<div dir="ltr">Hello all,<div><br></div><div>I have meant to post the following for days, but also had hoped to find a moment to expand or revise these disconnected notes and poem (that don't quite adhere to the call for new year's resolutions)... As January draws down and in response to Renate's heartfelt message and queries, however, I think it best to send this message sooner versus later... </div><div><br></div><div>With warm wishes to all,</div><div>Amy</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="m_-3273588346948310276m_-7089181542724496836m_-7649907124210482383gmail-MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">RPM<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="m_-3273588346948310276m_-7089181542724496836m_-7649907124210482383gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">for Tim and Renate</span></i></p>
<p class="m_-3273588346948310276m_-7089181542724496836m_-7649907124210482383gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">On a
snowy day in January, I visit <i>Paint the
Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950</i>. What is the shortest distance
between a new year’s resolution and a new year’s revolution?<i> </i>A revolving door. On the one hand,
there’s the possibility of losing a resolution by February. On the other hand,
one question leads to another. On the revolving door of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art, the exhibition’s title turns round and round. Could we calculate its
revolutions per minute?<i> </i>Take a spin.
Next stop, the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. </span><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">A riot act. I
renew my commitment to reading for detail in the year ahead. The second
Philadelphia image that sticks with me is equally scripted. I am at the MLA
Convention. From my hotel room window, I can see the Marriott’s signage as
“great” and gratingly clichéd as the poet William Carlos Williams’s gilded,
rain-driven 5. Or, rather, I spy a sign embedded in the sign. Circa 2013, I
began building haiku assemblages. (I find the strict syllable count—5-7-5—to be
soothing. But, the solitary haiku demands company, reorganizes itself
collectively in my mind.) For example:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">There’s a <b>RIOT</b> in<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">MAR<u>RIOT</u>T</span></b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">. (Don’t be afraid<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">of incorpora-<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">tion.) It touches <i>el</i><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">MAR</span></b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">, but also <i>la</i> <b>MAR</b>. Grab<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">the flickering <b><u>T</u></b><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">of the corpora-<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">tion’s tail. Break the word open.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">Assail, a<b>_</b>sail, a<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">tale before the sale’s<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">on. Again: <i>Off! </i><u>What a ri-<span></span></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><u><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">ot!</span></u><span style="font-family:'times new roman'"> There’s a <b>MARRI</b>-<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">OTT</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:'times new roman'"><br></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'times new roman'">At a 2017 MLK Day branded event at the University of Michigan, the poet Claudia Rankine
noted, “We still can say, <i>Happy New Year</i>,
to one another.” There’s that—despite everything. Add more. </span><i style="font-family:'times new roman'">Happy anniversary, -empyre-!</i></p>
</div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 1:51 PM, Renate Terese Ferro <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu" target="_blank">rferro@cornell.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
Thanks Erin for your insightful post From Data Preserves to Dépense without Reserve” on Media Ecologies. Your resources are so much appreciated and a special shout out to Michelle Murphy and Patrick Keilty who organized the data rescue event.<br>
<br>
I have wanted to write this post to all of my fellow -empyre subscribers but have been delaying. So I will do it here and now. I have been wondering these past few months if -empyre- soft-skin space has run its course. Though we have a well documented archive<br>
<a href="http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.artdesign.unsw.ed<wbr>u.au/pipermail/empyre/</a><br>
that traces our history since January of 2002 it has become much more difficult to find participants willing to keep our community going. While we have many fans who lurk it has been difficult to find willing and able participants to organize topics, participate actively, sit on our Moderating Team, and other responsibilities that -empyre requires. As you know Melinda Rackham’s idea of an online listserv community laid the seeds for -empyre. Now close to 2000 subscribers there are many days when one or two of us keep things moving behind the scenes.<br>
<br>
-empyre need some vibrant helpers who are willing and dependable to keep it sustainable. Currently we have three others who sit on the Moderating Team including Tim Murray from Cornell University, Soraya Murray from Santa Cruz, and Derek Murray also from Santa Cruz. So this response that Tim made in early January, “to crank up the noise of the net by submitting your New Year’s resolutions against oppression, fascism, neoliberalism, and conservatism” goes out to all of you once again on not only the continent of North America but in Australia and England and Asia and everywhere else our subscribers are lurking from. Only a handful of you have responded so far. In my mind -empyre- soft-skinned space has been a virtual active participatory space since 2002 that has traced the history and critical mission of networked technology and digital media, performance and theory. It has since its inception struck back critically in so many ways.<br>
<br>
CAN WE SUSTAIN ITS CRITICALITY? CAN WE CONTINUE TO STRIKE BACK? IS THERE ANYONE OUT INTERESTED IN HELPING US CONTINUE TO STRIKE BACK THROUGH THIS PLATFORM. If so please feel free to post your resolution this month. We will keep this discussion topic going until the 31st of January. On February 1st we will launch a new topic “Between Art and Biology” in conjunction with the College Art Association’s New Media Caucus Round Table Discussion.<br>
<br>
We need of topics for the upcoming months of March, April and May. Also looking for vibrant and active organizers who are willing to help out our MODERATING TEAM. If you are interested please email me BACKCHANNEL. If not we will probably seek to shut down -empyre over the next few months.<br>
<br>
Is it truly the end of -empyre? I hope not.<br>
<br>
Renate<br>
<br>
<br>
Renate Ferro<br>
Visiting Associate Professor<br>
Director of Undergraduate Studies<br>
Department of Art<br>
Tjaden Hall 306<br>
<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu" target="_blank">rferro@cornell.edu</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.ed<wbr>u.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.<wbr>edu</a></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="m_-3273588346948310276m_-7089181542724496836m_-7649907124210482383gmail_signature">Amy Sara Carroll<br>
Assistant Professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies, and English<br>
Department of American Culture and Department of English Language and Literature<br>
University of Michigan<br>
505 South State Street<br>
3700 Haven Hall<br>
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1045<br><br></div>
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