Rhode Island SchooL of Design College BuildIng 346 / 521
Wednesday 1:10-4:10PM / Thursday 1:10-4:20PM 2/15/18-5/16/18
https://sites.google.com/risd.edu/digital-poetics-spring-2018
OffIce: College Building 528
Hours:TWTh 4:30-5:30PM
Ph: 401.454.6268
First and foremost, welcome to the course! We will begin with a definition of terms, proceed to a review of prehistoric digital poetry (1959-1995), as defined by Chris Funkhouser, before delving long and deep into David Jhave Johnston’s Aesthetic Animism, a book porous enough, I think, to reward the attention of students more interested in poetics than the digital, students more interested in the digital than poetics, and students who are just curious, and ready to learn and make. David Jhave Johnston will join us in class in April, and participate in teaching and performance events at RISD and Brown.
Course work is heavily invested in reading, writing, researching, and the making of poems. Our practice will be embedded in a matrix of discussion, exchange, teaching and learning, critique, performance, publication, readership, and audience. Our teaching and learning processes will be systematic, recursive, imbricated, responsive, woven together. Poetry is definitively systems-based. But we will also privilege the moment of happening, as framed by Michael Joyce:
Gertrude Stein’s complaint about the label experimental, that “Artists do not experiment. Experiment is what scientists do; they initiate an operation of unknown factors to be instructed by its results,” discloses itself as a resistance to system in favor of the kind of present-tense, and spatially present, renewal that Deleuze speaks about. “An artist,” Stein says, “puts down what he knows and at every moment it is what he knows at that moment.” (“Teaching in the Margins,” Full Stop 9/18/12)
We come to this moment with different languages, norms, and experience. I am much older than you but we nevertheless share membership of this long moment of transfer between print and digital technologies. We are all members of bridge generations, primitives in a sense. We have got over the fact that we now have the power to be author, editor, publisher, and distributor. But we don’t necessarily know how to do it well, on the page, on the stage, or the screen. We know that color, graphics, animation, interactivity, audio and visual recording now take their place alongside and supercede text., and that to be a writer today increasing- ly means to be an artist and designer too. As RISD students, you are at an advantage. How do new capaci- ties for color, animation, sound, video, interactivity, change poetry’s identity as literary art? What is the place of the English language, or any language, in digital poetry? Is to render multiplicitously to think multiplicitously too? And how do we do that clearly—grounded as we may be in traditions of unity and dualism?
This is a time of speculation, an inbetween time when print and digital media overlap, sometimes talking, sometimes not. We are all fingers and thumbs, pressing for response and getting it—more often from devices than humans. I’ve been preparing for this conversation for some time and I’m looking forward to its happening. I hope you are too, and that we discuss deeply, make interesting work, and walk away full of plans.
Digital Poetics is one of a set of multimedia courses, including Visual Poetry, Sound Poetry, Material Poetics, and Contemporary Poetry, investigating sensory and material poetic traditions in contemporary culture. All courses have creative, critical, research, and performative/publication commitments.
Course objectives include:
creation of works relevant to contemporary digital poetics
application of art and design education to the making of digital poetry
collaborative teaching and learning through lessons, discussion, and the presentation of research
performance and publication of works which baffle, amaze, and invigorate our audience
Learning outcomes include:
introductory knowledge of the antecedents to, and exemplary works in, 21st century digital poetry
usable understanding of poetics as term and field
creation of three/four publicly accessible digital poems
research paper/project in poetics
practice in teaching, presentation, experiment, or performance, according to individual choice
The teaching and learning methodologies of this class emphasize student action/interaction, and include student-taught lessons; student presentation/experimentation/ performance; small and large group discussion; peer critique; production, presentation, publication, and/or performance of creative and research projects or works; in addition to teacher presentations; teacher/student dialogue; Blue Book writing; and assigned writing and reading (text-book and Google Site).
We will read a limited number of texts very well, and a limited number of texts referenced within those texts. In a vast and proliferative field, our strategy is to select valuable reference points for our preliminary exploration, to pay close attention to them, and to use them productively.
This course is classified as a lecture course but to miss the opportunity for creative making would be a huge mistake. Digital poetry needs art and design students.Therefore the making of creative works is a major objective of the course. However, our classes are large (25+ students in each section), and this can’t be a workshop. Hence a commitment to working in groups of four to eight, depending on project types.
