is great just because of that refusal to acknowledge its existence. Believe me, I thought this form would be much, much bigger by now (I’ve labored in the these fields for 8 years) but the number of print and online sites that are indifferent and, sometimes, even hostile to the form is amazing. It has meant a very slow growth.
-blue
Well, we’ll see. Here in the states, based on what I’ve been finding on Vimeo and to some extent YouTube over the past year, it looks as if a growing number of college film programs are promoting the form to their students. It may well be that acceptance will come from the film side of things rather than the poetry side. Writers, especially in academia, can be quite conservative about adopting new technologies. A lot of them seem to consider themselves quite daring just to have gotten on Facebook.
Hi Blue,
I wouldn’t say an infant death. Konyves has been working with videopoetry since the 70s.
I don’t think it is a fault of the academy to accept it as an art form. Many of the videopoetry or poetry film festivals I have seen have been organized at least in part by universities. (In the UK).
Accepting it in the literary departments is something else and is a serious question in regard to its appropriateness. You have to look at how you are defining poetry as a literary genre or “Poetry” as an Aristotelian concept of high art. You have to get into post modern ideas of what constitutes literature and language itself. Semiotics and even literacy theories.
If it does belong in the Academy in the English department under Creative Writing, it means there will have to be people there to advise and mentor. That was the problem I faced. No one who could take me on. No one versed in the genre, if it exists yet – if there is one or many or if it is actually a genre unto itself that doesn’t belong in the English and Literature departments, but in the Art Department?
I meant .. the fault of the academy NOT to accept it as a (literary) art form :-)
Might be… In Finland was published a videopoem dvd that got the ISBN code from the national library. So atleast here videopoetry is now categorized as literature (it’s also on sale in book stores).
But this is not too important. It’s only a nice detail to know when speaking of videopoetry as literature :)