'Lectric Collective

Discus Discuss

2012-02-20T22:45:00.003-08:00

We had a wonderful discussion this past Saturday in preparation for our upcoming March 9 event (details: Krowswork Gallery; poets Kevin Killian, Jen Burris, Ben Mirov; artists Chrstine Elfman, Adrian Buckmaster, and Nick Almquist; 7:30pm).

Looking at some different examples of collaboration, we talked about what it is that makes that "third thing" emerge, as Chrstine put it the "puff of blue smoke in a chemistry experiment" that's neither ingredient alone but rather a result of the reaction between two.

Class of '47, a comic by New York schoolers Brainard and Creeley, as an example of a kind of traditional (or, "exquisite corps-ey" as John Sakkis called it) teaming-up of poet and writer.

War the Musical by Rob Fitterman, as reworked through video by Rob and artist Klaus Killisch (so good, a must see, esp "Don't Give up the Ship," with the dog.).

Swamp, by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, an essential exemplification of the problematic nature of directing/receiving directions in a collaborative setting. We may have decided, through this, that everything is kind of a sham.

and various iterations of Christian Marclay's work "Manga Scroll," with special attention to the Shelley Hirsch version that we were lucky enough to witness at the SF electronic music festival last year. This brought up questions about what the relationship between a composer and player is; is it collaboration? Can it be a struggle between egos? Is that necessarily bad, good, neutral? It also reminded John and Tom Comitta of the many interpretations of Kurt Schwitter's Ursonate, of which we listened to Christian Bok's super speedy Bone thugs-worthy reading as well as a robotic xtranormalesque rendition.

Conclusions were nowhere to be found, but we did have some pizza and wine and our heads together and for some good ole third-thing-thinking.

we're not blacked out anymore, and the future is bright

2012-01-24T15:30:00.001-08:00

Blackout over!

Get this: the day of the anti-SOPA internet blackout, we Lectrices also experienced a neighborhood blackout. For a while we considered that it might have been a fancy prank against PG&E by some occupiers or anonymous. Then we considered that even if it weren't, we should do our best to make it seem as if it were. Then, though, we found a rat in our kitchen. A real rat, not a person who would tell on us. So our plan was foiled and we spent the rest of our lives standing on chairs and searching under furniture.

Anyway: this post is also to say that we're brewing up some exciting March business. Brace yourselves, and check back frequently.

sopa

2012-01-17T20:19:00.001-08:00

Okay, so it turns out that we couldn't get the nifty auto-blackout java thing to work on the platform we're using (something about the time-sensitive thing and html don't go together...). Anyway, here's a solidarity post in support of .... being against SOPA. Please don't look at the rest of our site tomorrow, when it will be symbolically down.

Video Post

2011-12-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

Oh hello! If you missed our last event (or if you came), enjoy these videos that were screened:

(This composition is composed of clips shot by accident on personal devices. The montage served as an introduction to the event, presenting and questioning these seemingly unmediated media relics in relation to digital recording as objective documentation.)

(This video is composed of clips shot of the Occupy Movement on consumer devices. As the central video of the event, it broached the subject of framing as subjectivity in documentation.)

(The above video consists of clips that incorporate footage of the Occupy Movement from personal media devices. Played at the conclusion of the event, this video gestures at a largely inconclusive line of questioning: is the quality of empowerment that accessible personal-media making devices seem to offer reversed when inserted into a formalized structure? Is that structure ever-present innately in all media? Or, is the power to co-opt similarly deracinated because of the availability of footage and editing tools?)

Following Incidental Footage

2011-12-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

Last Friday's event was a surprising, exuberant showcase of mediated poetry and varied video samples that added up to a culminating picture of how to invert the making of an artwork or social message, given a reflexive culture of equipped creators. Following our screening of accidentally made films, we heard excellent readings by Candy Shue, who contextualized her lyric work in the recent philosophy of Ken Wilbur; Monica Mody, whose moving opening statement about how chance-made art relates to composition and social order left a rife impression on her visceral poetic voice; and Alli Warren, who delivered a singular transcription of textual screen shots that were sourced by her own complex series of constraints (look here!). Next came our compiled raw videos of various #OWS happenings and a reading/provocation-fest by Greg McGarry. Paul Ebenkamp delivered the evening's final oral staging with a copious elucidation of the forms, pains, obsessions and ruins at work in a Dickinson poem. We closed with a composed series of videos that re-frame the Occupy movement, either with ambivalence, flippancy or gravitas.

