The end draws near...

and I am so sad. This has been one of my favorite classes ever in life ever. 

But on with the self-reflection for the second half of the semester. 

Well, I stopped looking for seams. I stopped caring and began to care more about analyzing how pieces worked as a whole and what I could learn from that. It definitely allowed me to enjoy everything much more because I wasn’t so focused on picking things apart and scrutinizing; I was taking things in as they were presented to me and trying to see what made the piece/story/whatever turn into whatever it was that it became. (That was a horrible sentence.)

Another thing that I said I wanted to do and I think I at least attempted, which I have to give myself some kudos for, is stepping away from the narrative. As seen in my workshop, I tried not to make it so much of an actual plot as contemplation, I guess. That’s the best way I could describe it. My success is debatable, but at this point I’ve honestly stopped caring (in a good way).

Throughout this course I’ve stressed and stressed about doing things correctly. But there is no correct way to mix-up, mash-up, collage. I may not have always done the best or most impressive; I could certainly improve and I intend to. I truly think this was a valuable course because it helped me to look at writing in a completely different way and that is not an opportunity afforded in any other class offered probably anywhere at any time. Ever. I do think I improved over the course of the semester. I hope? Perhaps, I don’t know, really.

Regardless… I loved this class and no other class will ever live up to it. Thanks guise, you so great.

And good luck to you seniors going off on your boondocking, TBS-interviewing, Alyssa-I-don’t-know-what-you’re-doing-but-good-luck-with-it, endeavors! 

More stuff

http://flavorwire.com/95303/daily-dose-pick-chad-person

Chad Person shreds US dollar bills and makes collages out of the pieces. (He also deducts any money used in the collages from his taxes haha)

Newspaper Blackout

Found this on tumblr:

http://newspaperblackout.com/

You can submit the poetry you write via newspaper print and a black marker. :D

Tailoring

Like Alyssa said, the only way to trace where you’ve been is to mark the pages. Well, at first I didn’t think of that, but after last night when I was done I thought that I wanted to remember where I had been. I didn’t remember the order or anything, and I was actually glad that I wasn’t able to recall that or keep an exact order of what I did, but I did go back and check off what pages I had seen already so when I went back today I could pick back up. It would make me worry to think that I had missed out on something. I think that’s why I read on to the next page initially instead of following directions as I mentioned on Monday.

Anyway, the parts that tell me to choose a random page I think are a little more disorienting, at least for me. In the rest of the book, I get used to being told “if you want this, go here; if you want this, go here.” But when it tells me that I have the choice to do literally whatever I want, I get worried that I’m going to “mess it up.” I think, however, that that is the beauty of this collage—there really is no way to mess it up. No matter what you do or what order you go in, as long as you keep going you are pretty much guaranteed to end up on every page eventually. Every story is altered slightly, tailored to the reader. 

so many strands raveled together

I'm learning that the deeper you go into this book(?), the more disorienting it becomes. It really is like a maze; I feel like I keep cycling back to the same pages over and over, hitting dead ends, trying to find a path that takes me somewhere new. Sometimes I'm halfway through a page before I realize I've read it already. Or I think maybe I've read it, but I'm not really sure, because there's so much repetition throughout. Which can actually turn out to be pretty interesting, because I'll pick up on different things than I did the first time around. It also brings to the forefront the idea that in a work like this, how do you come to "the end"? How can you know (other than keeping track of the pages) that you've visited every single page? Are there pages with no pathways that lead to them? With the constant invitation to deform and change the work, it seems like this work has no end. It is constantly evolving with the reader as an individual, and each new reader who comes along. In a weird kind of way, it's almost like it's alive. So...yeah. Cycles, growth, adaptability. Yet more fun attributes to play with in collages.

Also, I liked this quote: "That thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it is a matter of getting lost."

Breaking Rules (like not posting on time...not intentional, promise!)

First of all, let me just say that I am TOTALLY into Galerie. I know I make comparisons to this all the time, but it really reminded me of House of Leaves, except it was much more... light, I guess. Sort of how HoL  is supposed to be this clusterfuck of mind-bending stuff with all this weird experimental writing, but Galerie in itself is a whole different kind of "mind-bending" for me. It's challenging in that it requires that you 'choose your own adventure' but that you also 'break the rules'. But if the one "rule" of Galerie is to 'break the rules,' who's to say we can't just read on straight ahead and never stray from that path?

Okay, I know that's not the point, but I just had fun trying to figure that out. Anyway, Galerie is so mesmerizing because it essentially feels endless. If you ever read something collage-y like House of Leaves, you're guaranteed an ending. But with Galerie, it doesn't seem like your 'adventures' through the text could ever even be the same, unless you'd written down your paths and followed them to see & remember where you'd been and what the book had to tell you. I wish I had written down my path, because after I'd read so many I made myself stop because I want to begin completely over for Thursday's reading.

