Tuesday, January 03, 2006
1/3/06
First blog entry. Ever. I’ve decided to set this space up to chronicle (broadcast?) my research related activity during my residence at Multimedia University (in Cyberjaya, Malaysia) from January-July 2006.
I’ve also set up a travel narrative (not yet active) and photoblog (http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_funks), which are just getting going. We’ve only been in Malaysia for about 15 days, and have just now settled into our apartment on the MMU campus. It took a few days to sort some of the technological aspects of our existence out, like power cables (Malaysia’s electricity is twice as “hot” as that in the USA), Ethernet connection/firewall issues (I got a virus – hacktool.rootkit – within 30 minutes of my first login at the apartment; fortunately now fixed, thanks to MMU IT), and other such matters.
Thanks to my colleagues and the staff here, I’ve been set up with an office/studio, a cellphone (call from the USA is, I think 011-60-13-2480460), printing resources, etc. I am extremely grateful to everyone on the staff of the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (where I am stationed), especially Khong, Rozi, Leza, and Wong, who have made our transition to Malaysian academic life both easy and a pleasure.
In case you are wondering how I ended up in Malaysia, it is pleasure to relay the story (especially since it gives me a chance to transmit a few well deserved appreciations).
If Loss Pequeño Glazier had not taken the initiative to organize E-POETRY 2001: An International Festival of Digital Poetry, I almost certainly would not be here. Further, I really wonder what trajectory my life and work would have taken if this particular event had not transpired. At the Festival I met many people who I’d never encountered face-to-face before, like Jim Andrews, David Daniels, Jennifer Ley, Reiner Strasser, and Komninos Zervos; among those gathered in Buffalo I also met two Malaysian artists, Nazura Rahime (Malaysia’s first digital poet), and Fauzee Nasir (a video artist and now Nazura’s husband), whose presence on my radar most directly led me to where I am at today. I also encountered some Brazilian digital poets (Lucio Agra, Wilton Azevedo, and Giselle Beiguelman), which consequently resulted in four research trips to Brazil, many university lectures in that country, and as of last month a contract for publication of a bi-lingual collection of essays (& CD-ROM of artworks) that will be translated by Jorge Luiz Antonio and published by Musa Editora in São Paulo in 2006. After one of the E-POETRY events, I noticed Fauzee was standing around by himself, putting away his video gear (he was documenting all of the sessions), so I struck up a conversation with him. It was his first trip to the USA and he seemed a little timid, but we talked, and he told me that he was a student at MMU, etc. A few months later, when I received an invitation to speak at a conference in Beijing, I contacted Fauzee, and he arranged for me to have also a week’s residency at MMU, where I gave a lecture, performance, and led a workshop of local student digital poet/artists. This was a terrific set of days, in which I was able to produce a two-screen multimedia (one video, one animation) poem (never published, only performed) about 9/11 (which had happened a month earlier). I’d brought 60 pages of related poetry, 15 minutes of video footage, and several dozen images with me. Fauzee and I put them together in his office here; the work was received positively by students, faculty, and administration. Nazura and I also gave presentations at Malaysia’s Literary Agency, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, that week. These days were a tremendous experience, and vowed to return to the country for a longer period, and that period is now. It is amazing how a single event and chance encounters can play a significant role in life, and E-POETRY 2001 made a profound impact on mine. Though I have great respect for many of his digital works and the ongoing production of the Electronic Poetry Center, I would not characterize my association with Loss Glazier as a particularly strong one. Nonetheless I do wish to acknowledge publicly the influence of his organizational efforts, praise them, and express my gratitude to him for what he does on behalf of digital poetry on a global level. While I’m at it, I should also give props to Fauzee, Nazura, and Khong CW - my initial contacts at MMU. Without these folks, I wouldn't be having this tremendous cultural exposure I'm now experiencing, which includes what Amy calls "fusion living" (as well as the popular notion of "courtesy of choice"); instead, I’d be slogging through another bitter winter in New Jersey.
My Fulbright proposal involved engineering multimedia databases, which is something that is not being done very much at this juncture but is something I am very curious about and wish to be involved with during the next couple of decades. Of course, the reason it isn’t being done results from its high degree of difficulty. In general, writing multimedia code is always challenging, but using a program such like mysql to design poems and synthesize media is incredibly demanding. At this point, my objective is to document as much of my visceral experience in Malaysia as possible, build databases of disctinct media (pictures, video, sound, text) and then see what I can do to unite them. Thus, the photo blogs, travel blogs, incessantly making recordings, etc. Minor setback in that I blew out the AC adapter for my minidisk recorder by plugging it into a socket in a Kuala Lumpur hotel the other day (thankfully the MD player did not get destroyed as well), one of the perils a globetrotting digital poet / documentarian faces, I suppose. I will also be exploring other multimedia programs and processes while I am here. Instead of writing prose, which has taken up the bulk of my time during the past several years, I intend to make poems and art as I record our movements (I am traveling with my wife Amy and daughters Constellation and Aleatory) through the country.