Look below for some text that was in our program/claim-to-ethos for the event! The three video sequences that were screened will be here soon.

If propaganda is an aesthetic that refuses to be critical of itself, raw footage purports to be its opposite, an unmolested documentation of the real. But what is being represented? Consider the issue of framing: documentation ceases to be objective. We’d like to present a progression of footage with increasingly controlled (and controlling) frame structures.

Here we examine the proliferation of personal media-making. Personal recording devices are empowering aids to an increasingly visual reality, made rich and frenzied by its viewers and by its makers equally. This accessibility blurs the definition between producer and recipient, enabling a culture of immediacy and communicability. Due to this proliferation, digital recording has become tantamount to its predecessor in personal, reproducible communication technology: writing. This evening is an ecosystem of leveled realities.

occupy accidents

2011-11-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Hey yall,

A few months ago, as previously posted, we hatched an idea to hold a reading/ film screening on the theme of accidental-making. For the visual component of this event, our plan was to screen films made without the will/knowledge of the camera's user; whether it be because the device-holder thought the camera was on "still" mode, because the off button was out of sight, because it was in a too-tight pocket... whatever the reason, these inane videos, we thought, may be of interest when amalgamated.

FOR THIS REASON, WE'RE STILL REQUESTING YOU SEND US ANY/ALL ACCIDENTAL FOOTAGE YOU MAY HAVE TAKEN EVER.

As our event approaches, however, we have become preoccupied (no pun intended), with the political occurrences that surround us here in Oakland and feel it would be imprudent for us to carry on without addressing them. For this reason, we've decided that it's essential that we do our best to reframe our project, to some degree, in light of our current social climate.

FOR THIS REASON, WE ARE ALSO REQUESTING ANY SHORT PIECES OF FOOTAGE YOU MAY HAVE OF RECENT EVENTS.

Recent events, we realize, is an intensely vague statement. However our intention is to sew together our initial exploration and the currently relevant, and so we'd like to keep our minds open to whatever you'd like to submit. Footage involving the occupy movement is our highest priority, but we're also open to screening footage that captures what you find representative of the very contemporary. Our only restriction is that it be shot by you, on a non-professional device, and without any intentional staging.

Instructions for sending us videos are (still) as follows:

1. Go to sendspace.com
2. Hit "browse"
3. Select your video
4. Recipient = "lectriccollective@gmail.com"
5. Please send by December 1 at the very latest.

Hope you all are staying safe out there.

Sarah et al

taking submissions of accidental films

2011-10-21T15:59:00.001-07:00

Good Afternoon!

This is to announce that we are currently taking submissions for an event we are planning for this coming December. It's a branching out of our ekphrastic series and will include short short films made BY YOU, BY ACCIDENT.

Please send your accidental films to us at lectriccollective@gmail.com in great haste.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Here is one:

Look out for more details!

Sarah

The Big Return

2011-08-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

So it is! With the end of August has come the end of our great tour. I'm already experiencing some withdrawals - for instance, could we, or anyone, substitute a steady flow of abbreviated tracked lives all over the place for a hearty, big life in just one place? Luckily, we don't have to decide right now because all our paw-tracked trickle life events are still with us because of Recorded Audiovisuals (because that's how we wanted it). The point of this being, now that we've scavenged the nation, we owe it (and you) something in return. Our plans for this illustrious document are expansive and will take a some time to unravel - and while I won't tell you just what they are right now, keep a close eye on us in the coming month.

K shredda

2011-08-21T12:05:00.001-07:00

OK, so we're far away from Pottstown now, but I won't tell you where we are 'cause it's a surprise. From Pennsylvania we journeyed to Washington DC to spend the night in our nation's poetry capitol as a bit of a layover to North Carolina, our nation's Fred Moten capitol. We drove around DC at about 5mph, as General Flow allowed, and got stuck in some pretty Buster Keaton style vehicular complications, one of which led to our first (and hopefully last) Official Traffic Violation. One police officer maximized his time by ticketing 3 cars at once for being partially in the bike lane, including ours (the bike lane, by the way, is situated not on the edge of the street near the sidewalk, but between two car lanes. (Woof (-Kelsa))).The next day, the trio set off for Durham, North Carolina, to meet up with Fred Moten at a bar called Federal next to a bar called James Joyce. It all came together like destiny to our national literary mindedness minds. Fred arrived and we chatted a good long while in the comfort of the cool bar and the cool beer, taking solace from a tremendously warm day. There we spent the afternoon, in the Rembrandt lighting, shooting the shit.Shortly thereafter we headed off to Lumberton, North Carolina, where my mother and step-father are currently settling down. We tried to find a bar to go to in the evening, but after much exhausting research came to find the only bars around were Ruby Tuesday and The Outback Steakhouse. We went to both.Now we're having a ton of fun in The South!j.

