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Barrett Watten



photo: Mark Scroggins

Grand Piano Reading: Episode 6, November 27, 2022

Watch on media.SAS

Barrett Watten: I divided every section of my entries in The Grand Piano into three areas: beginning, middle, and end; and correlated them with Bruno Latour’s concepts of actor, network, theory. Then I made a matrix as the structure of the reading as an event. Using aleatorical techniques such as a rolling a die, I made a sampling that would distribute the different categories across fifteen sections. In fact, I made thirty samples, but read only half of it—what you hear is matched by what you’re not going to hear, reserved for another time.

Reading for Heatstrings, at Alan Golding's Home, Louisville, KY, February 20, 2016

Complete reading (57:00): MP3

Convergence on Poetics, University of Washington Bothell, North Creek Events Center, September 27-30, 2012

  • Barrett Watten (11:36): MP3
  • Complete recording (1:55:03): MP3

  • lListen to the entire event here

Group Reading at Modernist Studies Association, Hallwall's Contemporary Art Center, Heatstrings, Buffalo, October 7, 2011

  • Barrett Watten (4:58): MP3

Reading at Alan Golding's House, University of Louisvulle Conference, February 26, 2011

  • Complete reading (8:44): MP3

MLA Offsite Reading at ArtShare, LA, January 8, 2011

Complete reading (5:29): MP3

MLA Off-Site Reading at the Rotunda, Philadelphia, December 29, 2009

Complete Reading (7:08): MP3

Reading for Double Change, Paris, May 29, 2009

On A Voice Box, The New Reading Series, Oakland, March 6, 2009

  1. Blood (1:08): MP3
  2. Incoming (0:22): MP3
  3. End of History (0:24): MP3
  4. from the beginning of Grand Piano: Part 8 (5:04): MP3
  5. Correlation of Paterson, Book 1 (26:24): MP3
  6. from the end of Grand Piano: Part 8 (6:49): MP3

Complete Reading (40:15): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, October 13, 2007

  1. Introduction (4:16): MP3
  2. Complete Reading (43:11): MP3
    (note: reading fades out prematurely at the end)

From the MLA Off-Site Readings

  1. 2004 Reading (part two)

    2. Complete Recording (1:04:42):MP3
    (note: reading cuts off prematurely at the end)

  2. 2006 Reading (part three)

    3. Dream (1:53): MP3

    Dream of a Post-Soviet MLA (2:40): MP3

    Complete Recording (40:05): MP3

  3. 2007 Reading

    4. "Correlation of 'Paterson,' Book 1" (4:19): MP3

    Complete Recording (2:07:08): MP3

Reading as part of The Line Reading Series, October 3, 2000

  1. Introduction (1:46): MP3
  2. Opening Comments (5:28): MP3
  3. from The Grand Piano, 1 May 1975 (3:43): MP3
  4. from The Grand Piano, Section I (18:04): MP3

Complete Reading (29:02): MP3

At The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 2000

Talk on May 6, 2000 (1:11:21): MP3

Reading at the Kelly Writers House, November 15, 1999

  1. Introduction by Carine Daly (3:10): MP3
  2. Complete Reading (53:34): MP3

From Philly Talks Episode 13, November 15, 1999

  1. Tibet (1:20): MP3
  2. From The Grand Piano (6:26): MP3
  3. With Wittgenstein (1:17): MP3
  4. Watten to DuPlessis, 3 November (16:36): MP3

Complete Recording (featuring Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Louis Cabri) (1:24:06): MP3

Wednesday Series: Barrett Watten, Ilya Kutik, St. Mark’s Church, NY, March 17, 1999

Recorded on audiocassette. Recording hosted by the Library of Congress.

  1. Side A (48:35): link
  2. Side B (48:42): link

MLA Offsite Series Reading at the Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C., December 27, 1996

  • Bad History 9 (3:18): MP3

Wednesdays at 4Plus, SUNY Buffalo, November 6, 1996

  1. From Leningrad: American Writers in the Soviet Union (6:12): MP3
  2. Under Erassure (7:44): MP3
  3. from 1-10 (4:09): MP3
  4. Bad History 10 (7:59): MP3
  5. Bad History 15 (5:10): MP3
  6. The Word (1:19): MP3
  7. Bad History 24 (1:58): MP3
Complete Reading (39:04): MP3 (note: recording cuts off prematurely at the end)

From the Live at the Ear CD, 1994

From Under Erasure, recorded January 2, 1993 (5:45): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, January 2, 1993

  1. From Under Erasure (6:15): MP3

    2. From Bad History:
  2. Epigraph (0:53): MP3
  3. Prologue: The 1980s (3:01): MP3
  4. Number One (6:09): MP3
  5. Number Two (4:05): MP3
  6. Number Three (1:12): MP3
  7. Number Ten (6:38): MP3

  8. "I dreamed of a group of sociable foxes in the basement" (9:10): MP3

Complete Reading (38:41): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, October 8, 1988

  1. Social Space and Direct Address (27:57): MP3
  2. The Question (4:06): MP3
  3. Frame (12:47): MP3
Complete reading (44:55): MP3

New Poetics Colloquium at The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 1985

  • Reading from Progress & Conduit on August 22, 1985 (26:30): MP3
  • Talk & Discussion on August 23, 1985 (1:14:08): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, New York, November 12, 1983

Progress (48:50): MP3

Reading in Berkeley, CA, January 30, 1981

  1. Relays (8:04): MP3
  2. Non-Events (15:50): MP3
  3. Complete Thought (7:00): MP3
  4. Marsden Hartley (9:37): MP3

    (note: recording cuts off abruptly)

Lecture: "The Politics of Style," February 9, 1981

Complete Lecture (cuts off at end) (45:29) MP3

Lecture: "Speech vs Writing," February 23, 1981

  1. part one (47:09): MP3
  2. part two (48:23): MP3
  3. part three (36:46): MP3

Segue Series Reading at The Ear Inn, New York, November 7, 1981

  1. Complete Thought (8:24): MP3
  2. Marsden Hartley (14:48): MP3
  3. Artifacts (18:53): MP3
  4. Relays (5:41): MP3

Complete Reading (47:49): MP3

Reading at the Grand Piano, San Francisco, February 20, 1979

  1. Radio [excerpt] (0:27): MP3
  2. Non-Events [excerpt] (1:57): MP3
  3. Protection [I] (1:53): MP3
  4. Plasma (8:19): MP3
  5. Silence [excerpt] (0:24): MP3
  6. Non-Events [excerpt] (1:57): MP3
  7. Protection [II] (2:27): MP3
  8. Paralleles (7:29): MP3
  9. I resent passing through these well lit sentences (0:26): MP3
  10. Non-Events [excerpt] (1:55): MP3
  11. Radio [excerpt] (1:01): MP3
  12. Protection [III] (1:43): MP3
  13. X (3:33): MP3
  14. Mode Z (0:41): MP3
  15. Protection [IV] (1:33): MP3
  16. Non-Events [excerpt] (1:54): MP3
  17. Odd (0:29): MP3
  18. Silence [excerpt] (0:44): MP3
  19. Non-Events [excerpt] (2:01): MP3
  20. Protection [V] (1:27): MP3
  21. Radio [excerpt] (0:27): MP3

Complete Reading (43:31): MP3


(the four recordings above courtesy of Ron Silliman)

Talk on The Russian Formalists, Given at Abigail Child's Loft, 578 Folsom, March 18, 1979

From the Talk Series curated by Bob Perelman

  1. First Part (48:12): MP3
  2. Second Part (48:09): MP3
  3. Third Part (48:25): MP3
  4. Fourth Part (37:49): MP3

(Recording Courtesy of Bob Perelman)

"On Objectivism," 1220 Folsom Street, San Francisco, May 12, 1977 (archive copy; not available for public use)

From the Talk Series curated by Bob Perelman

  • Tape 1 (1:32:33): MP3
  • Tape 2 (1:01:26): MP3
  • Tape 3 (30:55): MP3

Barrett Watten on PennSound Daily


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© 2016 Barrett Watten. All rights reserved. Distributed by PennSound.