Finally recovering from a bad bought of bronchial pneumonia, just in time! Di Brandt, CRC Chair in Creative Writing at U Brandon is hosting a symposium on Poetry and Science this weekend at the University of Brandon. Six poets and six scientists in dialogue.
Poets incude Christian Bok; Steven Ross Smith; Penn Kemp; Di Brandt; Laurie Block; and Mari-Lou Rowley. Scientists and other experts: Glen Carruthers (musician), Joanna Leseho (educational psychologist), John Nowacki (homeopath), Wendy Untereiner (botanist), Bruno Tomberli (biophysicist), and Jeff Williams (mathematical physicist).
Should be lots of resonance in the air! Watch for posts of the event.
March 15, 2007
February 1, 2007
the wonder beneath the mine tailings
This is a moment of procrastination. writing an article on C02 sequestration in silicate mineral debris in mine tailings, the crux of which is that with a little help from science, tailings in active mine sites have the potential to scrub five to ten times more GHG from the atmosphere than the mines produce. Given the development and implementation of carbonless sources of energy will take at least 50 years (if we consider the change in infrastructure alone, never mind the global politics), the potential to "mine" the natural process of these existing GHG sinks is very welcome research indeed. (see research by Dipple et al).
When I was asked to write a manifesto of my last book Viral Suite for a the Sage Hill colloquium I attended under the astute guidance of poet Fred Wah, this was the last paragraph:
"If we have already succumbed to the danger Heidegger warned us of—if we have become 'enframed' by the very technology we created in order to order the world into 'standing reserve' for our use and disposal, then what is there left for the poet—or anyone at all—to do? Perhaps reconnect with the word, the Greek origins of techne and poiesis in alethia… revealing truth, in all its beauty and horror, to uncover the wonder beneath the mine tailings. Hear laughter above the radiofrequency din."
So is this prescience? Perhaps.
When I was asked to write a manifesto of my last book Viral Suite for a the Sage Hill colloquium I attended under the astute guidance of poet Fred Wah, this was the last paragraph:
"If we have already succumbed to the danger Heidegger warned us of—if we have become 'enframed' by the very technology we created in order to order the world into 'standing reserve' for our use and disposal, then what is there left for the poet—or anyone at all—to do? Perhaps reconnect with the word, the Greek origins of techne and poiesis in alethia… revealing truth, in all its beauty and horror, to uncover the wonder beneath the mine tailings. Hear laughter above the radiofrequency din."
So is this prescience? Perhaps.
January 29, 2007
time delay
Well only 27 days since my first/last posting. Time is relative. Poetry happening in between articles on binary pulsars as a means of testing Einstein's theory of General Relativity and CO2 sequestration using mine tailings. And since creating this blog have discovered that naming is relative as well. Quantum Poetics is a book by Daniel Albright that "studies the way Modernist poets appropriated scientific metaphors as part of the general search for the pre-verbal origins of poetry." (intro) At first glance, the book looks to be a fascinating study of Yeats, Pound and Elliot and I look forward to sinking my teeth into it.
[aside - I once dreamt that I was sleeping and rudely awakened by an advertising exec, who burst into the room and said, hurry up, we need the slogan for Pearly Whites toothpaste today. I raised myself up on my elbow and pronounced "Pearly Whites, for a smile you can sink your teeth into."]
If not an example of pre-verbal, then certainly the subconscious origins of writing. Poem as positioning statement. Yikes.
I am interested in science and "past-modernist" poetics. beyond po-mo, beyond irony, beyond the Anthropic Cosmological Principal. As Wai Chee Dimock century did draw inspiration from science, particularly Einstein. "The notes, in his essay "Rethinking Space, Rethinking Rights: Literature, Law and Science," modernist writers and artists in the early 20thnon-communication between the humanities and the sciences is a relatively recent phenomenon."
So let's get the dialogue going.
P.S. more links to come.
[aside - I once dreamt that I was sleeping and rudely awakened by an advertising exec, who burst into the room and said, hurry up, we need the slogan for Pearly Whites toothpaste today. I raised myself up on my elbow and pronounced "Pearly Whites, for a smile you can sink your teeth into."]
If not an example of pre-verbal, then certainly the subconscious origins of writing. Poem as positioning statement. Yikes.
I am interested in science and "past-modernist" poetics. beyond po-mo, beyond irony, beyond the Anthropic Cosmological Principal. As Wai Chee Dimock century did draw inspiration from science, particularly Einstein. "The notes, in his essay "Rethinking Space, Rethinking Rights: Literature, Law and Science," modernist writers and artists in the early 20thnon-communication between the humanities and the sciences is a relatively recent phenomenon."
So let's get the dialogue going.
P.S. more links to come.
January 2, 2007
emergent blogger
Welcome to the first posting of a reluctant blogger. This is a wonderful way to procrastinate from other writing, such as the article on micro- and nano-technology that I have been trying to get to for several days now. As I am very new at this, please excuse any time lapses in correspondence. Now, to some thoughts on science and poetry... Ink jet printing for example, not as a technology for hard copies of poems that often end up crumpled and crushed in the waste basket, fodder for recycling, but an emergent biotechnology that "prints" layers of single cells, or chemicals for growing artificial tissues, such as retinas, or skin, which involves layering many different types of cells with different orientations. There is a poem in this somewhere.
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