Redefining Poetry in the Age of the Screen

IMPRESSUM Poetryfilm Magazin, Weimar Herausgegeben von Aline Helmcke und Guido Naschert Im Auftrag der Literarischen Gesellschaft Thüringen e. V. und der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Erschienen im Januar 2016

 © Alle Rechte bei den Autorinnen und Autoren Gestaltung: Catalina Giraldo Vélez Gato & Mono Design OHG, Weimar ISBN 978-3-936305-38-8 Printed in Germany FASZINATION POETRYFILM? 4_ EDITORIAL Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert ESSAYS FILME DES MONATS 9_ Redefining Poetry in the Age of the Screen Tom Konyves Der Conny ihr Pony _32 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert 10_ The Discovery of Fire: One Poet’s Journey into Poetry-Film Dave Bonta The Dice Player _34 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert 11_ Poetryfilms: When Poetry and Film Have a Flirt Eleni Cay 15th February _36 Stefan Petermann 12_ Mnemosyne’s Tango: Poetry, Film, and the Dance of Memory Robert Peake On Loop _38 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert 13_ The Fascination of Hearing Poetry Films Stefanie Orphal The Polish Language _40 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert 14_ Poesiefilme, Festivals und soziale Netzwerke Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bel 16_ Poetry Films: A Genre Alien to a Poetry Nation Nissmah Roshdy 17_ Poetry Film Reality Ram Devineni 18_ Meine dreifache Faszination für den Poetry Film Sigrun Höllrigl 20_ Die archaische Faszination am Poetryfilm Javier Robledo 23_ Poetry Films: Cultural Resistance and Creative Reinvention Martina Pfeiler 24_ Lyrikverfilmung als Thema des Fremdsprachenunterrichts Anastasia Novikova 25_ Videopoesie, oder: Die Faszination der Gattungsmischung Eduardo Yagüe 28_ »Poetry and Film Can’t Live Together« Avi Dabach 29_ PoetryFilm: Semiotics and Multimodality Zata Banks Der längste Kuss _44 Moritz Gause The Sonnet Project / Sonnet No. 50 _46 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert Anna Blume _50 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert The Man with the Beautiful Eyes _52 Catalina Giraldo Vélez The Pipes _54 Aline Helmcke/Guido Naschert The Complete Works _56 Sabine Kues INTERVIEWS Ebele Okoye _60 Kristian Pedersen _62 Christine Hooper _64 ANALYSE Oṃ Maṇi Padme Boom: Caroline Petters’ Hum Bom! _65 Jan Schülling CREATIVE C I N E P O E M – or – Take a Walk on the Wild Side _68 Cathy de Haan DIE AUTOREN _71 a ausg be 0 1 POETRYFILM MAGAZIN 1. 8 essays essays Ko n To m Redefining Poetry in the Age of the Screen yv es ESSAYS | FASZINATION POETRYFILM? 9 The fact that there exist numerous words and phrases referring to this time-based, hybrid art form that has for its materials voiced or displayed text, captured or found images and a soundtrack, not only speaks to the infancy of the art form; if prose is indeed ›words in their best order‹, assigning the designation ›poetry‹ to precede or follow ›film‹ or ›video‹ (hyphenat­­­ed or not) tends to favour one or the other of the arts. The way I see it, the writer who uses »poetry film« automatically designates the work as more film than poetry. I myself began to create what I called »videopoems« when I was more a poet than a video artist, so I naturally considered these works as »poetry«. Man Ray’s »cinépoème« and Maya Deren’s »filmpoem« sang the praises of film at a time when commercial/entertainment ventures first threatened the aesthetic potential of the new art form of film; it was not about exploring a new form for poetry. In the early ‘80s, William C. Wees recognized that the use of poems had become prevalent in short films; he differentiated these »poetry-films« from »film poems«, i.e. poetic films, including films without words. Substituting »video« for »film« effectively deflected the »mystique« of celluloid from the conversation. So much for semantics. What is perhaps more important is the notion that videopoetry – rendering poetry as an object to be experienced through the medium of video – is in the process of re-defining poetry for future generations. For videopoetry to succeed, our definition of poetry has to change. In essence, the poetry that emerged from a succes- sion of words read or heard becomes, in videopoetry, a different type of poetry that emerges only from the inter-relationships of its elements – text, image and sound. It is generally agreed that these inter-relationships not be illustrative. When the text is a previously-written poem, it is still only one element of a videopoem; to bring this one element to the »big screen« (without direct illustration) requires a previously-unapprehended »context« that is provided by the image (and to a lesser but not insignificant effect by the soundtrack). The image not only reflects or, more accurately, frames the text »in a new light« – it subverts accepted signifier-signified relations; certain words, phrases, statements, exclamations, intended to be understood/experienced in the »closed system« of the page acquire new meanings when presented in an unexpected visual context. Note that not all unrelated, unexpected images can be expected to produce the desired new meaning. Similarly, not all texts, including written-poems, can be expected to produce a desired new meaning when juxtaposed with images. If the written-poem was originally perfect, it would not need to be completed with images. Yet videos are made to promote these written-poems and are most worthwhile; otherwise these poems would not reach a wide public. Their »meaning« is not intended to change nor will it change in a visual context. The ideal videopoem experience results in the response, »This was … pure poetry.« (The ›poetry‹ reference here would not have been made about the displayed or voiced text in the work – after all, it was only one element.) From each »turn« or appearance of a new element, be it text, image or sound, we should be able to discern an intended new-meaning that is the direct result of the juxtaposition. I call that poetry. essays V ideo poetry, poetry-film, poetry video, cine-poem, filmpoem, videopoetry, etc. What’s in a name?