a flying object, neptune, and mercury

2011-08-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

Let's see here... amid our stay in New York was a jaunt over to Hadley, which is by Northhampton, which is by Amherst, which is in Massachusetts, for a reading at Flying Object. FO is very objectively magical: a converted firehouse in an old flat neighborhood by the river where everything looks very, very American. On their website, the space is described as "supported in part by small, independent publishers, artists, writers, and graphic designers, its mission is to support them back." Clearly, this would be a fitting community for our project.

Guy Pettit, who runs the space, was there to meet us and show us some of the neat things there, including a Vanderbilt letterpress machine that was not unlike the one we used to make our postcards and bookmarks. Shortly after, Ish Klein, Greg Purcell, and Mark Leidner showed up for a group interview, sharing with us their perspectives on poetic communities both local and national. Amherst area is heavily steeped in literary tradition, so sort of like Oakland, the community there flourishes. Which also meant that we had a nice-sized crowed at the reading who engaged beautifully with our "soundtrack" experiment (have we mentioned this on the blog yet? at the readings we've been doing interactive audience experiments involving distributing and reading found texts aloud accompanying music or images, we'll be posting them as part of our document eventually).

The reading itself was captivating: Greg, who read three longer poems, had some Ginsberg-y gusto; we were particularly interested in his writing about place; including America as a whole and his hometown of Kalamazoo. Hearing his words in the form of a reading was an interesting complement to our earlier discussions about the influences of geography. Ish followed and delivered some writing that is conversational (though not like any actual conversation you've ever had or overheard) and outright zany, often occurring in in some kind of alternate memory-universe where sciencey words mix fluidly with the everyday. Mark read last, and I have to say that, as much as I loved his poems, which dealt in a frank and layered way with topics like pseudo-historical lore and the impossibility of staying "cool" (that's a stupid way to describe a pretty brilliant poem...), my favorite part of his reading was an anecdote he told about finding himself surrounded by Japanese tourists earlier that day while wearing a shirt that said "Kyoto" (I won't spoil the story here...).

After the reading, we had some giant slices of pizza ("official diet of the lectric co tour," apparently) and beers at a place called "Ye Ole Wateringhole" / "Beer Can Museum"with Mark, Guy, and some of the other delightful folks who attended the reading who were MFA students at UMass.

Back in New York, we had our interview with Ariana at a Polish restaurant called Neptune, at which she cast a spell on our video camera. Despite this, the interview was illuminating, as were the borscht and potato pancakes.

Now we're in a town called Pottstown near a town called Shwenksville near a town called King of Prussia near a town called Philadelphia, where we interviewed the poet Jena Osman and were then taken on a short walk around the "towns within towns"-- little cobblestone roads that surround historical Philly. Jena should really run her own tour, having done research on the disconnect between some of the claims of the town's many plaques/statues and the reality of the situations/personages they depict. Bizarre, hilarious, informative.

What else? I don't know, but we are now leaving to go for a hot walk around Valley Forge!

Sarah

East vs East

2011-08-03T20:56:00.001-07:00

Tonight I write to you from New York City. The 11:00 local news informs us that bed bugs have become a problem for NYC movie theater-goers; the view from Times Square is wet and the temperature is 68; it's common for a man to refer to another man as "boss" in public spaces (personal observation). As for the project! There are some things you should know.

Almost immediately upon arriving we were warmly welcomed into Rachel Zucker's apartment, where we filmed her and talked about what it means to be contemporary, and a poet, and her, in New York. We left all starry and in a delighted glaze, only to find ourselves seated next to a big dog on Rob Fitterman's couch, where he fed me cheese bread and we had another set of recorded conversations on topics that thrilled us bone-deep (after all Rob, like us, is a firm pusher of the imperative inter-media ((formally fringe (challenged) delightedly marginish)) core of poetry as an artistic act(/concept).

