What is YOUR fragment? Poets explain this technique as it appears in their books (see the original questions HERE and an elaboration on my reflections HERE). Responses 1-6 have been supplied by (click names to see their posts): Lisa Pasold, Marthe Reed, George Vance, rob mclennan, j/j hastain, and Michael Ruby. Afton Wilky responds below.
Afton Wilky's Fragment:
For me, the fragment
emerges out of their being too much. Too much to hear, see, on the page, in the
world. For example, in a crowded room where many conversations are taking
place, my ears pick up the sound of all these conversations, but I can only follow
the thread of one at a time. I perceive everything outside of my focus as
static noise.
However, this is not to
say that my focus remains fixed on one thread. And it’s the shifting of my
attention which produces a sort of fragment. One of the beauties of this type
fragment, which occurs out of overlap, is the spontaneous significance that can
emerge at points of juxtaposition.
In performing pieces
from my recent book, Clarity Speaks of a Crystal Sea, I use multi-track audio
in order to generate several threads of my own voice. Because I’m reading into
previously recorded audio, the element of improvisation makes each performance
unique; the result of listening, timing and recognition. Thus, the performance
becomes a way of re-seeing the text. For someone in the audience, what they
hear is shaped by particularities of their attention as they respond to and
move through their experience.
 |
| extract of Clarity Speaks of a Crystal Sea |
PS from Jen Dick: Afton wilky has been working on a series of video essays for her
second book project, Circa. This includes one in particular related to this topic re: part three (ellipses) which hopefully will go public with the publication of this book. Keep your eyes peeled for this in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment