Metaphor in Creative Sign Language project

If your appetite has been whetted by Johanna Mesch's work in sign language poetry - here is the Bristol University project. There is a collation of films plus a lot more information about the sign poets.

You can view the complete archive here http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/research/sites/micsl/

Warwick ecopoetics workshop

Sample course material from Warwick University - an enticing navigation through ecopoetics for graduate students in this module.

A sample week's material:

"Sound marks the “true north” of ecopoetics—not the only significant dimension of an environmental poetics, but often a reliable way to get oriented—a Compass Point for thinking, writing, speaking to get their bearings in a more-than-human world. An ecopoetics attends first by listening, whatever be its other vectors of engagement. (“Before it is polluted, the river wants to be heard,” writes Cecilia Vicuña.) Listening can be understood as a stance of participatory receptiveness, as much as an aural faculty (we can “listen” with our eyes or “sound” with science): it is difficult to be responsible to an environment, if we have not first listened in, to find out who is present"

With samples from John Cage, Emily Dickinson, Larry Eigner, Ronald Johnson, Nathaniel Mackey, Lorine Niedecker, Maggie OʼSullivan, R. Murray Schafer.

More information from Warwick University here..http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/ecopoetics/.

btw David Morley teachers at Warwick...

Ecopoetry in schools

Interesting details here of an outreach programme led by the Literature and American Studies departments at the University of East Anglia taking ecopoetry into schools and beyond.

Children in Years 5 and 6 (P6 and P7 here in Scotland) are encouraged to:

• "use the immediacy of their outdoor experiences to write poetry
• taught the importance of individual and communal responsibility to each other and to our natural world
• and how reflection on these issues provides a vital means of thinking and writing poetically." 

Not sure about thinking and writing poetically but maybe that is my prejudice and the word just needs reclaiming.

Anyone else had experience of visiting schools or outdoor spaces leading workshops. Let us know about it. [I will be in school next week but we are doing WW2 mash-ups.]

Or find out more about the existing programme here http://www.uea.ac.uk/ams/ecopoetry.

Student of creative writing

Poets and creative writing courses may not be such a good mix.

In some opinions, a poet needs to sit still and develop an individual voice and viewpoint. How can creative writing as an academic pursuit teach you this?

Academic study can equip with you tools to for example:

• describe your artistic practice
• develop your published portfolio
• make contact with editors who will publish you

But I imagine you could as easily study English or another language - Latin, Arabic, say - to learn about poetic form and voice; law or politics might sharpen your ability to use words to taut effect; and any scientific subject help develop discourse and arguments.

Then you can work outside poetry to earn money rather than teaching it; which seems to be the lot of the creative writing degree-ed. To paraphrase Orhan Pamuk if your paid work is not your art, you will never have to give up your art.

Worth considering before you sign on the dotted line this September or January...

Ecopoetry and academia

"The dividing line between creative writing and climate science - sometimes thin - has been triumphantly dissolved. " Andrew Orlowski

Can you study ecopoetry? Well, it seems you can and in a scientific context at the University of East Anglia.

Its interesting looking new masters course in Environmental Sciences and Humanities is recruiting. Its blurb states amongst other things that it plans to gather "researchers in the environmental sciences, philosophy, history and literature to develop new ways of thinking about environmental change and social transitions".

 

Details of the course can be found here http://www.uea.ac.uk/phi/courses/ma-environmental-sciences-and-humanities#overview and a commentary from The Register here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/02/rosie_may/.

btw image is the cover of the anthology Earth Shattering ecopoems edited by Neil Astley from Bloodaxe 2007 (ahead of the times as ever).

Academics sought

Are you an academic working on the boundaries of poetry, sound art, sound, informatics, or environment?

Have you something cool to share with us here at poetandgeek.com. We are especially looking for research posters, papers, exhibitions or end of term shows.

Contact us at the usual address...