Do note that these conversations, plus other wily content, is going to become available in some re-cut and rich way once we've amassed all we can and have the time to sort through it, most likely this fall. We've been telling people who ask, "what's it all about?" that we're currently (and have been now for 4 or so weeks ((if we're counting on tour dates (((maybe it's been a process for as long as the collective's been going ((((since about March 2010, or maybe for as long as we've been honing questions about poetry (((((some years now, or maybe since we've thought about the matter of questions at all ((((((forever)))))) in a gathering phase. Which means, we're collecting media and documents, plus distributing our postcards, in far and unlikely places. The synthesis of all this is still a mystery (to us and to you)! But be assured, poets say excellent things.

More excellent things were uttered later that night (July 28th) at our reading. The venue, the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, is a cozy space with an inviting lineup of events and exhibits that have been rooted in video work to date but, they tell us, are soon to include more poetry sorts of things. With poets, chairs and people in the chairs, the space felt satisfying and occupied. Which only became more true as the readings went on.

Dan Hoy opened with some astute, snappy poems that were quick on the release and extensive in the jive (which really just means he did an excellent job and the folks in attendance ate it up). He was followed by Ariana Reines, who read an engrossing hum of poems that luxuriated as much as they quipped. Rachel Zucker then contributed a powerful slew of new pieces that reveal exceptional vulnerability and strange comedy. Rob Fitterman closed out with hearty (though crucially spare) words on popular pharmaceutical drugs and, perhaps most memorably, an exciting account from an issue of his co-opted project, Collective Task. There was a striking flow to the readers and, since we are allowed to cut out the whole admiring-from-afar posture, we were outright delighted.

Most recently in New York we enjoyed a really electric interview with Dan Hoy, some very unbeatable slices of pizza (fact: all over America, pizza has been the most reliable and consistently edible food for us travellin' lectricians) and, just in case you forgot how this post started, moving clouds, thickish air and scattered showers. More of this in the days to come!

Kelsa

Writing to you from AA.

2011-07-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hello executives of my heart,

Our reading at Mars Gallery in Chicago with Nick Demske, Michael Robbins, and Alisa

Heinzman (accompanied by Jake Gillespie on the visual front) was totally "not lame"

(-Michael Robbins) after all. Alisa's collaboration with Jake's vids created some quite surreal moments, Michael read gut-busting poems from his smart phone, and Nick took advantage of his pure power of presence to captivate. Our "soundtrack for x film" experiment used similar text sources, but with the sci/low-fi film Acension of the Demonoids by George Kuchar. Surprisingly, the results were pretty much the opposite of the previous round, but I won't give away what they were. Chicago was a big fat fun time. Deep dish pizza is real, the place is littered with enormous public art structures, and the architecture is stunning at every angle. Next to The Art Institute is a quaint and well manicured garden where we held a Q&A with John Beer. That's not a euphemism, that's just what actually happened and what his actual name is (as far as I know). It was the hottest, sweatiest interview ever. That's not a euphemism either, the climate was oppressive. Locals frolicked about in a public square where high-rise multiculturally-friendly faces spat streams of water out from their video mouths. Seriously: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYu41OeUYn0&feature=related.

From Chi-town we followed the heat wave (as we have on this entire trip) to Ann Arbor

where we're currently staying with Mikey, the most considerate person in the universe.

(He's in his kitchenette making me coffee right now. I might never leave.). Two nights

ago we hosted a reading at Work Gallery here in AA, MI. Susan Holbrook and Rebecca Porte owned the stage. Since the collective doesn't have a whole lot of connections in

Michigan, we took to the streets, flagging people down for the show. The reading began

with our experiment using the same texts but pairing them with Michael Nyman's

"Abandonment" instead of a visual accompaniment. Rebecca's piece was written with Megan Levad. Their piece is an experiment in combined texts exploring American-ness. Which means these ladies and us ladies are definitely involved in a hive mind experience. Hive mind not only made Rebecca and Megan's project absurdly relevant to ours, but also easily justified Kelsa filling in for Megan's part in her absence. Susan Holbrook cracked up the audience and us as well. Before the reading a sudden rainstorm arrived. Since we all have some technical equipment to look after and absolutely no rain gear to speak of (way to

think ahead, Californians) we settled with plastic bags over everything, including our

heads. Tomorrow we're off to Niagara and The Big Apple. Wish us luck!

jills.

potato, mosquito

2011-07-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

We're en route to Chicago (literally, typing from the passenger's seat now). We've been having a busy and productive and wild time all at once. We spent not much time in Colorado, but we made a quick stop to look at Naropa and Innisfree poetry store and cafe, which we were very pleased with. We made a bit of a mistake in driving to Denver, because our aim to set up our book station was spoiled by a thunderstorm. But the storm was very beautiful to watch, so all's well.

