In a post not too far below I refer to the launch of Nicholas' The Continental Review & comment that I expect more from the medium than just mouths opening (&, yes Nicholas, bodies moving).
The point I was trying to make, though I didn't expand on it, is that at one end of the spectrum we are still bound by the printed — or the electronic — page. Most audio, most video of text poetry is still page-based, even if that page becomes a separate frame. Videos of vispo are usually the lens moving over a static page, or a series of static frames, or kinetic software-based pieces. & so far nothing I have seen comes close to what I still consider one of the great pieces of filmed poetry, Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, shot I think by D.A. Pennebaker, in which Dylan holds up a series of flash cards with words from the song / poem on them as the song soundtrack underscores & Alan Price & Allen Ginsberg wander in & out & along the alley. It can probably be also considered the original video clip. & it was done at least 40 years ago.
At the other end of the spectrum is work done by people who are basically web-designers, who call their output poetry — & who are we to argue with them? Just walk away, Renée.
But somewhere between is the area I'm talking / dreaming about. It would probably have to be collaborative, though it's being touched on, dipped into by a few who I know are doing it.
1 comment:
Thanks Mark, this is very interesting. I like the tone of this direction, I've always liked the Dylan very much, but I think it will depend really on poets distributing a specific type of work. For my cae, we'll see what Nico V. and Spencer Selby come up with in the next few weeks, as they are two poets whom I admire. The up-side is probably that it's perhaps not so bad to have a wide range of work which tackles the new text/image diffusion nexus differently, across the entire breadth of the spectrum.
How's the rainfall in Rocky?
Nicholas
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