Update

I arrived at last weeks poetry slam roughly thirty seconds too late to sign up for the open mic - I'll write something new for next week, but I guess I'll have to pick the best of the two.

Haven't been able to settle on a single poem to work into a video-based experiment, so I might do a couple quick video haikus, each pairing a couple different poetic moves with a couple different video and/or audio reflections. I hope to get a sense of what distracts from/heightens the poetic imagery, and what the effect of transitioning between styles will be (and how that can be pulled off gracefully).

Ideally I'll be able to use a high def camera with narrow dof, I want a similar feel to my scanner videos without the enormous time commitment and physical limitations...

TODO:

• Get CARTAH rental access for a 5D MK II (asap)
• Finish poem & shot list (1/31)
  
• Rent camera (2/1)
• Shoot experiment (2/1 - 2/3)
• Edit (2/4)
  

Experiment Proposal

In preparation for my thesis (and partly just for fun) I'm going to read one new poem weekly at open mics around Seattle. Priority 1 will be reading at the Seattle Poetry Slam (Tuesdays 8:30 @ Re-bar); if my name doesn't get picked (or perhaps even if it does) I'll be trying to read at smaller open mics around campus. The goals here are to 1. practice my work in a public forum, 2. force myself to produce new material weekly, and 3. build momentum for my thesis.

In addition, I will produce a video sketch in response to a recording of one of these poems by February 4th. This sketch will be an experiment in imagery and animation in juxtaposition with spoken word. However, it won't necessarily be fully-fleshed, and will likely take a couple disparate artistic directions.

Nathan linked Gary Hill's "Around & About"; this is one approach to pairing image with word, and I think it's very fitting for the style of Hill's poem and the tone of his voice. However, as my performance will likely be livelier, punchier and more psychedelic, my video sketch should reflect this.

I won't be incorporating dance significantly at this stage - I don't feel I'm well-enough equipped to do it significantly.

Big thanks to Julia for introducing me to the unbelievable Buddy Wakefield and Andrea Gibson.

Dissecting Spoken Word

I've transcribed and dissected Erlichman's Daddy's Parking Lot Sermon. Lessons to take away: carefully plan the points at which you breathe. Use breaths like line breaks. Cascading line lengths can effectively separate and demarcate thoughts. One method: as a thought progresses, lines grow shorter and punchier. End with a short line, jump to a long one, new (related) thought.

A New Hope

It looks like there's a chance I may make it in to Dance 420: Dance Aesthetics. Also, Bronwyn reccommended an embodied movement course through the Academy of Burlesque, and it looks like I'll be able to take a couple sessions of that in the future.

On the poetry front, I went searching yesterday for spoken word artists to draw inspiration from. Most are really heavily into the street aesthetic of spoken word, which isn't so much what I'm aiming for, but one poet really stood out - Shira Erlichman. What a great performance - especially how she sashays between prosaic and poetic language, and conversational and representational gesture.

Credit quandries

It's looking like I won't be able to audit a dance class this quarter without dropping something I'm already taking... maybe I'll shirk 400 off until next quarter?

Also to be determined: can I audit a class dealing with dance theory without prereqs? Do they start that at the ground level? I should have gotten into this sooner.