Lincoln was a very pleasant surprise. We lodged up with the mother of our trombonist friend, Andy Strain, and were met with endless hospitality from both she and her pup, Piccolo. We also had an excellent time with the poets (Justin Fyfe, Jessica Millnitz, and Paul Clark) and their friends, who later took us out for a late night pool party by the train tracks. The Lincolnites run a space called Sp ce, which is in the same building as Tugboat, the gallery where we held the reading. They have some artworks up at Spce and, to use their own explanation, use the art to lure people in for readings during the Lincoln artwalk on first fridays.

The reading itself went so well. We tried out something new, an experiment we're calling “soundtrack for x film” using visual material from Stan Douglas's 1991 Monodramas, which didn't go quite as we expected but as mentioned is an experiment and was fulfilling nonetheless. Justin, who read first, emits a heavy air of deadpan, which mostly came through in his quips about the poems he read. The poems themselves were explorations of relationships and place, oftentimes specifically Nebraska (which we loved) and that were quietly clever. Jessica didn't read for long, but her work was frank and precise. Paul's presence itself was pretty magnanimous: he has a booming voice and was tapping his bear foot to the words he was reading, and his poetry lived up to his persona. A highlight for us was a poem he had written in collaboration with Rachel Wolfe(z). After the reading we head back to Sp ce and, at the suggestion of a friend named Kyle, started writing a composite poem with about a dozen of us contributing lines from past works, which felt surprisingly organic. I'll post it here soon. Anyway, in sum: we're certainly lucky to have met this group of folks.

It was hard to leave the friends we made in Lincoln, and we had a long drive ahead of us to Chicago with a plan to stop in Iowa City to check out the workshop and meet with Jerimee Blomeke, who runs the press Human 500. Jermiee came across our upcoming Chicago reading and wanted to help out, so we met with he and his girlfriend Nikki Lee and fellow workshop student Jeff Griffin, who extended the offer for us to crash in Iowa City, which we quickly took. The group of us spent some time chatting about the workshop, which from what we hear is... debaucherous? Emotional? And very worthwhile. We also met two friendly Iowa graduates who run an interesting sounding reading called Monsters of Poetry in Madison, which we're sad we can't make it to. Later the stupendous hospitality of the midwest continued, plus we obtained a few copies of Jeff's chapbooks from Human 500, which we're adding to our pile for scattering across the US.

And that leads us up to this very moment, on the Interstate 88. More soon.

Sarah

Denver but actually Fort Collins

2011-07-14T23:47:00.001-07:00

We've left Utah after fulfilling and frankly serendipitous journey, most especially thanks to the folks at Sugar House Review, with whom we had dinner, drinks, and some interesting conversation concerning poetry in Salt Lake (which floats) and how they produce their beautifully crafted journal. It's really a pleasure to meet kindred folks contributing wholeheartedly to the livelihood of the poetry community.

We also set up our first ever "poetry station" --- a table with a spread of books that SPD donated to us, our bookmarks, and our response postcards. We weren't exactly sure what was going to happen, but enough friendly people approached us. We talked about our project, and if they have any interest in poetry, and Salt Lake City in general. It was of course kind of awkward at times, which we were prepared for, but we met some interesting people who we may have not encountered had we not put ourselves in such a public position, and most everyone who stopped to talk to us seemed to have things to say about some facet of the literary sphere in Utah.

Right now we're in a motel in Fort Collins (we had a bit too long of a stop in what turned out to be the lovely town of Laramie: we recommend the vegetarian restaurant Sweet Melissa's), but we're off to Boulder in the morning.

Goodnight!

Sarah

First Reading a Success!: Beyond Stoked at Beyond Baroque.

2011-07-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

'allo lovelies. Results are in - the first reading of our national project was quite a success. Ara Shirinyan and Vanessa Place took the stage at Beyond Baroque in Venice, Ca. Between Ara's humor and Vanessa's grip, the night was beyond comprehensible range, overfilled and completely captivating. We hope to get back some artwork in conversation with this one.