Students are welcome to discuss work, ideas, issues, and questions with me during office hours, or at another agreed time. All student work must be uploaded to Google Drive folders as specified by due date. All work should be re- viewed and revised after instructor and/or peer feedback, and represented in improved form in the final portfolio.
Note: Our classes include students from many majors and levels of seniority at RISD. Students will have varying knowledge and expertise in poetics, digital media, and poetry. Additionally, we work in an interregnum between print and digital, a time of duplicated effort, gaps, and physical and mental frustration/confusion. It can seem like a crazy space. One of our jobs is to make it a fertile and usable space too, valued if not mapped. Our classes are three hours long— as opposed to the five to seven and a half hours’ duration of studio classes. Our teaching and learning space may not ideally support course topics and pedagogy. I will not have the TA support a studio teacher has and will rely on you to assist with many classroom duties. As this is the reality, our job is to be patient, and to exploit the constraints.
Required:The following text must be purchased in book form (available at the Brown Bookstore, 244 Thayer St.)
David Jhave Johnston, Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry’s Ontological Implications (MIT Press, 2016)
Assigned Reading (provided in class or on site) + Recommended Reading/Browsing/Reference:
Aristotle, Poetics (fragment), 350 BCE http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html
John Berger, “The Primitive and the Professional.” Selected Essays. Ed. Geoff Dyer. Pantheon 1976/2001. Jen Bervin. Silk Poems. Nightboat Books 2017.
Christian Bök. The Xenotext: Book 1. Coach House Books, 2015.
Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman. Pry. 2004 http://prynovella.com
John Cayley, “Writing on Complex Surfaces.” 2005 http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2005/2/Cayley/index.htm David Clark. 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein. http://88constellations.net/88.html
Katherine Coles and Min Chen. “Welcome to Poem Viewer.” 2014 http://ovii.oerc.ox.ac.uk/PoemVis/ Giovanna Di Rosario, “Electronic Poetry: Understanding Poetry in the Digital Environment.”
http://elmcip.net/critical-writing/electronic-poetry-understanding-digital-environment/
Johanna Drucker. SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Electronic Literature Lab for Pre-Born Digital Media, http://dtc-wsuv.org/wp/ell/
Electronic Literature Collection, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, 2006-2016, http://collection.eliterature.org/
Vilém Flusser, Does Writing Have a Future?” Ed. Mark Poster,.Trans. N. A. Roth. University of Minnesota Press, 2011
C.T. Funkhouser, “A Chronology of Works in Digital Poetry, 1959–1995.” Prehistoric Digital Poetry, University of Alabama Press, 2007
Loss Pequeño Glazier. Digital Poetics:The Making of E-Poetries. University of Alabama Press, 2002
Kenneth Goldsmith, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age. Columbia University Press, 2011 Donna Haraway. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women:The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge, 1991
Eric Havelock, The Muse Learns to Write: Reflections on Orality and Literature from Antiquity to the Present. Yale University Press, 1988
N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman, eds. Comparative Textual Media:Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era. University of Minnesota Press, 2013
David Jhave Johnson, “Programming as Poetry” (2001) http://www.year01.com/archive/issue10/programmer_poet.html Richard A. Lanham, The Electronic Word: Democracy,Technology, and the Arts. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Brian Kim Stefans, Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics. Atelos, 2003 Stephanie Strickland and Ian Hatcher. House of Trust. The Volta, 2014
http://www.thevolta.org/ewc44-sstrickland-ihatcher-p1.html
Theadora Walsh, Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry’s Ontological Implications Review. Electronic Book Review, 11/4/17. Xu Bing, Book from the Sky. http:www.xubing.com/index.php/site/projects/year/1987/book-from-the-sky
-- . Book from the Ground. http://www.xubing.com/index.php/site/projects/year/2003/book_from_the_ground
-- . Landscape Landscript: Nature as Language in the Art of Xu Bing. Ashmolean Museum, 2013.
You will also need:
computer access, a good portfolio (for print copy of syllabus, handouts, Blue Books, and printed assignments), and a stapler (if turning in materials of more than one page)
Everyone in the class will make 4 poems and complete a final Research Paper or Project in poetics. Everyone will also do one additional assignment, in teaching, research, performance, experiment, or performance. Poems and Poetics Research Paper/Project must be uploaded to the relevant Google Drive folder by the dates specified in the Course Calendar. The Teaching/Presentation/ Experiment/Performance assignments will be presented in class (2-3 a day), Weeks Two through Eight. Please see Syllabus page 8 for instructions on formatting, labeling, and presentation of printed and uploaded work.
