Tuesday 25 November, 2008 On ALTX I found the very great Electronic Book Review which is definitely worth a look. Also the ALTXPRESS also has some very good titles. This is a must for anyone interested in the possibilities of poetry online.
Monday 24 November, 2008 The financial meltdown has made it impossible to ignore the blatant irrationality of global capitalism. In the fight against Aids, hunger, lack of water or global warming, we may recognise the urgency of the problem, but there is always time to reflect, to postpone decisions. The main conclusion of the meeting of world leaders in Bali to talk about climate change, hailed as a success, was that they would meet again in two years to continue the talks. But with the financial meltdown, the urgency was unconditional; a sum beyond imagination was immediately found. Saving endangered species, saving the planet from global warming, finding a cure for Aids, saving the starving children . . . All that can wait a bit, but ‘Save the banks!’ is an unconditional imperative which demands and gets immediate action. The panic was absolute. A transnational and non-partisan unity was immediately established, all grudges among world leaders momentarily forgotten in order to avert the catastrophe. (Incidentally, what the much-praised ‘bi-partisanship’ effectively means is that democratic procedures were de facto suspended.) The sublimely enormous sum of money was spent not for some clear ‘real’ task, but in order to ‘restore confidence’ in the markets – i.e. for reasons of belief. Do we need any more proof that Capital is the Real of our lives, the Real whose demands are more absolute than even the most pressing demands of our social and natural reality?via Silliman
Sunday 23 November, 2008 We posted a while back that David Miller would be reading in December. That has now been postponed. Boo. But, Sophie Robinson has taken his place. Yay! Thursday 18th December, 7-8pm Parasol Unit, 14 Wharf Road, Hackney, N1 (Map) Admission is free.
Saturday 22 November, 2008 Leading scholars at the library are at a loss to explain why Farhad Hakimzadeh, a Harvard-educated businessman, publisher and intellectual, took a scalpel to the leaves of 150 books that have been in the nation's collection for centuries. The monetary damage he caused over seven years is in the region of £400,000 but Dr Kristian Jensen, head of the British and early printed collections at the library, said no price could be placed upon the books and maps that he had defaced and stolen.More supporting evidence for my campaign to have armed guards stationed outside and within the British Library. Would add a little piquancy to the proceedings don't you think?
Saturday 22 November, 2008 John Sparrow:
This piece is an experiment which considers the fusion of visual and textual elements – a synaesthesia which I thought was interesting in looking at Beth Ames Swartz's paintings. The piece is a counterpart to the pieces I wrote for the The Word in Paint book, and uses similar fragmentary techniques as a basic composition method.Read the working note or go straight to the work.
Saturday 22 November, 2008 Latest news in Stuff That Just Won't Go Away:
In October 2008, Stephen McLaughlin, Gregory Laynor, and Vladimir Zykov published Issue 1, a 3,785-page document featuring almost as many poets. The pdf was posted at forgodot.com. The poems were produced by a poem generator called Erika, or Erica T. Carter. The ISSUE 2 document is a collection of the blog posts and comments that responded to the project and/or responded to responses about the project and/or responded to issues that were raised within the discussion (419 pages).I'm still trying to figure out why it got almost everyone's attention, including my own.
Friday 21 November, 2008 UPDATE: European online library crashes BBC:
The British Library in London is among more than 1,000 cultural organisations making contributions to a European online library. The free multimedia venture, Europeana, will also see input from the European Commission and the Louvre Museum. Internet users will be able to access more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films. These will be sourced from institutions across the EU's member states. Further expansion for the project, which was created by the European Commission and is run by the European Digital Library Foundation, is planned for 2010.Now that the internet is starting to foster international partnerships based on ideals of free, distributed knowledge (Wikipedia kickstarted this fantastic craze, now it seems governments are catching up) there are some issues this raises. With the democracy of publishing that the internet allows, and the uncertain future of print (not whether it will exist but what form it will take) how will ventures such as the above vet newly published material for suitability? As the boundaries between print and online publishing spheres blur evermore, will traditional structures of publishing follow, or will something undeniably more open but undeniably more difficult to navigate take its place? And if so, on what criteria will material find its way into our libraries, into our online archives and into our academia?
Friday 21 November, 2008 A gallery of Asemic Writing. Currently seeking submissions. More information about asemic writing here. via DBC
