GHOSTS, VARIATIONS

I am happy to announce that the publication initiated by In Edit Mode Press, and in collaboration with Canadian poet Derek Beaulieu, Local Colour: Ghosts, variations is in the making.
The publication that will consist of scores, sound and poetry takes as its point of departure Paul Auster's novella Ghosts. Beaulieu's reworking of the text, Local Colour is the base for this project.
In Austers novella all the characters have colour names, i.e. Mr. Blue, Mr. Black and so on. In Beaulieu's work he has replaced the colour names with colour and removed all text, until what is left of the text by Auster is a 72-pages colourful pointillistic score.

My contribution to this is that I basically used the first paragraph of Paul Auster's novella and transcribed it into short piece of three movements to be played by double bass and/or voice.
This was done by isolating the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, B in the text and using them in a notational system to indicate pitch.
The absence of the characters in between the chosen letters indicate the durations/note values.
The 1. movement is the original text, the two following movements are versions of the paragraph that has been trough Google Translate so many times that the text is altered into strange sentences and meanings.

In June I will record this in Oslo with Per Zanussi (double bass) and Stine Janvin Motland (voice).

Local Colour: Ghosts, variations will available to purchase towards the end of 2012. The release of the publication will coincide with an event featuring live performances and readings in Malmö, Sweden. Besides me the contributing poets, artists and musicians include Steve Giasson, Eric Zboya, Helen White, Elisabeth Tonnard, Gary Barlow, Pär Thörn, Peder Alexis Olsson, Andreas Kurtsson, Cia Rinne, Martin Glaz Serup and Ola Lindefelt.

Referring to my older posts about this project here and here.

Now available at Printed Matter Inc., NYC

I'm happy to announce that my artist book partitur is accepted and included in Printed Matter's distribution program.
You can get your copy here or by visiting Printed Matter Inc., located at 195 10th Avenue, Chelsea, New York.

White and Blue

First of all there is Blue -Paul Auster

1.
First of all there is Blue. Later there is White, and then there is
Black, and before the beginning there is Brown. Brown broke
him in, Brown taught him the ropes, and when Brown grew
old, Blue took over. That is how it begins. The place is New
York, the time is the present, and neither one will ever change.
Blue goes to his office every day and sits at his desk, waiting for
something to happen. For a long time nothing does, and then a
man named White walks through the door, and that is how it
begins.

2.
First blue. So, white, and if so,
Black, gray and old. Brown and
I Got ham, bacon, a symbol of Brown, when Brown grew up in
Old blue train. Freed. This is a new
New York, one day, but it has not changed.
Blue in the office and wait for the crime
Some come. Long time, no response, so the
The white door, a large percentage of
He started.

3.
White and blue.
And so on.
Ham, bacon, colors, each color.
This section includes education, the old blue.
No one in New York, and not change during the day.
Crime and blue Office.
Part of the story.
Free program.
Shop.

Skyline notation

Sound of the solar system

After a lot of talk and thinking about Pythagoras' way of putting the planets in a notational system, I got this link to the project Solar Beat by whitevinyldesign that shows the solar system being played.

Listen to it and watch the years go by.

Now on UBUWEB

 My work "Horizon. No Horizon" is now out as a downloadable PDF on UBUWEB.

Click here and scroll.

Curator Derek Beaulieu's introduction to the project:

INTRODUCTION TO UBUWEB: VISUAL POETRY

UBUWEB began as an online repository for concrete and visual poetry scanned from aging anthologies and re-imagined as back-lit transmissions from a potential future. As the archive has progressed, the concentration on visual poetry has waned in favour of an reconnoitering of diverse avant-gardes.

UBUWEB: VISUAL POETRY exposes little-seen exemplars of historical praxis and models of contemporary insight to a wider audience. This section includes anthologies, ephemeral publications, criticism and sporadic journals dedicated to visual poetry. Due to the elusive and ephemeral nature of concrete and visual poetry publications, there is a perceived lack of innovation in the genre. Without exposure to radical practice, artistic precedent and innovative models, concrete poets too often fall back upon familiar tropes and unchallenging forms.

UBUWEB: VISUAL POETRY is not presented under the rubric of historical coverage or indexical completeness, but rather as a document of isloate moments of what Haroldo de Campos argued was a "notion of literature not as craftsmanship but [...] as an industrial process" where the poem is a "prototype" rather than the "typical handiwork of artistic artistry."