aisyalam

Two different CD-ROM projects—the companion to Technopoetry Rising and the e-book Selections 2.0—means I have to be quite organized, as the components of each are different. Determined to have these in the can by mid-April, so time when not in lecture writing space getting them together. Also, re-wrote the introduction to the Technopoetry volume so that it complies with the e-book (which will incorporate all of the MMU lectures and a Googlism poem. Organization and patience! The many details of production!

After I grew weary of working on that and hankering to return to creative work, began to put together the first durian poem (“Facts About Durians”) using Flash and Google (including Lehto’s generator) plus my own ingenuity. I’m having great fun so far, much more than writing another essay, and facing a different set of challenges (not the least of which is my lack of practice with Flash). I’d like to finish a version of it by Monday, to give the Beta students a chuckle after showing more serious works. To that end have added Alan Sondheim to my Digital Poetry Today canon: http://www.asondheim.org/om.txt] [btw, for those of you in NY, I rec’d a notice that Sondheim’s videos are going to be shown at Millennium Film and Video on March 18. The note that accompanied the screening announcement was a great description of his presentations these days:

'My recent work is multi-media. Laptop performances deal with political, sexual,
and cyber issues. I run video/audio/text segments from a laptop in combinatory
fashion, typing a real-time commentary at screen bottom. The result is an
extended body and socius, digital problematized by analog, purity by error,
language by language-stumbling. If I can't break new ground in performance, I've
failed. I present an entertaining implosion of information, fast-forward
imaging, memories of seductions. My avatars are reincarnations of Bodhidarma,
the world's wonder collapsed into pixel- annihilation. I empty images at
warp-speed. It's already a gone world, say goodbye-hello to extinctions.'

Long may you run, Alan!

Tomorrow off to Gombak (a district of KL) to lecture at the Islamic University. Apparently Fauzee will be there to record it—the part I am most looking forward to (beyond visiting the campus) is the Q & A session. Perhaps I’ll be surprised and they won’t be perplexed, although I doubt it. Will tell…