Here’s an interesting example of a golempoem: Billy Collins reads his poem Forgetfulness “over” a series of animated dream images that “illustrate” the poem. How does the animation add or detract from your experience of the poem? How does the poem add or detract from your experience of the animation? Would this work differently if someone else (say Harvey Fierstein) were reading the poem instead of Collins? Would this work differently if, in fact, no one read the poem at all, but the words appeared between or within the animation?
If you’d like to hear more, I’ve collected a number of Billy Collins poem videos in a You Tube play list. There’s a fairly wide variety of approached represented here. I’ll want to delve more deeply into particular adaptations in coming posts. But, for now, what do you think of Forgetfulness?
If you find yourself in the DC area during the month of June, you may wish to visit Takoma Park’s “Inspired Results” exhibition. The presentation features the works of 18 poets and 18 artists from the Takoma Park area who exchanged works in order to inspire new works of poetry, painting, print-making, and sculpture. Their works will be on exhibit between the 3rd and 30th of June at the Atrium Gallery in the Takoma Park Community Center (7500 Maple Avenue; Takoma Park, MD 20912).
Join us at the opening reception on June 8th and enjoy a performance by poet Anne Becker and cellist Jodi Becker. Violinist and vocalist Cheryl Hurwitz will also be on hand to perform her original compositions.
Inspired Results is sponsored by the Takoma Park Arts and Humanities Commission and curated by Community Center Exhibits Coordinator, Stephanie Ney. For more information, contact Sara Anne Daines at 301-891-7224 or by e-mail at sarad@takomagov.org.
Go ahead, laugh…but we shall see who gets the last laugh, eh!
Yes, I agree–the little experiment in the last post did not come off as seamlessly as I’d hoped. But, for anyone who suffered through the clunky PPS show–thank you, thank you–what did you think of the idea? And for those who could not suffer the paleolithic pitfalls of PPS animation, our apologies. Please know that we’re hard at work in golempoem labs to ensure you better, more seamless, interfacing in our future exhibits.
The golem seems to like the Blender animation software, both because it’s good and because it’s open source. Check out the animated movie elephants dream which has been created entirely using open source software (such as Blender) and distributed online under a Creative Commons license.
It’ll take a while before I come up to speed with the new software. Meanwhile, there will be plenty to report on from the golempoem world. And I’ll continue to post…
Shmuel ben Yitzchak’s graphic image Schreib dich nicht (Nachlass)–or, Don’t write yourself (Deduction)–was completed in 2001. The title is largely taken from the opening line of an untitled poem by Paul Celan. As such, ben Yitzchak’s work is an adaptation of Celan’s poem.
How does one present the two works together? If they were exhibited in a physical gallery, they might be positioned next to one another. Even then, which one would be placed where? Would the priority of Celan’s poem (ben Yitzchak’s graphic was “inspired” by the poem) have any implications for their joint exhibition in a physical gallery? Would that mean the poem would be displayed to the left (or top) while the graphic would be displayed to the right (or bottom)?
Of course, in a physical exhibition the original size of ben Yitzchak’s (36 by 44 cm) would be a consideration as well. Or maybe the two works might be positioned in different parts of the gallery room–or even different rooms.
Many, though not all, of the possibilities for jointly exhibiting the two works poem and graphic in a physical gallery carry over to their exhibition in a virtual gallery. The virtual gallery cannot reproduce the physical presence of the two works in a physical gallery in which the observers move about while the exhibits do not. However, in the virtual gallery, the exhibits can move about. Shouldn’t that open up new possibilities?
Enough questions for now. I’ve prepared a joint “exhibition” of Paul Celan’s poem and Shmuel ben Yitzchak’s graphic in the Power Point (I know I know) shows below. If you read German try that one first, and if not, go directly to the English version that features John Felstiner’s English translation. Celan-ben Yitzchak Exhibition (in German)
NOTE: Both the German text of Celan’s poem and John Felstiner’s translation are taken from Michael Hofmann, ed., Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).
Welcome to golempoem. I’ve created this space to explore new habitats for the poem.
What’s golempoem? Well, it’s part golem–that is, the complex network of digital mechanisms that link me with you this instant. The golem generally does as it’s instructed, but it tends to take its instructions quite literally, and that can sometimes lead to undesired outcomes.
While a literalist, the golem is always activated by enchantment. The enchantment is the poem part of golempoem. The German poet Paul Celan described the poem as an Atemwende, a turning of breath. The word “breath” is etymologically related to the word “soul” in many languages so it’s not at all inaccurate to think of the poem as having an action, a turning force, on the soul.
In future postings, I’d like to tap into the energy of poems by providing them with new habitats here in cyberspace. With the golem’s help, I’ll be posting poems that have been adapted into paintings, photographs, digital designs, and sound. I’ll also be posting poems that have been inspired by artistic works in other genres. The golem has offered to help, and, to take the golem up on that offer, I’ll have to learn much more about how one speaks to the golem.
I’ll need your help as well. Perceiving the energy in art is, ultimately, a subjective process. I perceive, therefore I am. You can help by telling me what it is you’re perceiving in the presentations. And, importantly, what you’re not perceiving.
I hope you’ll come back and help. For now, thanks for stopping in. And, welcome again to golempoem.
I’m a DC-based poet interested in the possibilities for poems in the new media. My other interests include monsters, photography, music, green things without heads, mathematics, cinema, and free pondering. Welcome to golempoem.
Welcome to golempoem. I’ve created this space to explore new habitats for the poem.