We're in Salt Lake City now about to chat it up with Sugar House Review on this lovely afternoon. Utah is Burnt Orange and Green Green and no Crayola colors in between. We just got confirmation from Mars Gallery in west loop of downtown Chicago to host a reading there on July 21st. Featured readers include Nick Demske and Alisa Heinzman. As a special treat, Alisa will be working in collaboration with visual artist (and hubby) Jake Gillespie.

We've also updated the events page, if you'd like to see all of the fabulous things that we have lined up for this month!

thrill!,

jill

Places

2011-07-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today we reached our Kickstarter goal! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed, and if you'd still like to contribute, there are 47 hours left, as I type this.

Sunday marks the beginning of our journey, with our kickoff reading with Vanessa Place at Beyond Baroque (invite: here). It's going to be certainly interesting; we're all fans of her work (admittedly, her Notes on Conceptualism, cowritten with Robert Fitterman, lives on a shelf in our bathroom).

We're super excited, a little nervy, and still figuring a lot of things out, but are also filled with energetic momentum.

Many more updates to come,

Sarah

what a time and other general information

2011-06-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ekphrastic iv went super well! The artwork and poetry was all excellent, and we got such a positive response from everyone who came. It's hard to describe the particular feeling of amazement we have when the artwork and the poetry finally come together: to hear the poets talking about the experience of seeing their work reflected in the art of others, and to see the artists hear the poems they've spent thorough time with from the mouths of their authors never ceases to make us feel that our project is truly a worthwhile one. A few folks came to review our event, so check out the Omnidawn blog and Litseen in the coming weeks to see those.

Now that it's over, though, we're in full swing of planning our TOUR! Literally, we've been sitting around this table for the last seven hours planning the tour...Do you want to know about the tour?

Here is the idea. We're driving across the country with the aim of crafting a document about poetry and arts communities across the United States via interviews and live events. We have two sorts of events planned: readings (to be held in bookstores, galleries, and wherever else will have us) and "reading stations." Small Press Distribution generously donated a number of books of poetry to us, and we intend to harangue people until they sit down and read them with us. At a station. Which is really a table with a banner in a public place. Also, maybe not exactly harangue; that's not really in our nature. But we like the word.

At both of these events, we're going to be handing out postcards -- which we have letter pressed ourselves -- which read: "1. Read a poem by a living poet / 2. Make a creative response (here)/ 3. Drop this postcard in the mail" and include a lot of blank space.

The hope is that we're going to receive a number of these back, evidencing that folks of all sorts can creatively engage in contemporary poetry. We hope to display these, alongside the interview series, here in Oakland upon our return. And on the blog.

Here is a list of the poets who we're scheduled to work with so far:

Ara Shirinyan

Ariana Reines

Arielle Greenberg

Christopher DeWeese

Cole Swenson

Dan Hoy

Fred Moten

Ish Klein

Jen Tynes

Jena Osman

Nick Demske

Rachel Zucker

Rob Fitterman

Susan Holbrook

Vanessa Place

We're also going to be chatting with various presses and other literary organizations/ gangs on the topic of poetic communities. Let us know if you're interested in chatting, maybe we're coming to your town!*

The first event is scheduled for July 10 at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, with poets Vanessa Place and Ara Shirinyan. The rest of the events will be posted as they approach.

If you're interested in funding this project, look at our kickstarter: here. You get "rewards" for helping us out, and boy are they fun.

Alright, well this is the longest post in the history of the 'Lectric Co, so I think I need to get back to furiously emailing. And haranguing. Hurrah!

love,

Surrah!

*If your town happens to be Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver, Boulder, Lincoln, Iowa City, Chicago, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Amherst, Boston, New York, Durham, DC, Oxford, New Orleans, Austin Albuququerque, or Oakland, then, watch out! We ARE coming!

monies?

2011-06-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

ekphrastic four: the win

2011-06-10T12:02:00.001-07:00

Lots is going on here in Lectric Town!

It's almost time for our next Ekphrastic! reading, here's the flyer:

You can RSVP via Facebook here: invitation.

here here!

2011-05-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

So much exciting stuff has been going on here at the 'Lectric Collective (as if the it were a physical place, even!), we can hardly contain ourselves (some weird version of physicality in that statement, too).

