~ July 2010 ~
Fairground Man by Annie Clarkson
I haven’t featured too many videos of poetry readings here, mostly because I haven’t taken the time to look for the ones that are well-filmed and edited with a listenable audio track. What I am saying is that at least 90 percent of the poetry-reading videos uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo suck. Here’s a great example of one that does not. It was brought to my attention by Christine Swint, in a post at Moving Poems’ news and discussion blog back in May. Christine wrote,
I’ve read her chapbook, Winter Hands, and it’s beautiful. Her video reading interests me because she first talks about her writing in general, as well as the authors who have influenced her. As she reads, she stands next to an antique lamp with tassel fringe, in front of a wall painted deep red. The sound of dishes clinking in the background gives the reading an immediacy. The filming is good, because normally when a reading is recorded the poet stands on a stage in front of a mike.
I doubt I would ever have a chance to hear Annie read live, so this recording is almost as good as hearing her in person.
For more on the poet, see her page at poetry p f — which includes the text of “Fairground Man.” The video was produced by the U.K.’s Literature North West — not a press, but “a promotional tool for the region’s independent presses and literature organisations.” This is one of 21 videos they’ve uploaded to YouTube.
Landlocked in the Port of Leith by Samuel Jackson
A collaboration between Scottish poet Samuel Jackson and filmmaker Ali Hayes, produced for the This Collection project of videopoems set in Edinburgh, which now has a cool new website. You can read the poem here.
The Edge by Josephine Jacobsen
D.C. performance artist Mary-Averett Seelye interprets the poem by the late Josephine Jacobsen. Vin Grabill, the videographer, notes:
Mary-Averett has presented poetry for many years by performing choreographed movements of her body while she speaks a particular poem. In collaboration with Julie Simon, I produced a 30-minute program, “Poetry Moves”, that presents performances by Mary-Averett Seelye of Jacobsen’s poetry, along with interview sequences of Mary-Averett and Josephine. As Mary-Averett is interpreting Josephine’s poetry, I am interpreting Mary-Averett’s performances by utilizing the video medium in various ways to extend what Mary-Averett is doing.
My goal with this project, as well as with other collaborative projects in which I’ve engaged with performing artists, is to present the performance in a way that would not be possible live on stage in front of an audience. In 1998, “Poetry Moves” received a CINE Golden Eagle Award. I’ve continued to work with Mary-Averett since completing “Poetry Moves”, and in 2008, I completed production of a 3-DVD set surveying 40 years of Mary-Averett’s performance work with poetry.
Visiting the Cargo Vessel (Bezoek aan het Vrachtschip), Strophe 2 by Ed Leeflang
One of a series of nine animations, by seven different animators, of a piece by Dutch poet Ed Leeflang (1929-2008). Six of the nine have been uploaded to Vimeo by the Revolver media production company, which also produces ads for clients such as Heineken, Bacardi and Philips. Two sections of “Visiting the Cargo Vessel” on Vimeo include an English translation in the notes, so I’ve decided to take the liberty of reproducing those translations here along with the videos (I’ll share the other one tomorrow).
The stop-motion animation for Strophe #2 is by Percy Tienhoven. You can see all six of the Vimeo uploads on a page at the Revolver media site.
This obviously isn’t a great translation, but one can still get a good sense of the meaning:
We look over the railing at the city spread wide
the moon cartwheeling over the spires and towers
The curving roof of the Central Station glistens softly,
In this theatre a ship is the last balcony on the left
Lights spread their light so capriciously
Concentric rings that dance wider in the dark water and return
Heavy pain spreads itself thus in body and spirit
wherever the secret channels are.
The Amsterdam we can hear buzzing with anger
Is not far way but is familiar.
We seem to be forgotten by our fellows
This makes us vulnerable and ready for a vision,
creatures who work on heavenly made to measure goods
In this face appear slumberers, drinkers,
Cast of the same die through poetic simplicity.
As the elm trees lining the canals are of an equal age.
We know, go shopping, go away and multiply.
And a grammar, overshadowed by clouds,
fed by rage, averse to empiricism,
Waves its cobra heads, the threat of poetry is in the air.
YouTube Play contest — an opportunity for videopoem makers?
The deadline is July 31. Here’s a New York Times article on the contest. For more, go to YouTube.com/play.
A Throw of the Dice (Un Coup de Dés) by Stéphane Mallarmé
Excerpts from the premiere performance of “Dice Thrown,” a new opera by American composer John King, at CalArts on April 23-24, 2010. Every performance is unique, according to an interview with King at Operagasm:
Can you explain in more detail how the configuration of the opera is determined by a computer-generated time code? From the description I read, it sounds like there are pieces that make up the opera, but that the order of those pieces is determined each night… am I way off? Does this mean that the text isn’t always delivered in the original order?
Yes, that’s exactly right. Each night the order changes, the durations of each aria changes (within set limits), the orchestral music changes so that sometimes a singer is singing with a full, complex orchestral texture, and the next night the same aria sung against a solo english horn (for example). The lighting changes, the video, the movement, the live electronics, etc. all change for each iteration of the piece, the changes being determined through chance operations and random number generators [that is “I” have nothing to do with it!]. We do the opera in two “acts”, each act being a different version of the poem, so that the audience can experience this “shift” within a single evening’s performance. And it will be a premiere every night!
I wonder if King has each performance filmed to preserve it for posterity? This video was uploaded to Vimeo (and also to YouTube) by the composer himself. Video appears to play a major role in the opera as well, and its design is credited to Pablo Molina.
The composition flowed directly from the sound of the poem in French, King said, which is one reason I wanted to feature this video here.
I was setting other Mallarmé texts, to be combined in a group of songs with texts by Verlaine, Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Artaud. At the end of this one collection was Un coup de Dés/Dice Thrown. I was immediately struck by its visual appearance, by its use of different text styles and font sizes and by the sound of the words when read in French. There is no rhyme scheme per se, but the words have what I call an “internal rhyme”, where vowel sounds within words of a phrase or line are the same, or consonant sounds are reiterated, so that I immediately heard these wonderful shifting rhythms of sound.
The full title of the poem is “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard” (“A throw of the dice can never abolish chance”), and can be seen in all its glory at A. S. Kline’s Poetry In Translation site, including an easier-to-read “compressed” translation.
Congratulations to Alastair Cook for having two of his videopoems selected for the 5th ZEBRA Poetry film Festival in Berlin, which will be held October 14-17. Both films have been featured at Moving Poems: “Emily Melting” (a poem by Gerard Rudolf) and “Scene” (a poem by Morgan Downie).
Separation by W. S. Merwin
A highly imaginative use of Merwin’s short poem in a film called “Coping,” which Grace Cho says is the “first video/stop-motion that I made for my video class at Simon Fraser University.”
Rio Grande by Enrique Cabrera
Another animation by Francesca Talenti. Enrique Cabrera appears to be an Austin, Texas-based poet, though I couldn’t turn up a good webpage for him.
The Winter Rain by Wendell Berry
Time for another winter-themed poem to inspire those of us weathering the summer heat. This video is by The Erie Wire; the filmmaker isn’t identified.