You can choose your TEPP option. All TEPPs must be presented in class between Weeks Two and Week Eight of the course.
Teaching: There will be large knowledge and skill gaps between students, and between students and instructor. Student-taught lessons give the opportunity for students to teach from their own area of expertise, whether technical, literary, linguistic, cultural, or otherwise. Everyone brings to the class some strengths; mine are in poetry, poetics, and teaching—please identify your own strengths, and share them. Possible lessons may examine a puzzling aspect of a text under discussion, offer a closer look at a poem, poet, concept or question of relevance, or teach a relevant skill. Lessons can be supported by Powerpoint (7-9 minutes). Lessons will be assessed according to relevance, effectiveness, and level of class engagement.
Experiment: Experiments may take any form but must be applied.The experiment may take place before, or during class. In either case, a Report must follow on the experiment. Experiments will be assessed on thoughtfulness, clarity, logic of methodology, relevance to the course, in-class presentation, and thoroughness and clarity of report.
Conference-style Presentation: Conference-style presentations can be based in research, speculation, or polemics. Presentations should be approximately three printed pages in length, and should take 7-9 minutes to read aloud in class. Presenters should forward their presentation to me at least 24 hours before class so that I can make copies for all students to have in hand.
Performance: Performances may be live or recorded. In general (though not necessarily exclusively), performance are creative. For example, you may present one or more poems (7-9 minutes maximum). Performances will be assessed accorded to the quality, interest, and relevance of the work (50%), and the intelligence, (competence), and effectiveness of the performance (50%).
The Three Out of Four Poems assignment is your major contribution to contemporary practice of poetry in this class.You will be graded on the best three of your four poems. All poems must be intentionally and scrupulously made, cognizant of time available. Except for the first, the poems must be informed by some aspect of digital poetics. Media for the poems may be digital, print, au- dio, video, or any other archivable form. Poems are short but the quality is expected to be very high.The poems will be assessed according to relevance to the course and contemporary culture, intelligence, ambition, skill, and audience connection. Poetry is the ideal site for risk-taking so go for it. A short assignment sheet, with due date for uploading to Google Drive folder, will be distributed for each poem, with in-class writing time also being allocated to prompts, and small and whole group discussion of the assignment. The four poems being considered as we enter the course are: Machine Poem, Born Again Poem, Moving-Image-Text Poem, and Software/Platform-specific Poem.
The Poetics Research Paper or Project is your contribution to our investigation into digital poetics in this class. You may choose to write a research paper or to complete a research project. In either case, the work will be incremental and recursive. You should choose your topic by Spring Break. An assignment sheet will be distributed in Week Four and various components will have due dates, before final presentations Weeks Nine through Eleven. Topics may include close study of the practice of any individual poet or group; investigation of any driving question; or granularly informed speculation about any key issue. Papers should be impeccably presented, with a specific and functional title; a first paragraph outlining focus, relevance, examples, and structure of the paper; thoughtfully selected examples; and a works cited page.The Poetics Research Project may take any archivable form but must include the following elements: short Project Description, with project title, media, duration, etc; one-page Project Statement; project files uploaded in organized form to Google Drive project folder. All students will make 20-minute presentations of their work during Weeks Nine through Eleven. Work should be revised before final uploading on Liberal Arts Exam Day.
Your contribution to class discussion, whether in large or small group, is crucial to the success of the class. Be generous. Take risks in expressing your thinking. Leave space for quieter participants. Bring your best to the discussion.This is a creative and intellectual enterprise. We should all walk out of the room energized.
Blue Book writing is an essential writing and evaluation component of the course.You will write in every class, or as homework, and I will collect, read, and return your Blue Book every week, with comments and suggestions if appropriate. The Blue Book is a mechanism for exchanging ideas, information, questions, and knowledge of readings. I hope we can meet in office hours or otherwise to talk but Blue Book writing ensures weekly dialogue, no matter what else happens.
I expect you to come to the conversation informed. By my standards, this means reading the assigned material and demonstrating in speech and writing that you have read it. I will read and comment on work in Google Drive folders. Work turned in on paper will be returned on paper, with comments. Hand-written Blue Books will be exchanged every week. You will also benefit from peer critique in discussion, small groups, and Q+A after presentations. You should revise and improve work according to feedback. You should also re-read and re-work everything in your Google Drive folder before Liberal Arts Exam Day. I am very happy to meet you one-on-one during office hours, or other agreed time. Responsivity is not just for devices. It’s a value which harmonizes communication between humans too. I try to practice it, face-to-face and in emails. I will really appreciate if you do too.
