This weekend PhotoFairs, New York, a new art fair “dedicated to photography and new media” opens at the Javits Center (through to September 10), presenting, what they say will be, “a state of art view of visual culture”. Among the exhibitors, theVERSEverse, who will be officially launching “A Picture of My Mind – Poems Written By Allen Ginsberg’s Photographs” (a curated set of unique NFTs – We announced and presented their project, amidst a certain degree of controversy, here last month).
There will also be a special evening, Saturday September 9th in the evening at LUME Studios (393 Broadway), panel discussion at 8, followed by performance at 8.30.
see here for more details
“The Ghost In The Machine- Allen Ginsberg From Page to Camera to Metaverse” – Shana Nys Dambrot surveyed the experiment last week for LA Weekly (including two new examples of theVERSEverse’s Ginsberg-inspired AI poetry):
“Book Song” – After “Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Rashidah Ismali, and friends, Small Press Book Fair, December 2, 1990”
No mere market of pages
but gathering of minds and melodies
a collective howl of literary souls
Listen! There is music
in the sacred ritual of ink and ideas
Listen! There is Newark rhythm
in the annual cacophony of words and paper,
reverberations of the hearts of fellow poets
and the electricity of a thousand thoughts
finding their way home.
and “Metropolitan Whispers” – After “William S. Burroughs, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC 1953”
Brooding brother of the beat, uptown in hallowed halls
Eyes fixing that look of icy inquiry on an ancient Egyptian codices,
conversing with forgotten pharaohs, a feral connection,
the fall of civilization seen in a glance –
all sphinx-like mystery and enigmatic understanding
in haunted stillness, museum echoes reaching through time.
Past etched into present, the lore of then
speaking to the wisdom of now.
“The AI appears to have absorbed the poet’s taste for experiments of meaning, for alliteration, jaunty spoken rhythms and interpretive punctuation, especially exclamation points — as well as an understanding of the function of both a portrait and a museum to transmit the textures of history”, Dambrot declares.
and, speaking of the Burroughs piece, “The results are alarmingly convincing…a syncopated and elegant appreciation of what William Burroughs and an Egyptian sphinx have in common”
Ekphrastic experimentation. AI photo-poetic evocations. Do you agree with Dambrot’s assessment? Let us know what you think.
Speaking of Burroughs (and speaking of visionary experiment)
We’ve mentioned this too before, but the date has now arrived – this upcoming Tuesday (September 12th) to Friday (the 15th) in Paris (at the University of Chicago Center) – Cut-Ups@2023 -Talks, Performances, Poetry, Music, Films
James MacKay and Oliver Harris will introduce keynote speakers Jordan Abel and Dodie Bellamy
Among those participating, Stevan Weine, Josef Rauvolf, Regina Weinreich, Kurt Hemmer, Terry Wilson, Klaus Maeck (in conversation with Christophe Becker) and a whole host more.
and opening on Wednesday in Rome – “You’re Niente” – fotografie & altro di Gregory Corso “– at the Interzone Gallery – a Gregory Corso photo-exhibition, curated by Michele Corleone and Dario Bellini (with a live hook-up to Woodstock, New York, with live happenings, readings and tributes by Shiv Mirabito, Andy Clausen, Brenda Coultas, Charles Stein & others)
The following day sees an afternoon of film screenings and the presentation of a book (in conjunction with the show, limited edition, 150 copies
More events on Friday and over the weekend at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila. More next week
& City Lights’ “70 Storied Years in San Francisco” are celebrated here
Terrible, let AI retire to obscurity. Teach children poetry, spend energy and funds on that instead.
…I agree with Gerri Roche , I’m wondering ,on a slightly different issue, what effect imitation – human or mechanical has on innovators. Whether it’s Allen G, or Dylan ,or Charlie Parker , Lenny Bruce,Hendrix or Picasso ,for example -when their work becomes widely absorbed and celebrated-even as they’re elevated – I would contend that they’re degraded insofar as their uniqueness is erased -their discoveries and aesthetic triumphs become common coin and militate ,if even inadvertently,against their spirit of originality that was crucial in making these giants great in the first place. “Imitative, & derivative” used to be one of the most brutal,chilling anathemas hurled at artists. Now with these blasted machines , what is happening is a grotesque violation of the substance and spirit of creativity itself.