[-empyre-] Re:hello to empyre

[hazel smith <hazel.smith@canberra.edu.au>]

Hi Jim

Sorry if my response was slow -the digest took some time to arrive!

I suppose one of the things that interested me was the divide between
writers in the digital media and writers who are known through print -I
know there are some cross overs (and some of them are on this list) but not
very many. A lot of the writers who are big in digital media wouldn't be
known to people who read experimental print poetry and (dare I say it!)  I
don't feel that digital writing  is always attracting the best writers,
though it is changing definitions of what a writer can be which is great.
One thing I love about Brian Kim Stefans 'The dreamlife of letters'  is the
command and engagement with language he shows, and the fact that you feel
that this guy is conversant with modernist/postmodernist poetics as welll
as being a good techo.

I don't really know how pront-based experimental poets these days can claim
to be experimental (that is interested in trying new forms and approaches)
if they don't engage with digital forms to a limited degree. I don't see
how they ignore this kind of revolution. I suppose the technical expertise
needed is a barrier, but maybe they can get over that through collaboration.

To go back to a previous postings on whether its useful to talk about
electronic poetry I agree that a wider category like cyberwriting or
hypermedia seems more pertinent. But I suppose using the word poetry is a
way of addressing the issue of how poetry is changing and not letting print
writers off the hook. It's a kind of political gesture which in some ways
is quite useful.

Hazel




>
>> * the relationship of electronic poetry, visual art or sound to other
>> experimental poetry movements. The majority of experimental work in poetry
>> is still page-orientated, and some experimental poets are either
>> indifferent or hostile to electronic work.  Why do you think this is the
>> case, what do you think the consequences of it are, and how do you think it
>> can be overcome? I believe that the situation may be less extreme in the
>> sonic and visual arts.
>
>hi hazel,
>
>when we think of 'visual art', there's quite a broad range of things that
>come to mind. when we
>think of 'poetry', the range tends to be narrower. words on a page. o yes
>there's sound poetry
>and performance, 'spoken word', concrete, 'electronic poetry', holographic
>po, oulipo, and so
>on, but words on a page takes up the 'p', the 'o', the 'e', the 't', and
>the 'r'. the rest is
>crammed into the 'y', as it were, and is of relatively little account to
>most. why is this and
>will it change?
>
>the change won't have so much to do with the work itself as the
>predominance in society of the
>technology associated with the art. we have seen the use of computers
>proliferate dramatically
>over the last thirty years.
>
>how do people come to be interested in digital art? or print poetry? they
>become involved first
>in the medium, as part of themselves, toward various ends. people learn to
>read and write early
>in their lives and what can be done and said in and with writing comes to
>be of great concern to
>them, if they are thoughtful, over time. similarly, if they find
>themselves using computers, for
>various ends, as deeply as reading and writing are part of their lives,
>then they come to be
>interested in what can be 'said' via these new media. because they are
>constantly faced with
>questions of how to express or do what they want to express or do. if they
>are not faced with
>these questions themselves on a creative level, they probably won't have
>much interest in what
>can be 'said' and done with computers. in other words, if they want or
>need to become literate
>in these media, it's then that digital art becomes relevant to them.
>
>so history will be the arbiter in this matter, largely, as the use of
>computers continues to
>proliferate. of course print will not 'go away' for at least some time, if
>ever. i hope not,
>anyway. i love great books and the forms therein. i do want room for
>something else, however.
>
>ja
>http://vispo.com/writings
>
>





Dr. Hazel Smith
Senior Research Fellow
School of Creative Communication
Deputy Director
University of Canberra Centre for Writing
http://www.ce.canberra.edu.au/writing
Editor of Inflect http://www.ce.canberra.edu.au/inflect
University of Canberra
ACT 2601
phone 6201 5940
More about my creative work at
www.australysis.com