Your course grade will be calculated as follows:
three (out of four) digital poems, 30% poetics
research paper/project, 30%
teaching/experiment/presentation/performance (TEPP), 20%
critique, 10%
blue books, 10%
A U grade at mid-semester indicates that your work is not of a sufficient standard to pass the course and that you should meet with me as soon as possible. Final grading is by portfolio (final uploading Liberal Arts Exam Day 5/18).
Grading is not the most satisfying part of my job but I have learned to do it. I am not requiring self-evaluation in this course but you are welcome to include an assessment of your work in your Google Drive folder at semester’s end. Usually the work speaks for itself.This is how it often is in the world outside college too.The other key element is class membership: how you manage the discipline and challenges of time management, preparation, deliverables, engagement with others, and teamwork. I have my values and biases as a teacher and you should know them because I find them easy to reward: genuine thoughtfulness; close and precise observation of texts and works; endless patience with working out ideas; extreme care with presentation; ability to situate your work in real world contexts; dialogue; responsivity; courage; seriousness; a sense of gusto and humor. Not so easily quantifiable. But it usually works out. I am open to conversation about evaluation and will try to enter Web Advisor narratives in addition to grades.
Syllabus. Blue Book writing: Dig, Po, or mostly curious? What is or are Poetics? Aristotle, Poetics. Chicago School of Media Theory, “Poetics”: A narrow definition? Aesthetic Animism, “How-to (Read This Book).”Teaching/Experiment/Presentation/ Performance (TEPP) schedule. First Work: Machine Poem (handout, and on site). Homework: Read Aesthetic Animism, Chapter 1, “Contexts,” 1-8 (make notes in Blue Book); read David Jhave Johnston, “Programming as Poetry” http://www.year01.com/archive/issue10/programmer_poet.html (on site, make notes in Blue Book); First Work: Machine Poem due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class (Wed 2/21 for Thurs class; Tues 2/27 for Wed class).
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Reintroduction: Blue Books + Poetry as Experiment or Happening? TEPPs (lessons, experiments, presentations, or perform- ances relevant to the course material this week). First Works. Chris Funkhouser, “A Chronology of Works in Digital Poetry, 1959-1995; The Electronic Literature Lab for Advanced Inquiry into Born Digital Media, “Pre-web born digital media” http://dtc-wsuv.org/wp/ell/ Introduction to “Critiques.” Homework: Second Work: Born Again Poem due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the night before class next week (Wed 2/28 for Thurs class, ,Tues 3/6 for Wed class).
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TEPPs (lessons, experiments, presentations, or performances relevant to the course material this week). Introduction to Aesthetic Animism Chapter 3: “Practices,” 57-129. Born Again Poems presentation/critique. Third Work: Moving-Image-Text Poem (handout, and on site), due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class (Wed 3/14 for Thurs class;Tues 3/20 for Wed class). Homework: Read Aesthetic Animism Chapter 3: “Practices,” 57-129, and make notes in Blue Book.
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TEPPs (lessons, experiments, presentations, or performances relevant to the course material this week). Aesthetic Animism Chapter 3: “Practices,” pp 57-129. Poetics Paper/Project (handout, and on site), due in Google Drive folder on Liberal ArtsExam Day F 5/18. Preliminary deadlines for this paper/project include research question (due 3/22 for Thurs class, 4/4 for Wed class), key examples (due 4/5 for Thurs class, 4/11for Wed class) and class presentation (weeks 9, 10, 11). Start read- ing Aesthetic Animism Chapter 5, “Futures” (193-212) aloud in class. Homework: Third Work: Moving-Image-Text (handout and on site), due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class next week.
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TEPPs (lessons, experiments, presentations, or performances relevant to the course material this week). Aesthetic Animism Chapter 3: “Practices,” pp 57-129. Moving-Image-Text Poem presentation/critique. Fourth Work: Software/Platform-specific Poem (handout, and on site), due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class (Wed 4/4 for Thurs class;Tues 4/10 for Wed class); Poetics Paper/Project Research Question due in Google Drive Folder by 9pm, plus bring printed copy to class. Continue reading Aesthetic Animism Chapter 5, “Futures” (193-206) aloud in class. Homework: Upload Poetics Paper/Project Research Question to Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class; bring 2 printed copies to class.