This book is so compelling and all of the different techniques used to make it are impressive & inspiring. Lots of good ideas for works like this that we could do... 

Deformation

To collage Alyssa's work who was collaging Rachel:

idea of deformity, breaking down and arranging the "normal" or "expected" into something new or strange or even frightening, bringing to light the underlying question of what isdeformity and the suggestion that deformity is inherent in life, inherent in our own selves.

I think this is probably one of the strangest things we've read for class. Maybe not in content, but definitely in exhibition. I found myself getting caught up in the letters to Gloria bits, occasionally purposefully searching out those pages to read them. I actually got gripped by the story, until I realized the the author IS Gretchen and there is no Gloria. (Yet, even now I have my doubts...)

I actually like a lot of the abstract bits. Usually, those just annoy me and make no sense or make me sleepy. But these were really cool. I felt like the book was challenging the reader to come to terms with something--perhaps their own deformities, their tendency to deform, or the search for hearts?

I also liked that the pages are constantly telling you to wreck them (Have you ever seen Wreck This Journal or Wreck This App?), but I haven't yet cuz (collaging Drew) I paid good money damnit!

a reader is left to pick through pieces to decipher a (w)hole from her parts.

As Rachel said, this work is a compilation of just about everything we've looked at thus far. Not only that, but the concept that lies at the heart of this work is a good summation of what we've been learning--this idea of deformity, breaking down and arranging the "normal" or "expected" into something new or strange or even frightening, bringing to light the underlying question of what is deformity and the suggestion that deformity is inherent in life, inherent in our own selves. Also, again stealing Rachel's thoughts, the ways in which the reader is actually inserted into the work at times is a new and interesting technique. There was one page I looked at that actually had blanks to insert your name in, as well as other people in the room, in addition to other information--I felt like I was playing Mad Libs. Reading that I had been showcased as a freak of nature was both thought-provoking...and kind of hilarious. This interactivity really immerses the reader in the work in a way that none of the others (with the exception, perhaps, of 88 Constellations) have, and as such serves as a good model for our own work.

And now, I have an uncanny moment to share: I read page 34, which was one of the various definitions for "deformity." At the end of the page, the route I chose instructed me to write a number on my hand between 1-250 and go to that page. I randomly picked 73 (and yes, I really did write it on my hand) and flipped to that page. It was another definition of "deformity." Well, a mirror image of it. For a second, I thought it was the mirror image of the exact page I just left, which would've been even creepier. Regardless, the doubling completely threw me off for a moment, but when I realized what had happened, I was pretty excited about it.

Deformity

I love deformation. There's beauty in the grotesque, the changing, the removal of the norm. And this book is all about that. Instructions, exhibits, and pieces all seem removed from one another as the piece goes crazier and crazier as I read deeper and deeper.

So, reading this made me think about deformity in collage; not just "marking up" pieces, but taking a page of work and turning it into something else; an accordion, origami, or a paper doll.

The question now I have in my mind is how does this affect the reader and interpretation of the text when you invite your reader to destroy the text? Billy Corrigan, the Smartest Boy on Earth offered readers to cut out the book and make models (but I never did because I paid damn good money, and it would destroy the other panels of the work).

Layers Upon Layers

So, basically, Galerie de Difformité took everything we’ve looked at so far this semester and compiled it into one book. She has elements of the uncanny—repetition of monster, deformity, things like that—and she strategically allows the reader to choose whether or not they want to continue with that theme oftentimes. Another thing we’ve seen before that Henderson does is the incorporation of and allusions to other works. I think at one point she referenced Medea, Socrates; she draws from different places and incorporates it in such a way that you notice it but it’s not distracting. She displays the form of highlighting words, like circling them, in a text; overlaying text and images—she literally brings together everything we have seen so far and it is absolutely incredible and mind-blowing. She even introduces us to something new and innovative when she includes the little boxes that smartphones can scan which add a new layer. Since I don’t have the app for it I can’t find out what it does, but I am certainly curious.

Undoubtedly, the book is engaging. Not only in the way that it is interesting because you get to choose what you do, but because there are even pages were you are forced to face yourself. Whether or not you choose to be honest about it is completely up to you, but she still gives you that option and I find that fascinating and truly creative. I don’t want to say exactly which part I’m talking about so that no one goes looking for it and ruins it, but if someone is curious and hasn’t gotten to where I’m talking about, I’d be glad to share. 

I’ll be honest. I was bad. The first page that tells you to choose a destination, I ignored and read onto the next page out of rebellion and curiosity… and then I was scorned and warned. I found that highly amusing. 