That was to generate some hype, but it's due-hype to be explicated in full soon. Also to evoke some exciting reactions is this official list of artists making new works for our June 23 event:

David Aipperspach

Matthew Cella

Bobby Glass

Frederick Koulouch

Jerry Smith

Blake Straus

Maria Villote

Stay tuned for more musings on events and confounding physicality!

Sarah

Poets poets poets

2011-04-25T17:59:00.001-07:00

After reviewing many excellent submissions, we've decided to invite LISA CATTRONE to read on the 23rd. Thanks again to everyone who submitted poetry; it was a pleasure to come across so many new voices and we hope to see more in the coming months.
That makes the poets lineup for the June 23rd event as follows:

Lisa Cattrone
Brian Ang
Gillian Conoley

Updates on artists are on the way.

Kelsa

Submissions are in

2011-04-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who submitted poems to us, we're in the process of reading and will keep you informed!

Anyone who wasn't able to submit this time around - don't worry! We may indeed do this again!

Yes and yes,

Kelsa

The 'Lectric Collective Opens Submissions for Readers!

2011-04-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

ANNNOUNNNCEEEMENNNNT:

For the fourth installment of the Ekphastic! reading series, to be held June 23, the 'Lectric Collective is going Extra Public. Which means, we're opening the first reading slot for submissions. In the past, opening readers have been younger poets who are at an early point in their careers and are interested in the greater creative community. If you are accepted, we will distribute your work to a group of hand-selected artists who then create an original piece in conversation with your language. Past works have been made in media as diverse as illustration, sculpture, painting, sound, video and photography.

Submission Criteria:

You have never published a full-length book and no more than one chapbook.

You live close enough to Oakland, CA to be able to make it to the reading.

You are interested in interartistic collaboration and in regenerations between media.

Poetry should be sent as an attachment with no identifying information (including the file name) so that we can anonymize the submission process.

Please send 5 pages of poetry to 'lectriccollective@gmail.com by April 17th, 2011.

I can't exclaim enough!

2011-03-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

The event was great! Artwork is up in the gallery! Event photos are up in the event photos section!

Other news!

I hear Jared Alford is going to review the event at the Omnidawn blog! So you can take a look at that if you'd like!

And-- look out soon, we're brewing up a crazy thing with lots of Oakland curators of readings + art!

Sa!r!a!!h!

Kelsa said the phrase "special item" in an email, and more!

2011-03-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Great news! As a last minute addition to the show on Saturday, UC Berkeley Visual Studies Professor Extraordinaire Tony Dubovsky will be contributing some artwork that he made, inspired by Cecil Giscombe's work. This is especially exciting for me because I had some hand in introducing the two, and I love to see that the collaborative impulse for artists to look to language as a source is alive, independent from our project.

Everything is coming together beautifully, we can't wait!

Sarah

Ekphrastic III

2011-03-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

Wonderful news! We'll be having our third Ekphrastic reading March 12, 2011 at Krowswork Gallery (480 23rd st Oakland, side entrance) at 7:30.The event will feature readings by Steven Lance, John Sakkis, and C.S. Giscombe, and art by Ben Belknap, Misako Inaoka, Shannon May, Jae Payne, Sarah Ratchye, Peter Schulte, and Jon Stich. It's gonna be great!

view Facebook invite.

Ripe

2011-02-04T16:54:00.001-08:00

How exciting is THIS: we're working on a new event! And not just one event, but we've been throwing around several ideas expanding our Ekphrastic project with some variations on the theme. More info to come, but for now I figured that a bit of hype-generation was due. A teaser: next thing is in March!

Sarah

Flyer by Jill, click for full power

2010-10-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Updates and Upcoming Powwow

2010-09-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

The second show is in the works and we're getting really excited about it! Mark your calendars: the reading will be on the evening of Thursday, October 21, again at Krowswork Gallery. Thanks to Jasmine's generosity, we're also going to have additional viewing time the following day, for anyone who can't make the reading (or just wants to spend a little more time with the artwork).

Our poets this time around are Jessica Fisher, Jesse Nathan, and Christopher Bennett, and we have a number of very talented artists who are already busy making what are sure to be extraordinary pieces.

As a precursor to the main event, we're having a little meet-up this Friday to bring together our artists and writers from this show and the last. We're looking to get everyone involved in each others' processes, and hope that with some informal discussion (and a little booze + food), we'll end the evening feeling in tune with each others' creative pulses.

This event is open to anyone who'd like to come / however many people we have space for, so if you're interested, send us an email at lectriccollective@gmail.com.

