Author Archives: malmar29

The_letter_B

B – Poetry Observed

Letterpress Poem

Authors Note:

This stop motion film is meant to capture my process of setting up and printing with letterpress. I chose this form because I wanted the object to speak for itself, or rather, speak for me as I have given it the language. Though this is a short video it took me about 2 hours to complete.

The_letter_B

B – Reverie #1 Week 5

Reverie Prompt:

In your experience does a romance language such as French do a “great service” by being a “passionate language” that has not wanted to preserve a neuter gender, but rather multiplies occasions for choosing/coupling? 

What is a great service of language?

Words ornamented to hang on the body

as they spill from a tongue?

There is no language to describe a body

in now now now.

We speak only the echos of words

lost in translation from the intake

of breath, construction of thought,

then exhale.

What is language without the body?

Where do the words fall if not on the flesh?

The sensation of the senses

come alive from what surrounds us.

I feel the language as it penetrates

even if I don’t understand.

A body understands the vibrations of earth

more than that of machines

though I once mistook the crash of construction

for an earthquake

The_letter_B

B – Poem – A Conversation Between Walls.

A Conversation Between Walls.

She looks lost most the time.

Maybe not lost but confused or bored.

Sometimes the lack of light burns her out.

I’ve seen her move from

the bed to the floor and back again.

She stands in front of me a lot.

Staring.

She’s been gone for a few days,

only stops in when she needs to

change her clothes.

Good thing we have the plants to talk with.

She’s not one for much conversation.

Ah but what about the times

an other has been in here with her.

Do you think she knows we hold her?

I think she knows we hold her.

She knows we hold her.

It was not always her we held.

There were different things hanging here.

Different backs and corners

of furniture pressed against us.

She must know we hold them too.

We keep them separate from the rest.

Does she hide in here or live in here?

Where does she go?

Good thing we have the plants to talk too.

This room would be so quiet.

*Unfortunately the layout of the text did not transfer here. It is much more of a visual poem.

The_letter_B

B – Week 5 Logs

Monday February 4th

.5 hours – read New York Times article. 


2 hours – yoga and peer-editing.

1.5 hours – wrote seminar pass.

.5 hours – worked on mid-quarter self evaluation.

Tuesday February 5th

1 hour – meeting about class anthology.

2.5 hours – derive – took notes on things I was drawn to/how environment effected my thoughts and movement.

.5 hours – reading seminar passes.

.5 hours – responded to two seminar passes.

1.5 hours – read

 Wednesday February 6th

1 hour – meeting with Sarah.

.5 hours – Bachelardian Reverie.

1.5 hours – studio time – free write.

1 hour – reading

 Thursday February 7th

2.5 hours – studio time (found some great info!)

2 hours – reading

3 hours – organizing type at Sherwood Press.

 Friday February 8th

.5 hours – virtual seminar

.5 hours – free write reflecting on my body/buildings, creating prompts & constraints.

1 hour – reading

 Saturday February 9th

*mental health day

Worked all day then saunaed.

 Sunday February 10th

3.5 hours – reading

2.5 hours – looked up poet from Perloff, crafted the beginning of a poem, started Seminar Pass.

1.5 hours – journaling about my day and the struggle I had with what needed to get done.

 Totals

This week: 31.5 hours

Cumulative total: 31.5 hours

Reading List:

  • The Poetics of Reverie – Gaston Bachelard
  • Discussions in Contemporary Culture. – Hal Foster.
  • Text in the Book Format: Space of the Written Word. – Author unknown.
  • A Basis of Concrete Poetry – Rosmarie Waldrop.
  • Beyond The Body Proper, Reading The Anthropology of Material Life. – Margaret Lock and Judith Farquhar.
  • Reading In The Brain. – Stanislas Dehaene.
  • Unoriginal Genius. – Marjorie Perloff.
Note: Category is set to logs, tag is set to letter+logs.

B is for Body Mapping

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97763955/antique-letterpress-wood-type-printersField Study Proposal

How tightly woven are language and gender? Body and environment? During this four week field study, entitled B is for Body Mapping, the student will explore the effects of environment, language, and gender on the body through use of Derives (drifts through a city), writing/reading poetry, and letterpress. The student will keep a field study journal for observatory notes to craft into poems and create visual text-art via Letterpress. The student will develop a bibliography and put her ideas, questions and writing in conversation with multiple authors and text that have explored similar themes such as: Beyond The Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life, Gaston Bachelard, Michel De Certeau, Helene Cixous and various poets. The student will also help curate an anthology of the programs collective work.