Nonetheless, I am still finalizing the manuscripts for the two books I have under contract. The aforementioned bi-lingual volume (with CD-ROM), Technopoetry Rising: Essays and works 1993-2005/O surgimento da tecnopoesia: ensaios e poesias digitais (1993-2005) is essentially complete, although I will probably add a little bit to the introduction and to the CD-ROM (which includes audio tracks of poems, lectures, and animated poems). Marcus Salgado, one of my musical collaborators in Brazil, has been doing some new mixes of materials we recorded in Rio (Jan. ’05) and São Paulo (June ’05). You can hear one of them (“SP”) at http:// www.tramavirtual.com.br/artista/tomguru. The other book, which I researched for more than a decade, Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of Forms 1959-1995, has already been through a series of serious revisions, and will be published in the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series curated by Charles Bernstein and Hank Lazer at University of Alabama Press in about a year. Essentially, all that’s left to do is put the thing into MLA format and obtain permissions for some of the work that is included in the book, so I ought to be able to get the manuscript back to Tuscaloosa by the end of this month and keep on schedule. I was hoping to attend to these matters done this week, but it will take more time than I have to spare during the next few days, as I’m acquainting myself with a new campus, staff, and students. For instance, today instead of working on the formatting of the book I opted to sit in on MMU Interface Design majors’ final year presentations (and glad that I did because I saw some fantastic ideas being presented). Anyhow, I spent 10 days or so before leaving the US getting all the citations of the book verified and in order, so the rest I should be able to handle in a couple of days of focused work…
So, this blog is going to report on my work and research as it continues, now in Malaysia. Today I moved into my office at MMU, sent emails to Jorge Luiz Antonio, Burt Kimmelman, Lee Ann Brown, Lucio Agra, Katie Yates, and attended to some matters regarding the website I manage for Amiri Baraka. I printed copies of my books to review for my formatting chores (and to share with colleagues at MMU), printed and signed contracts for publications in England (an essay titled “Digital Poetry” that’s being published in a volume titled A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, edited by Ray Siemans and Susan Schreibman) and for Technopoetry Rising. And, obviously, launched this blog!
Cheers to anyone who finds it,
CF
First blog entry. Ever. I’ve decided to set this space up to chronicle (broadcast?) my research related activity during my residence at Multimedia University (in Cyberjaya, Malaysia) from January-July 2006.
I’ve also set up a travel narrative (not yet active) and photoblog (http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_funks), which are just getting going. We’ve only been in Malaysia for about 15 days, and have just now settled into our apartment on the MMU campus. It took a few days to sort some of the technological aspects of our existence out, like power cables (Malaysia’s electricity is twice as “hot” as that in the USA), Ethernet connection/firewall issues (I got a virus – hacktool.rootkit – within 30 minutes of my first login at the apartment; fortunately now fixed, thanks to MMU IT), and other such matters.
Thanks to my colleagues and the staff here, I’ve been set up with an office/studio, a cellphone (call from the USA is, I think 011-60-13-2480460), printing resources, etc. I am extremely grateful to everyone on the staff of the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (where I am stationed), especially Khong, Rozi, Leza, and Wong, who have made our transition to Malaysian academic life both easy and a pleasure.
In case you are wondering how I ended up in Malaysia, it is pleasure to relay the story (especially since it gives me a chance to transmit a few well deserved appreciations).
