~ News and Views ~
Festivals with Videopoetry
Biannual festival Zebra in Germany http://www.literaturwerkstatt.org/
VideoBardo In Argentina http://www.videopoesia.com/
(I am having a difficult time finding annual or biannual festivals. Seems most are one-offs and it’s not always easy to find the year on the webpage. A lot of information out there is terribly outdated.)
Great to see all the discussion here this morning (well, afternoon for some of you). Minor housekeeping note: You’ll probably notice I just switched the default setting to show rather than hide comment threads. Though this might make the site initially more confusing to navigate for first-time visitors until they discover the global toggle button, I found I was getting annoyed by the fact that I had to toggle-on comments even on single-post views, and decided it would make for better usability if comment links in the sidebar worked by default. If you prefer things the way they were, though, let me know — I’m not wedded to this.
Towards Definitions of Genres and Art Forms?
I have just begun brainstorming with a Cuban actress for a project that will include her live performance, multimedia and poetry. It has me thinking about the characteristics of the various art forms on their own and how they will work together, can work together and whether they are “collaborating art forms” or elements from differing art forms that collaborate to create a single art form (in this case Performance).
Isn’t this the same kind of question we are asking about video technology and poetry?
Despite my own penchant for the written word and visual impression of the written word as intrinsic to some poems, I concede easily to the idea that poetry is also defined as the metaphoric use of language and can be an exclusively aural experience.
However, is it possible to have a “videopoem” that has no words or oral language whatsoever? Does it count as poetry if the words alone don’t convey a poem, but rely upon the visual elements to convey an idea? If so- is this poetry or is this “elements of poetry” (if so-which then??) collaborating with elements of film to create a new art form?
Isn’t perhaps videopoetry actually more like performance than poetry and therefore videoperformance?
(I am excluding documentation of performances here in my tentative genre).
What are your thoughts?
Subtitles drive me mad!
Why put English subtitles on an English poetry video??
I run Viral Verse (a website like Moving Poems) which features video poetry. I regularly crawl the net for new (and old) work. For some reason I cannot figure out, poetry videos often have the verse both spoken and written. It’s horribly distracting and a total waste of the poet’s (or actor’s) voice. We can’t help but read when we see words on a screen, but having 2 voices in my head – the actor’s and mine – becomes irritating .
I’m at the point now where if the subtitles start I turn off the video. English movies don’t have English subtitles. Is poetry so bloody special that it has to be drummed into the viewer?
Poetry + dance
Today’s post at Moving Poems, The Lovers by Dorianne Laux, is equally a testament to the imagination of the director, Bob Lockwood, as to the performers: great care has obviously been expended on both the filming and choreography. Lockwood says that the video is “an amalgam of takes of two rehearsal runs.” Having three female dancers take turns reciting the poem worked brilliantly to universalize the very personal, intimate subject-matter of the poem, I thought. The only way it might’ve been improved would have been to have made them wear masks.
“The Lovers” joins a small number of other very impressive offerings in Moving Poem’s Dance category, which several people have told me includes some of their favorite videos on the site. Perhaps the best-known of these poetry-dance videos are the ones for Anne Carson’s series of lectures in the form of sonnets, filmed by Sadie Wilcox, but the approaches to filming, choreography, and integration of text are diverse and also very multicultural, including Iranian, Burmese, Indian and Swedish poets. Together, these videos should serve to remind us that poetry has been a part of multi-media productions for millennia, as dance, drama, and/or musical performance. From this perspective, the merging of poetry with film or video is simply the latest manifestation of a very ancient impulse.
Self-registration off
An obvious spammer registered this morning, so unfortunately I’ve had to turn off self-registration already. I’ve deleted that contributor, plus one other I wasn’t sure of — if you are that other person, and you’re not in fact a spammer, please accept my apologies and email me to have your status reinstated. For anyone else who who would like to join — and the more, the merrier! — please do email me as well: bontasaurus (at) yahoo (dot) com. (Contact pages are more hassle than they’re worth, in my experience.)
Minor site-usability note: those Recent Comments links don’t always work, I find — the AJAX is a little screwy or something. When that happens, refresh the page, and hit “Toggle Comment Threads.” Then the links should work.
Here’s a link to Annie Clarkson’s read…
Here’s a link to Annie Clarkson’s reading:
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.
Short poetry film up for award at Cannes
First – wonderful job getting this forum up and running Dave! I hope to be a regular contributor.
Second – A wonderful, funny short poetry film is up for an award at Cannes. Poetry by Luke Wright, a young gun in the UK poetry scene and narrated by David Soul, of Miami Vice fame, it tells the story of ex-stuntman, Larry LeTan. Check it out on YouTube : Crash! Bang! Wallow?
If you like it, vote ‘Like’ – the prize is based on votes! It would be wonderful for poetry to win at Cannes!!
What this is for and how to use it
Rather than standard forum software, which can be clunky to use, I’m trying a special kind of WordPress theme where logged-in authors can post directly on the front page, and see comments updated in real time as on Twitter. My hope is that it will have the ease of use of Twitter or Tumblr but the power of WordPress, without the hassles attending a full-fledged social networking site. (We’re mostly artists and poets here. How much more sociable can we stand to be?)