ABCs and 123s – weekly log and field notes

  • B – Week 8 Logs March 4, 2013 Week 8 Logs:  Monday February 25th .5 hours – researching Charles Bernstine. 2 hours – writing and posting seminar pass. 1 hour – spent time in sauna thinking about breath, body and journaling about ...
  • B – Week 7 Logs February 24, 2013 Monday February 18th 2.5 hours – working on seminar pass poem. .5 hours – walking by the water and through the city. .5 hours – journaling about how to find my body ...
  • B – Week 6 Logs February 17, 2013 Week 6 logs:  Monday February 11th 2 hours – Derive. Took descriptive notes and journaled about my surroundings, and what I was attracted to and why (notes for a poem!) 2 hours – ...
  • B – Week 5 Logs January 23, 2013 Monday February 4th .5 hours – read New York Times article. 
 2 hours – yoga and peer-editing. 1.5 hours – wrote seminar pass. .5 hours – worked on mid-quarter self evaluation. Tuesday February ...

Bachelardian Reverie

  • B – Reverie #4 Week 8 February 27, 2013 Marisa Malone Bachelardian Reverie #4 Winter qt. wk.8 Word Count: 100 “If there are ‘gorges’ (French = ‘throats’) in the mountains, isn’t it because the wind, long ago, spoke there?” In Bachelard’s understanding of ...
  • B – Reverie #3 Week 7 February 20, 2013 Word Count:168  “Then there lives within us not a memory of history but a memory of the cosmos. Times when nothing happened come back.” (Bachelard, 119) “The pure memory has no date. ...
  • B – Reverie #2 Week. 6 February 13, 2013 Reverie on Reveries on Reverie: “There are reveries where I am less than myself. Then the shadow is a rich being.” – (Bachelard, 80) I’ve always known that I contain multiples. I’ve ...
  • B – Reverie #1 Week 5 January 30, 2013 Reverie Prompt: In your experience does a romance language such as French do a “great service” by being a “passionate language” that has not wanted to preserve a neuter gender, ...

Poetry

  • B – Final Performance Poems Mind Like Letters. my mind like letters sits shelved and quiet, collecting dust, degenerating, dreaming of the time it will feel the rumble of the cabinet cracking open, the sliver of light passing over, becoming active from the hand that selects ...
  • B – Poem – Mind Like Letters Mind Like Letters my mind like letters sits shelved and quiet, collecting dust, degenerating, dreaming of the time it will feel the rumble of the cabinet cracking open, the sliver of light passing over and becoming active from the hand ...
  • B – Poem – Untitled #2 Untitled Trace the body to understand, memorize a memory transparent and rubbed with charcoal to be revealed. 
  • B – Poem – Untitled #1 Untitled I dream for a moment and my skin slides off my muscles as they drop away from my bones as they loosen my joints as my mind exceeds my body ...
  • B – Poem – Embodiment Embodiment I am house I am host I am post I am sign I am line I am rhythm I am traffic I am breath I am wind I am window ...
  • B – Poem – Untitled #3 Untitled my eyes trace a memory real and imagined— my hands are full of text, drinking letters while my mind pours out thoughts— and the letters are still, only alive in the body that reads them.
  • B – Poem – Untitled #4 Untitled I lie fractions apart from imagined beings and tangible bodies His head and shoulders curl into my lap. Like a child he finds comfort in the deep, old warmth of womb. ...
  • B – Poem – A Conversation Between Walls. A Conversation Between Walls. She looks lost most the time. Maybe not lost but confused or bored. Sometimes the lack of light burns her out. I’ve seen her move from the bed to the floor and back again. She stands ...

Poetry Observed

Authors Note:

This stop motion film is meant to capture my process of setting up and printing with letterpress. I chose this form because I wanted the object to speak for itself, or rather, speak for me as I have given it the language. Though this is a short video it took me about 2 hours to complete.

Fall Term Paper

Fall Term Paper Abstract:

I recognize that I am part of a culture that values materials more than basic human rights, a culture that views humans as objects, a culture of material worth. In such an environment I have become detached from my body, my multitude and nature. I have since seen this fracture as an opportunity to rebuild myself the way I see true. This paper is that exploration.

Read full Fall Term Paper

Winter Term Paper

Winter Term Paper Abstract:

This paper is modeled after Craig Holdreges seven steps of “Delicate Empiricism” from his essay addressing science as a conversation between observer and observed. What follows is the conversation I had with the language surrounding, inscribing, and labeling the body. I will talk about my search for my body through language, urban environments, letterpress, gender, poetry and science. Knowing that these conversations are far from over this collection of findings and metaphors does not end with a conclusion but an invitation to go deeper. The voices I have peppered in with my own range from feminist theorists, philosophers, scientists and poets, and I encourage you to question, to add your voice, to join in reverie with those speaking here.

Read full Winter Term Paper