Sarah

Recollecting

2010-08-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

After a little globetrotting (Kelsa went to Sweden, England, and Denmark, while I was off in India and Jill was visiting her parents on the moon) we're all glad to be back in the states, and ready to begin planning our next event.

"Ekphrastic!" went off without a hitch. It was so lovely to see our project finally come to fruition, which in our minds effectively embodied the kind of creative exchange we were hoping for. We can't thank enough everyone who was involved (the artists, poets, Jasmine of Krowswork, SPD and UPB for providing us with books, and everyone who helped install, deinstall, and provided us with general encouragement). We got some very good feedback and, with some experience under our collective belt are sure that event #2 will be an even greater success.

We're planning on making a few changes between the last show and this one. We're brainstorming ways to make the connection between the poem and the artwork more apparent, and we're also hoping to hold an open workshop with the artists to reveal a bit of the creative process involved in reading poetry. Our goal is also to have a more permanent show, so if you or anyone you know is a gallery owner looking to host something like this, drop us a message.

In other news, we're now starting our next collaborative writing project, this time with the additional input of Jesus Castillo. Should be super! And, for anyone who's interested, we still have many extra copies of our first collab chapbook, "100 Dollars"-- email us if you'd like one.

That's all for now, but look forward more posts (and maybe poems, essays, and interviews) in the future.

Sarah

Ekphrastic, Fantastic, Thermoplastic

2010-05-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Everything is coming together beautifully for our first event (which Jill has ingeniously titled "Ekphrastic!"). The artists have been responding really well to the poems we've sent to them; we're getting anxious to see everyone's final pieces. From what we've heard, they seem pretty spectacular.

Saturday we took a little field trip to Krowswork to look at the new exhibit, "Closer Than They Appear." We were met by owner Jasmine Moorhead, who was sunbathing with her computer, looking rather picturesque in the white lot next to the gallery. All of us were really pleased with the works that were up, which included photographs by Ryan C. Smith and videos by William Eggleston and Sade Huron. Smith and Huron's work will be on display alongside our event, so everyone who attends will have the chance to check it out for themselves.

We also met briefly with Lisa Robertson at her recent reading at University Press Books. She read from her newest book, R's Boat, which is an extension of her chapbook Rousseau's Boat and is, like, mindblowingly beautiful. After the reading, Kelsa asked Lisa about the use of spaces in her work, whether they were specific locations or landscapes from her imagination. She gave her answer, which was disarming in its simplicity: that spaces, to her, are surfaces. I found myself hitching on to her mentions of time, which she seems to use as a mutable entity, yet much like her surfaces, time remains oddly particular. Hearing her read the text was illuminating, and we're looking forward to hearing more at our event.

In other news, we've printed out flyers (which, apparently, can also be spelled "fliers") and are posting them around town. Feel free to print some out yourself and put them wherever you want. Especially public places, in time, and on surfaces both real and imaginary.

Love,

Sarah

2010-04-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

2010-03-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Click Pic.

Answering your questions.

2010-03-17T22:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

We've been getting some great responses for our call for art submissions, but we've also been getting a lot of questions about the process. I'm going to take a minute to address a few of these issues.

"Am I supposed to send examples of my work, or the work I'd like to be displayed?"

Please send us examples! We're going to send you poems to work off of, and those are what we'd like to exhibit at the event.

"What if I really want to participate but don't have a portfolio ready to send?"

If you really can't produce any examples of your work, we'd still like to consider what it is you'd like to make. If that is the case, please propose your project to us (at lectriccollective@blogspot.com) and we’ll get back to you.

“I want to create an installation/ exhibit a photograph/ display my architectural diagrams/ anything else not explicitly mentioned on your flyer. Is that what you’re looking for?”

We’d really love to see work in any medium, as long as we could feasibly exhibit it and that it is inspired by the poetry we send to you.

“What about interactive art?”

We love it! Interaction is really one of the main things we’re trying to foster with this series.

“Music?”

We’re interested, let’s talk.

“When is the event scheduled for/ where and when is it/ who are the poets?”

While these are all excellent questions, we’re still working out the final details and want to have everything solidified before we make any official announcements. The first event is tentatively scheduled for April 22. It will be in Oakland, and it will be in the evening. We’re keeping the poets under wraps for now, but, believe us, you should be excited!

Hope that helps,

Sarah