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TEPPs (lessons, experiments, presentations, or performances relevant to the course material this week). Introduction to Aesthetic Animism, Chapter 4, “Softwares,” 131-192; Poetics Paper/Project Research Questions (groups of two, then small groups). Continue reading Aesthetic Animism Chapter 5, “Futures” (193-206) aloud in class. Homework: Aesthetic Animism, Chapter 4, “Softwares,” 131-192 + Blue Book notes. Upload Poetics Paper/Project Key Examples (1 page) to Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before class, and bring 2 printed copies to class. Fourth Work: Software/Platform-specific Poem (handout, and on site), due in Google Drive folder by 9pm the evening before next class.
Th STELLA, ANITA, HAN, HAVEN
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TEPPs. From TAV to TAVIT: Peer Exchange. Poetics Paper/Project compelling example. Aesthetic Animism Chapter 4: “Softwares,” 130-165. Continue reading Aesthetic Animism Chapter 5, “Futures” (193-206) aloud in class. Homework: Aesthetic Animism Chapter 4: 165-192 (notes in Blue Book or individual folder google doc). Fourth Work: TAVIT Poem due Wednesday 4/11 by 9pm. Upload TEPP documentation if you did a TEPP 4/5. TEPPS for 4/12 KANYA, DIYA, ALEX, HANNAH.
Remaining TEPPs (if necessary). Thursday class: begin Paper/Project Presentations.
Th KANYA, DIYA, ALEX, HANNAH
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Wednesday class: meet in classroom for one hour, then join Brown University community for the Electronic Writing to Digital Language Art program at the McCormack Family Theater 2:30-3:30pm. Homework: Prepare Paper/Project Presentations.
Thursday class: David Jhave Johnston visit. Wednesday class: Critique 8/9 students, 20 minutes each.
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Homework: Prepare Paper/Project Presentations.
Critique 8/9 students, 20 minutes each.
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Homework: Prepare Paper/Project Presentations
Critique 8/9 students, 20 minutes each.
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Homework: Select one creative, critical, or research piece for performance/ presentation next week (5 minutes maximum, no critique).
Performance / Presentation (5 minutes each). Discussion. Course review. Evaluations.
Upload Poetics Paper/Project; to Google Drive folder; last day for revising portfolio of work.
You are required to attend all classes. If you miss a class, whether excused or unexcused, please take scrupulous care to prepare for the next class. You must inform yourself about the missed class, complete work due for missed class and next class, and contact me to let me know that you will be present. All unexcused absences will negatively affect your final grade; RISD’s policy on unexcused absences will be observed http://policies.risd.edu/academic/class-attendance/ You may be dropped from the class after a second unexcused absence. Except for emergencies, please don’t take unauthorized breaks or go AWOL during class.
You are required to attend all classes punctually. Classes begin and end on time. We will have one 15-20 minute break for bathroom, to check phones, stretch, get fresh air, etc. You are expected to return from break on time.Tardiness erodes not only the tardy student’s teaching and learning experience: it affects the entire class. In a class of twenty-five or twenty-seven students, it can be very destructive. Consequently, habitual tradiness will lower your grade.
All work must be turned in/uploaded when due. Late or missed work will not be graded but may be included in your portfolio, for possible consideration in your final grade.
Documents or folders should always be titled with your first and last name, work title (abbreviated if necessary), and the date. Upload to individual or shared Google Drive folder, as directed. Work should be presented impeccably— better than if on paper.
Please use Blue Books for in-class writing. As much as possible, please use the classroom computer for presentation. Turn off phones at the beginning of class; in general it should not be necessary to use phones in class.
Please bring this syllabus to all of our class meetings. Our TEPP and Poetics Research Paper/Project presentation schedules can be pencilled into the syllabus. In general, I will follow the syllabus schedule. If it is necessary to make adjustments, I will inform you in class and update the online syllabus (Google Site and Google Drive). Please let me know if you have questions. Links to a wide range of artist sites, readings, and archives are on the class google site https://sites.google.com/risd.edu/digital-poetics-spring-2018
Please let me know early in the semester if you require accommodations of any kind to support your learning. Also contact Brittany Goodwin bgoodwin@risd.edu at the Office of Disability Support Services, Carr House 311 http://info.risd.edu/disability-support-services-dss/ 401 709-8460 401 709-8460 or disabilitysupportservices@risd.edu
We have a fantastic Center for Arts & Language on the second floor of College Building http://risdwritingcenter.com/ I strongly encourage you to visit the Center, browse the books, meet the staff, and consider becoming a tutor.
http://policies.risd.edu/academic/academic-code-of-conduct/