[Cwgrad-announcements] experimental writing conference @ redcat

[Ching-In Chen]

I'm planning on going, if anybody is interested & wants a ride.

Ching-In
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matias Viegener <viegener at mac.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 10:20 PM
Subject: experimental writing event
To: POETICS at listserv.buffalo.edu


UNTITLED (CONFERENCE):

SPECULATIONS ON THE EXPANDED FIELD OF WRITING

Friday October 24th to Saturday October 25th
At REDCAT, The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles CA 90012
The fifth in an annual series of experimental writing conferences at REDCAT,
"Untitled" is a two-day conversation about writing which in some manner
exceeds the printed page.  While we are familiar with visual artworks
constituted as a set of instructions, secrets written by visitors in a book,
or one artist erasing of another artist's work, what would be their
equivalents in the literary world?

"Untitled" is a common title of contemporary art works and also refers to
the incipient moment of a new text or idea; it was chosen to convey a sense
of openness and process.  A variety of writers and artists will discuss the
use of language and words and/or their object status, the book and the
letter, the question of the "emptiness" vs. the fullness of language as a
poetic medium, the pictorial versus the narrative, the incorporation of
extra-linguistic symbols and signs (maps, diagrams, formulas, etc.), the
question of conceptual writing, and words off the page – performed, sited,
projected, incanted, or invoked.

Among the participants is Kenny Goldsmith, an "uncreative" writer who labels
himself the "most boring writer in the world"  and writes books that include
everything he said for a week (Soliloquy, 2001), every move his body made
during a thirteen-hour period (Fidget, 1999), and a year of transcribed
weather reports (The Weather, 2005).

Artist Young-Hae Chang is part of a "corporate" web art group known as Heavy
Industries, whose short Flash texts have mesmerized the art world with their
combination of graphic boldness and acute commentary on culture, politics
and commerce, yielding a new kind of literary cinema.

Currently teaching in the Writing Program at CalArts, Salvador Plascencia's
first novel, The People of Paper, takes place in the Chicano disapora.
 Reflecting on the nature of literary characters, some of his people are
literally made of paper, and other characters get paper cuts from them.

The conference will include two panels on the topic of "Litterality,"
examining how writers use what we normally consider non-linguistic elements,
such as symbols, diagrams, maps, or scores placed in the context of writing.
 We will also look at invented writing systems, and what it might mean to
think about the book as an object rather than as a collection of words or
sentences.

As in the art world, many kinds of appropriation have been undertaken by
experiemental writers in the last several years.  The panel on
"Appropriation and Citation" will look a these practices, asking questions
about whose work and what material gets appropriated, cited or resurrected,
who owns texts, and if there is a difference between appropriation and
citation.

A panel on "The Meaninglessness or -fulness of Language" will examine
language as a vehicle of meaning.  Rather than look at what texts say, it
asks if language simply taken on its own is empty, saturated with meaning,
both, or something else.

The fifth panel on "the concept of conceptual writing," looks at the use of
writing not to convey meaning or tell stories but to convey concepts, asking
how this might be similar, or not, to the work of conceptual artists in the
visual arena.
In addition to the five panels, there will be two evening readings.  The
participants in the conference are Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Latasha
Diggs, Johanna Drucker, Kenneth Goldsmith, Robert Grenier, Douglas Kearney,
Steve McCaffery, Julie Patton, Salvador Plascencia, Jessica Smith, Brian Kim
Stefans, Stephanie Taylor, Shanxing Wang, and Heriberto Yepez.

Organized by Matias Viegener and Christine Wertheim of the Writing Program
at CalArts, and funded by The Annenberg Foundation. See Redcat.org for
schedule and ticket information, or email untitled.writing at gmail.com.

Untitled: Speculations on the Expanded Field of Writing
Friday October 24th to Saturday October 25th
At REDCAT, The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles CA 90012

FRIDAY October 24th

12.30 Opening Addresses

1.00 - 3.00 – Litterality 1.
Writing is not speech, it is letters on a page.  What do we make of the
inclusion in writing of non-alphabetic signs, symbols, diagrams; writing as
map or score; invented writing  notations; or the book as object?
           Johanna Drucker, Salvador Plascencia, Latasha Diggs, Shanxing
Wang

3.30 - 5.00 – The Meaninglessness or -fulness of Language.
As a vehicle, is language empty, saturated with meaning, both, or something
else?
           Jessica Smith, Bob Grenier, Christine Wertheim

5.00 - 6.00 – Drinks at REDCAT with participants and audience

8.30 - 10.30 – Evening Readings/Performances
Brian Kim Stephans, Julie Patton, Steve McCaffery,  Young-Hae Chang Heavy
Industries,  Heriberto Yepez, Vincent Dachy,  Christine Wertheim [MC: Matias
Viegener]


SATURDAY October 25th
Morning
10.30 - 12.00 – Appropriation and Citation.
Whose work and what material gets appropriated, cited and resurrected? Who
owns texts? Is there a difference between appropriation and citation?
           Steve McCaffery, Doug Kearney, Kenneth Goldsmith

12.30 - 2.00 – Litterality 2.
Writing is not speech, it is letters on a page.  What do we make of the
inclusion in writing of non-alphabetic signs, symbols, diagrams; writing as
map or score; invented writing
notations; or the book as object?
            Brian Kim Stephans, Julie Patton, Vincent Dachy

Afternoon
3.30 - 5.00 – The Concept of  Conceptual Writing.
What is the relation between conceptual writing and the trajectory of
conceptual art?
           Stephanie Taylor, Heriberto Yepez, Young-Hae Chang+Marc Voge

5.00 - 6.00 – Summary Discussion with all panelists

8.30 - 10.30 – Evening Readings/Performances
Latasha Diggs, Bob Grenier, Johanna Drucker, Shanxing Wang, Jessica Smith,
Doug Kearney, Stephanie Taylor, Kenneth Goldsmith [MC:Christine Wertheim]

Tickets will be $10 per session  (there are 4 - Friday day + eve, and Sat
day + eve), $5 for students, with a $30 package to cover all four if brought
at the beginning

-- 
~~~~~
Ching-In Chen
THE HEART'S TRAFFIC (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press forthcoming 2009)
www.redhen.org/arktoi.asp
www.chinginchen.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/cwgrad-announcements/attachments/20081017/53ac3898/attachment.html