We've now had our second false beginning of spring. Two days ago, 68 degrees, outside comfortably in a t-shirt—now looking out the studio window and we're getting pounded by a storm (a Nor'easter in fact)…
In addition to a dozen other things (like going to the dentist, taxes, selecting poems to present at E-Poetry), spent the last week (my "spring break," such as it is) working on a couple of animations. So much process! Recorded and mixed ambient soundtracks (last Fri., Sat.), selected and recorded texts (ditto). Began devising animations on Mon., came up with a few ideas / approaches to explore. Tedious (meticulous but sometimes random) layering and motioning in Flash, consulting with old chapbooks, the online anagram server, and new thoughts for texts and presentations. Totally random techniques and approaches combined with highly calculated ones. The piece is for or about or because of my daughters, and when you have a daughter named Aleatory it gives you a lot of permission (whereas I'd say the name Constellation, the other daughter, imparts responsibility). The layering of both the music and vocal text is pretty happenstance. The musical notes are from the girls' names ( C & F , A & F), of which samples were recorded & copied on various then processed and adjusted until it sounded good. The vocals were overdubbed on multiple tracks until a reasonable combination occurred. Slight problem in that the poem for Stella is more complex and wordy. The letter of the colors were built using a loosely applied pattern in the Flash color palette, and probably spent a total of 8 hours arranging these forms as they are.
Anyhow, there are two versions of the movie, one embedded on my website (http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous) and one linked to it. I put an email link on the site and would value any observations/input/feedback you have to share. The embedded version includes the vocal soundtrack, the link version just has ambient sound. It seems like the vocal track, while aesthetically important, was almost too much, really making it a multipoem (i.e., more than one poem at once), or a "multimedia multipoem" as I described it to my old friend Steve Silberman, with whom I've been in touch lately.
Just a few comments about this work, for now. Although in some ways it is retro, it is also fairly unique. Obviously it borrows from a few sources, the foremost of which are Brian Kim Stefans the dreamlife of letters (http://www.ubu.com/contemp/stefans/dream/), bpNichol's First Screening (http://vispo.com/bp/geof.htm), Neil Hennessey's Jabber (http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/winter2004/jabber/index.htm), all of which I have taught in the Literature Online course this semester. There are probably a few historical (digital) texts it could be connected to, like some of the work featured in Alire, maybe Robert Kendall's SoftPoems, or even concrete poems, and who knows what else…
For various reasons I'm interested in making my work more visual and sonic, so this exercise is good practice in the quest to move toward that realm. Transitoire Observable! Next I want to make a small interactive poem using Flash Behaviors, probably without sound, although you never know…