[-empyre-] The linguistic proximity of "resolution" and "revolution"

[Amy Sara Carroll]

Hello all,

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...

With warm wishes to all,
Amy

*RPM*

*for Tim and Renate*

On a snowy day in January, I visit *Paint the Revolution: Mexican
Modernism, 1910-1950*. What is the shortest distance between a new year’s
resolution and a new year’s revolution? 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? Take a spin. Next stop, the
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. 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:

There’s a *RIOT* in

*MARRIOTT*. (Don’t be afraid

of incorpora-

tion.) It touches *el*

*MAR*, but also *la* *MAR*. Grab

the flickering *T*

of the corpora-

tion’s tail. Break the word open.

Assail, a*_*sail, a

tale before the sale’s

on. Again: *Off! **What a ri-*

*ot!* There’s a *MARRI*-

*OTT*


At a 2017 MLK Day branded event at the University of Michigan, the poet
Claudia Rankine noted, “We still can say, *Happy New Year*, to one
another.” There’s that—despite everything. Add more. *Happy anniversary,
-empyre-!*



On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 1:51 PM, Renate Terese Ferro <rferro at cornell.edu>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> 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.
>
> 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
> http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/
> 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.
>
> -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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Is it truly the end of -empyre? I hope not.
>
> Renate
>
>
> Renate Ferro
> Visiting Associate Professor
> Director of Undergraduate Studies
> Department of Art
> Tjaden Hall 306
> rferro at cornell.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu




-- 
Amy Sara Carroll
Assistant Professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies, and English
Department of American Culture and Department of English Language and
Literature
University of Michigan
505 South State Street
3700 Haven Hall
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1045
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