Algorithms in conceptual writing

With Fernando Diaz

Back in February, when I started this column, I wanted to interview Fernando Diaz about his sound art projects and also — because he's a computer scientist — about algorithms in poetry. The word "algorithm" appears often in critical analyses of conceptual writing, so I had been wondering what, if anything, conceptual writing and algorithms had to do with each other. I wanted to believe, but Fernando was skeptical about this metaphor. After 2.5 months of meeting, discussing, questioning, and haggling, we have only just begun to work through the chasm between our fields, our different values, histories, vocabularies, etc. Latour would be proud. It's been challenging and fun. And I'm grateful for Fernando's patience, generosity, and humor in working with me towards this provisional document.

April 27, 2013

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My Approach

Being an active part of a poetry community is like having a second job. O the hours I have put in, but rarely do I find time to write about it. I agreed to report for Jacket2 these next few weeks as a writing constraint to correct that. I want to write about the scene(s) I occupy, report and reflect on events, interview organizers and opinionators. And maybe re-post a few things. This space should operate as a window into what is happening in certain corners of poetry right now.

One of Jacket2's editorial suggestions for commentary writers is that we approach the task as a beat reporter. For the last few weeks I've been preparing by thinking of this project with an eye toward journalism, so I've felt a desire to "get at" some challenging issues of the day, dig into particular issues of the moment. I think it could at times border on a kind of gossip column. Nothing lurid or personal, more of a who-said-what-about-which-reading, or a relaying of great ideas that emerge in casual conversation, and maybe even a little "who last saw Kim and Thurston at a poetry event" when that seems relevant.

In a classroom discussion of Gertrude Stein's line "history is gossip," my former professor Charles Bernstein riffed on Stein's way of redistributing our sense of where gossip ends and history begins. That conversation changed forever my approach to the sociality of poetry. You don't learn everything there, but you can learn some important things you would learn nowhere else. Not to say all these posts will make history, or that everything they depict deserves to be remembered. That's not the spirit of Stein's idea. It's that what has happened happened in the smallest of happenings and the large ones too.

Jacket2Commentaries feature invited posts by poets and scholars who take a close, serial look at poetry scenes, archives, poetic concerns, or theoretical clusters. Commentaries, although curated, are not edited by Jacket2 staff. We welcome your comments. Send queries and notes to Commentaries Editor Jessica Lowenthal or contact us at this page.