Skin and Documents

So, I have an idea. I think we should participate in the Skin project. Even though I have a good amount of fear--mainly getting a really shitty word (I would not want to spend the rest of my life as an "Is") but why not become living, breathing pieces of a piece?

Back to Humument.

So, earlier today I was in the English office talking to Alyssa and Heather as they looked up more pieces of the Hummument. And suddenly I came to a realization: the artwork of the pages is referenced in the text of the pages (usually an important buzz word, like Beach).

My mind was blown. Completely.

It is the marriage of text and art, by making the text art.

More Technique, I think, maybe?

One of the pages that really stuck out to me for today's section of A Humument was page 104. I think it blended a lot of different elements and at the same time made it a little vague as to what parts were being highlighted as much as others because some were kind of circled, but not really, but a little bit, etc. It used a smattering of colors as well as circling words and cross-hatching pen marks (or whatever it is he used). 

In general, I found the second half more interesting because I noticed a bit of an emergence of more/different styles. It could have been that I just didn’t get as far as I would have liked on Monday, but I saw a lot more today. Pages 207 and 208 were especially intriguing. 208 used a lot of blending and that was different because it blurred out the background to signify and emphasize the important words, but not so harshly as the rest of the pages.

Still, I liked that he kept creating images in many of the pages. It gives and added depth because not only is he taking away from the text by depleting the words, but he is adding to it by giving more meaning and applying visuals. 

beautiful last random fragments of poetry

In this second half, I did begin to notice some repetition that made the work as a whole seem more cohesive, rather than a random stringing together of pages. There were several settings that came up more than once, such as the beach (pages 234, 236, 239, and probably others) and the garden (I don't remember the pages, but I'm pretty sure the scene was brought up multiple times). Also there is the recurring image of the moth, found on page 232-233, among others. And of course, the same characters keep showing up, particularly our old friend toge. These elements serve to unify the piece in a way that the text itself does not, since it is rarely consistent from one page to the next. It's an interesting idea to work with in our own collages, merging both a sense of randomness with a kind of consistency.

But along with these connections, there were other pages that broke down into the nonsensical, such as pages 201, 237, and 282. Here, the collager (yes, it is now a word) cuts up the words in such a way that they are mere gibberish, or strings words together letter by letter, creating an even more fragmented effect. I'm not sure what they "meant" (silly me, looking for meaning), but I thought they were interesting, and there was certainly something disconcerting about the fact that we can't even make sense of the words themselves anymore on these particular pages; some words are partially recognizable, but we can't quite grasp what they're trying to say.

I'll post on time when I finish my CE credits

So, i'm reminded a lot of our discussion of White Shadows in that in Humument, there is evidence of the "underwords" against the "overwords" and this time, there is no semblance of censorship, but instead a focus on pasting one piece on top of another.

Humument reminded me of the word "collage" more than any other piece we have read this semester, mainly because it embodies the stereotypical "collage" form, pasting pieces of things-in this case, other texts, against, beside and on top of one another to say something.

I must say, page 2 is my favorite page, due to the disregard for the format of the page with the three pieces of text; and the work seems more cohesive than other texts as well. (I was not going to spend $6.99 to purchase the text on the iPad store, however. The phrase "cheap bastard" comes to mind with me and stuff like that.)

Oh the Colors!

Well, I think visually this piece is pretty awesome. The author did an amazing job creating a flow of words--not just the words themselves but literally how they flow on the page. I liked that some pages seemed to pool and coagulate while others were a heavy stream down the page. They really grab the eye and lead the reader where to go along the page. (At some points, the author has white lines attaching certain collections of words, which helps keep the hectic pages really organized. I really liked that.) I also really loved the colors. They seemed water-colored, each hue blurring into the next. It's fantastic. The most gripping pages to me corresponded to some of the most colorful ones. I liked that they were bright and gripping and forced the reader to pay attention to them. You could see them coming up on the queue while reading and it got me really excited.

The only downside of this project was that some pages just didn't seem to have a point, purpose, or interest to me. But I guess that's to be expected in such a large work.

children die of the Imagination

I'm with Rachel on this one. Some of the pages were so fascinating, particularly those in which there was (as already mentioned) coherence between text and image/color, such as on page 8, which was one of my favorites: the broken image of the hat representing "reason under a ruined hat," and the lower half of the page being the flag of England, which is also brought up in the text. It all worked together for a really strong effect, and I think it's a good example of yet another way in which we can use visual elements to add layers of meaning in our own collages. Another aspect that I found very useful in the piece as a whole was the way in which the pages oftentimes guided us through the reading by visually connecting the boxed or bubbled text to other text on the page. I thought it was a really clever way to keep us reading in the right directions, giving us clues as to which pieces of text were supposed to be read together--another helpful tool that we could easily steal for our own work.