If Loss Pequeño Glazier had not taken the initiative to organize E-POETRY 2001: An International Festival of Digital Poetry, I almost certainly would not be here. Further, I really wonder what trajectory my life and work would have taken if this particular event had not transpired. At the Festival I met many people who I’d never encountered face-to-face before, like Jim Andrews, David Daniels, Jennifer Ley, Reiner Strasser, and Komninos Zervos; among those gathered in Buffalo I also met two Malaysian artists, Nazura Rahime (Malaysia’s first digital poet), and Fauzee Nasir (a video artist and now Nazura’s husband), whose presence on my radar most directly led me to where I am at today. I also encountered some Brazilian digital poets (Lucio Agra, Wilton Azevedo, and Giselle Beiguelman), which consequently resulted in four research trips to Brazil, many university lectures in that country, and as of last month a contract for publication of a bi-lingual collection of essays (& CD-ROM of artworks) that will be translated by Jorge Luiz Antonio and published by Musa Editora in São Paulo in 2006. After one of the E-POETRY events, I noticed Fauzee was standing around by himself, putting away his video gear (he was documenting all of the sessions), so I struck up a conversation with him. It was his first trip to the USA and he seemed a little timid, but we talked, and he told me that he was a student at MMU, etc. A few months later, when I received an invitation to speak at a conference in Beijing, I contacted Fauzee, and he arranged for me to have also a week’s residency at MMU, where I gave a lecture, performance, and led a workshop of local student digital poet/artists. This was a terrific set of days, in which I was able to produce a two-screen multimedia (one video, one animation) poem (never published, only performed) about 9/11 (which had happened a month earlier). I’d brought 60 pages of related poetry, 15 minutes of video footage, and several dozen images with me. Fauzee and I put them together in his office here; the work was received positively by students, faculty, and administration. Nazura and I also gave presentations at Malaysia’s Literary Agency, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, that week. These days were a tremendous experience, and vowed to return to the country for a longer period, and that period is now. It is amazing how a single event and chance encounters can play a significant role in life, and E-POETRY 2001 made a profound impact on mine. Though I have great respect for many of his digital works and the ongoing production of the Electronic Poetry Center, I would not characterize my association with Loss Glazier as a particularly strong one. Nonetheless I do wish to acknowledge publicly the influence of his organizational efforts, praise them, and express my gratitude to him for what he does on behalf of digital poetry on a global level. While I’m at it, I should also give props to Fauzee, Nazura, and Khong CW - my initial contacts at MMU. Without these folks, I wouldn't be having this tremendous cultural exposure I'm now experiencing, which includes what Amy calls "fusion living" (as well as the popular notion of "courtesy of choice"); instead, I’d be slogging through another bitter winter in New Jersey.
My Fulbright proposal involved engineering multimedia databases, which is something that is not being done very much at this juncture but is something I am very curious about and wish to be involved with during the next couple of decades. Of course, the reason it isn’t being done results from its high degree of difficulty. In general, writing multimedia code is always challenging, but using a program such like mysql to design poems and synthesize media is incredibly demanding. At this point, my objective is to document as much of my visceral experience in Malaysia as possible, build databases of disctinct media (pictures, video, sound, text) and then see what I can do to unite them. Thus, the photo blogs, travel blogs, incessantly making recordings, etc. Minor setback in that I blew out the AC adapter for my minidisk recorder by plugging it into a socket in a Kuala Lumpur hotel the other day (thankfully the MD player did not get destroyed as well), one of the perils a globetrotting digital poet / documentarian faces, I suppose. I will also be exploring other multimedia programs and processes while I am here. Instead of writing prose, which has taken up the bulk of my time during the past several years, I intend to make poems and art as I record our movements (I am traveling with my wife Amy and daughters Constellation and Aleatory) through the country.
Nonetheless, I am still finalizing the manuscripts for the two books I have under contract. The aforementioned bi-lingual volume (with CD-ROM), Technopoetry Rising: Essays and works 1993-2005/O surgimento da tecnopoesia: ensaios e poesias digitais (1993-2005) is essentially complete, although I will probably add a little bit to the introduction and to the CD-ROM (which includes audio tracks of poems, lectures, and animated poems). Marcus Salgado, one of my musical collaborators in Brazil, has been doing some new mixes of materials we recorded in Rio (Jan. ’05) and São Paulo (June ’05). You can hear one of them (“SP”) at http:// www.tramavirtual.com.br/artista/tomguru. The other book, which I researched for more than a decade, Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of Forms 1959-1995, has already been through a series of serious revisions, and will be published in the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series curated by Charles Bernstein and Hank Lazer at University of Alabama Press in about a year. Essentially, all that’s left to do is put the thing into MLA format and obtain permissions for some of the work that is included in the book, so I ought to be able to get the manuscript back to Tuscaloosa by the end of this month and keep on schedule. I was hoping to attend to these matters done this week, but it will take more time than I have to spare during the next few days, as I’m acquainting myself with a new campus, staff, and students. For instance, today instead of working on the formatting of the book I opted to sit in on MMU Interface Design majors’ final year presentations (and glad that I did because I saw some fantastic ideas being presented). Anyhow, I spent 10 days or so before leaving the US getting all the citations of the book verified and in order, so the rest I should be able to handle in a couple of days of focused work…
So, this blog is going to report on my work and research as it continues, now in Malaysia. Today I moved into my office at MMU, sent emails to Jorge Luiz Antonio, Burt Kimmelman, Lee Ann Brown, Lucio Agra, Katie Yates, and attended to some matters regarding the website I manage for Amiri Baraka. I printed copies of my books to review for my formatting chores (and to share with colleagues at MMU), printed and signed contracts for publications in England (an essay titled “Digital Poetry” that’s being published in a volume titled A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, edited by Ray Siemans and Susan Schreibman) and for Technopoetry Rising. And, obviously, launched this blog!
Cheers to anyone who finds it,
CF
# posted by chris funkhouser @ 12:53 AM 
