Project 2: Surveillance Poetics

Gene Hackman, detail from movie poster for The Conversation (1974).

If you've ever dreamt of working for the NSA, then perhaps this is the poetry prompt for you. Our second project builds off of the active listening that you did in Project 1 but changes the scope somewhat, with the focus this time being speech exclusively, instead of non-verbal sounds. It's based, in part, on separate entries from Charles Bernstein's experiment list ("Write a poem consisting entirely of overheard conversation.") and Bernadette Mayer's list of poetry journal ideas  (which lists "answering machine messages" and "telephone calls [taped?]" among other possibilities). Bernstein offers Kenneth Goldsmith's Soliloquy as an example, and you can find that work — "an unedited document of every word [Goldsmith] spoke during the week of April 15–21, 1996" — and instructions for navigating it here.

Of course, as Goldsmith's book suggests, your own speech might be a part of this project, though one's first inclination might be to only consider others' speech. As was the case in the first project, your choice of listening location, time of day, etc. will greatly influence the outcome. You might also opt to record ambient conversation and then transcribe, but simply writing things down as you hear them is probably quicker and easier. Feel free to include/exclude material as suits you. Your responses might walk the fine line between Chion's notions of semantic and reduced sound, as well as touch upon some ideas from Eno/Schaeffer (re: the re- or de-constructive manipulation of materials) and Burroughs/Gysin (in terms of juxtapositions and gaps).

Your responses to this prompt should be written, and again there's no minimum or maximum length (though be reasonable). Let's tentatively say that your poems should be posted no later than our class on Friday, September 18th and depending on how quickly our first round of workshops goes, we could start talking about these poems as early as September 21st.