English 584/DMS 607
Prof. Glazier
Spring 2002
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The seminar requirements include:
(1) Weekly responses to class reading;
(2) One oral presentation (15 minutes) on EACH a topic, a secondary source, and an interactive digital work;
(3) One "colloquy" each for TWO different guest speakers (i.e., a brief response to a visitor to the seminar), and;
(4) A final project, whether an assembling or an alternative project.
Weekly responses
As noted on the syllabus, weekly one-page responses to assigned reading.
Oral Presentations
One oral presentation (15 minutes) on EACH a topic, an article, and an interactive digital work. Please turn in a copy of your presentation (2-5 pages) and, in the case of articles, a legible photocopy of the original article. Note: Some articles require interlibrary loan: be sure to place your requests the early in the semester! For topic and interactive digital work presentations, identification and demonstration of relevant Web sites is encouraged. You will also want to consult standard biographical/bibliographic sources such as the online Literature Resource Center (available at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/subject.html).
Topics (Bio-bibliographical)
Anna Freud Banana
Max Bense
Joseph Beuys
Crackerjack Kid
Eugen Gomringer
Ray Johnson
George Maciunas
Noigandres group
Nam June Paik
Daniel Spoerri
Something Else Press
Report on a Secondary Source (Summary of and reaction to argument/content of article)
Select one of the following sources for a report on a secondary source. Be sure to check the accuracy of the citation below in the Saper Bibliography for accuracy.
Banana, Anna Freud. "Mail Art Canada", in Correspondence Art, ed. Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet. San Francisco: Contemporary Art Press, 1984.
Bense, Max. "The Theory and Practice of Text". Times Literary Supplement. Sept. 3, 1964: 788.
Close, Chuck. "Golf War". Artforum 33, no. 8 (April 1995): section titled "Returned to Sender: Remembering Ray Johnson": 70-76, ff.
Debord, Guy-Ernest, and Gil J. Wolman. "What is Lettrism?" Potlach 22, no. 9 (Sept. 1955).
de Campos, Augusto. "The Concrete Coin of Speech". Poetics Today 3, no. 3 (1982): 167-176.
de Campos, Haroldo. "The Informational Temperature of the Text", trans. Jon Tolman, Poetics Today 3, no. 3 (1982): 177-187.
Gomringer, Eugen. "The First Years of Concrete Poetry", trans. Stephen Bann. Form, no. 4 (April 15, 1967): 17-18.
Held, John. "Networking: The origins of Terminology", in Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology, ed. Chuck Welch. Calgary, Alta: Univ. of Calgary Press, 1995: 17-24.
Houédard, Dom Sylvester. "Paradada". Times Literary Supplement, Sept. 3, 1964: 696.
Pignatari, Décio. "Concrete Poetry". Times Literary Supplement, Sept. 3, 1964: 791.
Tolman, Jon M. "The Context of a Vanguard: Toward a Definition of Concrete Poetry". Poetics Today 3, no. 3 (1982).
Interactive Digital Work (Selection of work, demonstration, and argument for its conceptual interactive qualities.)
Identify and demonstrate one digital work that is truly interactive in nature. You may locate this project through a search engine, by using the E-poetry Library of the EPC (http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/e-poetry/), or from other sources.
Colloquy
Look over the guest's work. Summarize or detail a number of the points the guest makes in their arguments/work. If for two guests, you may want to address some way the guests diverge or converge on an issue. In your summary it would be good if you refer to the course content or other area of your own interests. Based on these considerations/reflections, ask a question that explores, rounds out, or probes some aspect of the guest's work that doesn't seem clear or seems at odds with related current theories or practices. This is not meant to be onerous task rather, it is meant as a way to give the author's work careful consideration and to take advantage of the author's visit in person to gain a better understanding of their ideas, the subtleties of their approach, the issues raised by their work. Feel free to use the seminar as a sounding board to help you develop your questions! Hand in a copy of your question (approx. 250 words). Plan to be present on the day your Colloquy assignment is due. These cannot be made up!
Final Project
Prepare an assembling to be presented on the final day of class. Assembling proposal is due 2/20, assembling midterm report due 3/13, and final presentation of assembling is due 5/1. Proposal should describe the conceptual basis of the assembling, give a plan for the collection of its components, including a description of the network it intends to engage, and its method of collection. Final presentation of the assembling should include the proposal, a statement about the success/obstacles faced in the assembling, and an analysis of the assemblings definition/relevance to the given network. Final presentation should include a copy of the assembling to be handed in.
Alternative final projects may include a paper or Web-based project on a topic related to course content including literary histories of little magazines/digital projects, examination of the poetics of individual authors (or an author page project), investigations of concepts of community and space as represented in media theories, taxonomies of hypertext practice, hypertext theory, or related topics.