the most ambitious & serious account of the dynamics underlying emergent poetics
Ron Silliman
Notes on Conceptualisms
Robert Fitterman
Vanessa Place
January 2009
What is conceptual writing, how does it differ from Conceptual Art, what are some of the dominant forms of conceptualism,where does an impure or hybrid conceptualism fit in, what about the baroque, what about the prosody of procedure, what are the links between appropriation and conceptual writing, how does conceptual writing rely on a new way of reading, a “thinkership” that can shift the focus away from the text and onto the concept, what is the relationship between conceptual writing and technology or information culture, and why has this tendency taken hold in the poetry community now? What follows, then, is a collection of notes, aphorisms, quotes and inquiries on conceptual writing. We have co-authored this text through correspondence, shared reading interests, and similar explorations. Notes on Conceptualisms is far from a definitive text, and much closer to a primer, a purposefully incomplete starting place, where readers, hopefully, can enter so as to participate.
A special edition of 81 copies of Notes on Conceptualisms, signed and numbered by the authors, is available here.
About the Authors
Robert Fitterman is the author of 15 books of poetry including This Window Makes Me Feel (UDP, 2018), Nevermind (Wonder Books, 2016), Rob’s Word Shop (UDP, forthcoming, 2018), No Wait, Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself (UDP, 2014), Holocaust Museum (Counterpath, 2013, and Veer [London] 2012), now we are friends (Truck Books, 2010), Rob the Plagiarist (Roof Books, 2009), war, the musical (Subpress, 2006), and Metropolis—a long poem in 4 separate volumes, and is the co-author of Notes on Conceptualisms (UDP, 2009). He has collaborated with several visual artists, including Serkan Ozkaya, Nayland Blake, Fia Backström, Tim Davis and Klaus Killisch, and is the founding member of the international artists and writers collective, Collective Task. He teaches at New York University and is a member of the writing faculty of the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College.
Vanessa Place was the first poet to perform in the Whitney Biennial, and has published numerous books of poetry and prose, including Boycott and Notes on Conceptualisms (with Robert Fitterman) from Ugly Duckling Presse. Performance venues include the Getty Villa (Los Angeles); Museum of Modern Art (New York); and Garage Museum (Moscow), among others. Her art work has been exhibited at MAK Center/Schindler House (Los Angeles); Denver Museum of Contemporary Art; the Broad Museum (East Lansing, MI); the Kitchen (New York), Cage Gallery (New York), and Various Small Fires (Los Angeles). Place also works as a criminal defense attorney.
Praise
But it's a book you're going to want to carry around with you as you go about your daily business, being the most ambitious & serious account of the dynamics underlying emergent poetics in the United States I've encountered in years.
Ron Silliman
For those not familiar with conceptualist practices in poetry, I can recommend few better places to start than Notes on Conceptualisms.
Thom Donovan, BOMBLOG
The petite, wallet-sized book fits perfectly to that impulse that the tree, in fact, did fall in the forest. And, you should go see where the hell it fell.
Ken L. Walker, COLDFRONT
In the News
Publication Details
ISBN: 978-1-933254-46-3
Trade Paperback
Perfect-bound. 80 pp, 4.5 x 6 in
Publication Date: January 01 2009
Distribution: Coach House Books via Publishers Group Canada (Canada), Inpress Books (UK), SPD
Series: Dossier