However, as Rachel stated, there were other pages that simply seemed random to me, and created no kind of strong impression whatsoever. But that may just be personal preference. I also was uncertain as to whether we should treat each page as an individual, or whether each page was supposed to be connected to the one before and after. I skimmed over the introduction on the website (is that cheating?), and it seems like there's supposed to be some kind of narrative, but it is all very ambiguous to me at this point. Not that that's anything new...

Visuals

Overall, my first impressions of "A Humument" were the distinct and visual ways the technique of the piece stood out. Everything looked so careful and deliberate, and I liked the differences that distinguished the way the separate pages were crafted. I thought page 5 was really cool, for instance, because of the way the intended text stood out against the bright cut-up page that seems to so clearly cover the original. For some reason I really admire the pages with color and the ones that seem to hold more 'layers' and detail like page 9, but then there are certain pages like 38 where the idea of covering up the other text is so simple but so effective (and then, of course, pages like 93. So cool.) I also think the way that Phillips chose what words to include and when must've been extremely tedious, but I can't say that I wouldn't enjoy trying to make an entire work out of something like this. Yeah, it's a lot to take in at once and the medium might be a little weird, but I think it's evident that Phillips really tried to make something meaningful out of this work, not only with the words and the work he used, but taking the time to create the visuals behind the text as well.

So Much to Take In

I wish there was a next button to make it easier to navigate instead of having to go back and forth, (unless I missed something and there was?).

One thing that I noticed is that many of the designs mimicked the words that the author highlighted. Like on page two it became a kind of a womanly shape. Page 27 uses a photograph/portrait as the backdrop when talking about an old English lover. I thought it was an interesting technique. In some of them, I can still distinguish some of the other words, but I didn’t want to try to read them because I felt like it would take away from the effect, which is strange for me because that is something I usually tend to do--decipher as much as I can.

I thought that using so many varied techniques could be a little distracting at times. It certainly made it more interesting, but it made me wonder what it would have been like with a little bit more consistency and how that would have changed it because there were some pages that didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. It may have been easier to take in if I didn’t have to go back and forth and could have gone through them all more seamlessly, too.

The use of texture, like we talked about, was interesting to look at to see how I would be able to apply it even visually with dotting, streaking, playing with colors, and those kinds of things to get different effects.

Some of the pages helped me get some ideas, but others seemed to be random. I just wondered if the author had some sort of plan entirely, or if it was selective; basically how it was all put together since they are all so different. 

In which I try not to call him Hawkeye

It's a goddamn spiral. Or maybe it's a circle. Or one of those magic eye things that isn't really moving but the lines in black and white and your gaze slowly getting hazy makes it appear as if there's some movement in the picture.

So first: OH DEAR GOD THE FORMATTING. Who in their right mind makes text that small and so close together? Maybe this is where the magic eye example comes into play. It almost seems taxing, trying to read it close with my withered, squinty eyes that are already puffed up from the pollen in the air.

Second: THE REPETITION. Yes, we've all touched on it, but that's the important part in the piece. The important part. The piece is the important part. Here we go again.

Third: The nature of it all; this isn't just apiece about art. This isn't just a piece about writing. This isn't a piece just about David Levine. It's about information, and the repetition of that information in a slightly askewed way. It's not just a carbon copy. hello.

Forth: The narrative is aware of itself that it is a narrative that is aware of itself.

Goddamn it, I don't know how to explicate that fact any more than I can.

Sorry it's so late. Had a final tonight from 6-8. Then got home and took medication. Then forced myself to read the piece and to fall deep into the Vertigo that is it.

It's completely genius.

That's why it'll never sell.

Now I'll Have to Get a New One

The Hawkey piece I found particularly interesting. Even though it was incredibly repetitive, I kept wanting to read because I was wondering how he was going to use the same elements over and over again in different ways to keep the reader interested and moving along. Ironically, he repeated the like “repetition equals depersonalization” several times. If I had the ambition and motivation to, I would like to go through and see how many individual words he actually uses just to compare it to how long the whole piece is, that was I could see how impressive it is how he can use the same words again and again to create different meanings. I noticed that as the piece progressed, he started introducing new ideas, but integrating them into already developed and recognizable phrases and sentences.

A Little White Shadow is fun to look at because it shows taking something and completely altering it. Honestly, when I got it in the mail over break before this semester started and I was looking through it, I was like “Wtf? Someone whited out half of the book, now I have to get a new one.” Seriously, I didn’t get it. Now I feel like an idiot.

Both pieces are strange, but in different ways. They interesting concepts to work with because they crop words and displace them, changing meanings and I think that would be fun (but perhaps difficult) for me to try to do.