Calligramme: Computer :)

From the previous investigation on surrealist writing technique, I chose a specific method called Calligramme. From that I now created my own Calligramme Poetry on one of my favoured things “Computers”

So please don’t laugh at it (I am not a professional, I tried my best)

Click On the Image

3 Bios & Statements:

Lillian Necakov: “For me the act of writing is akin to editing a film. I have all these wild images I carry around me and when I sit down to write I have to harness them and create a context for them. Sometimes the process is pleasurable, sometimes torturous.”

Steve Venright: “At the heart of Surrealism is revolt. The driving force behind this revolt is a longing to transform life and change the world.”

Stuart Ross: “Writing is about lying, and perhaps the more extreme the lie, the better.”

Calligramme :)

Wow, this one was hard!

When I started investigating a surrealist writing technique most of them required me to actually create an art or poem by using paint, cutting and replacing. Which afterwards would be hard for me to post; therefore, I chose the “Calligramme” writing technique. This type of poetry was developed by Guillaume Apollinaire. He was a French poet, playwright and art critic. In this type of poem the words make up a shape, usually the shape connected to the subject of the text.

Some examples of Calligramme Poetry by Guillaume Apollinaire:

 

The Truth About a Surrealist Writer :)

 

Rene Magritte:

Majority of us like things to be normal as possible and surrealist are the total opposite. They love surprise and anything that is unusual and unique. From their work of art, we see their love and passion towards surrealism. When, I was “googleing” surreal arts, I came towards a particular piece known as “The lovers” by Rene Magritte. Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. From his work, he wanted to challenge observers’ preconditioned acuities of reality and make them become more hypersensitive to their surroundings. His loves for art begin by the age of twelve where he attended informal art classes and started drawing and painting. By the age of   fourteen, he lost his mother who drowned herself.

 When I first glanced at the “The lovers” painting, I was confused, interested, and curious. I thought about many things; however, the questions that I really wanted to know were why he would choose to cover the faces of the people in the picture? Is he trying to send a message? And how does he come up with such paintings? After reading more about his childhood, I learned that after his mother’s suicide, they found her body which was covered with her nightdress and shroud. Therefore, the covered faces that he uses in his printings might be the memories of his mother.

 To be completely honest, I personally love simplicity and beauty. I believe that art should make an individual feel happy, must be pleasing to watch and observe. However, surreal art has its own definition; it makes an individual think outside the box, makes them feel strange, and it goes beyond the creative world. After investigating it and seeing the other side of it. I became to love the bizarreness of it. I would love to create a surreal painting and investigate further on the ideas of surreal art and poetry.

Surreal…Computer?

 Computers are the most amazing inventions EVER created!!! Where would the world be if it wouldn’t for computers? I can’t even image that! It was hard trying to find surreal things about computers. There were mostly facts which were boring but I managed to find some surreal things. For example:

• An estimated 2.5 billion hours were wasted online last year as people waited for pages to download, according to a study sponsored by Nortel Networks.
• The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute, less than half the normal rate of 20
• There are approximately 1,319,872,109 people on the Internet

Interesting Website

 

http://www.boardofwisdom.com/ 

This is seriously my favoured website; you can create an account and write your own quotes or poems or just share your favourites with random people  and you can make your own collection, share comments, favoured other writings and many more fun things.

 I can spend hours just reading the funny quotes and jokes. I love this site.

Five True Things I Didn’t About Computers :D

I love the invention of COMPUTERS. I absolutely love it. It makes everyone`s life so much easier. I can chat with my cousins that are in the other part of the world, shop online, watch videos, listen to movie, learn new ideas and so much more. But, I seriously have no idea about them. The only things I know is how to browse the net and how to Google.

 

So here are the five true facts about computers:

1. MySpace reports over 110 million registered users. If it were a country, it would be the tenth largest, just behind Mexico.
2. Computers were actually first invented nearly 200 years ago and one of the pioneers was a female mathematician, Ada Lovelace. She created one of the first computers programs. She was born 189 years ago and her father was a famous English poet, Lord Byron.
3. Bill Gates dropped out of college (Harvard) before founding Microsoft. This just shows you don’t need school to be become successful.
4. One terabyte (1000 gigabytes) is equivalent to storing a stack of
   documents that is more than 16 times the height of New York’s empire
   state building.
5. The first computer mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart in around 1964 and was made of wood.

Why ..Stanzas, Spacing, Lines?

When I first was introduced to poetry, I would always wonder why it’s written differently from other writing materials; therefore whenever I would notice a piece of writing written in a different pattern or it is separated into lines or stanzas I would automatically assume it’s a poem. I would wonder why do poets use line and stanzas in their poem, what is the purpose, and what are they trying to achieve by using stanzas?

The diverse methods of using lines spacing and stanzas impose a different purpose, most poets use them to emphasize a rhyming pattern at the end of the lines, compare and contrast ideas expressed in different sections, and it also can be used to emphasize a change in tone when reading the poem. Most of the time, stanzas are interlocking so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza determine those of succeeding stanzas.

For me personally, the stanzas allows me to rest and think through the content of the poem. I also find a very useful  idea to use when you are trying to move to another idea or try to make the rhythm of the poem stand out. So, is this why poets use lines, spacing and stanzas in their poem? I would like to investigate futher on the author’s intention of using these methods and also try using them myself.

The Truth About Dionne Brand: Investigation on a Writer

Dionne Brand is a poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian living in Toronto. She is originally from a Guayaguyare. She immigrated to Canada when she was 17 years old. I personally, know how that feels; coming to a new country and adjusting with the culture, language and environment is tough.

When I first glanced that the book “thirsty” by Dionne Brand, I had no intention of reading it and absolutely had no knowledge about her or her work as a poet. The only element of the book that grasped my attention was the cover. I think at that moment I was just thirty. So I took the book and randomly stopped at a page to read few lines and continued reading. Now I am glad I did read some of poems contained in that book. (I couldn’t finish the whole book in one period) Just reading few of her poems, I realized how she used her own life experience and how she used Toronto as a reference and inspiration. Most of her poems contained simple things that occur in Toronto every day such as watching strangers walk, exploring the Yong and Bloor Street and the posters on the bus stops. Her poems made you see Toronto in her eyes, her writing made the poems come alive. This made me wonder the technique she uses to make a simple thing into a unique and creative poem. I would like to elaborate more on this idea of using a simple thing that you personally have a connection with and transferring it into a poem.

One of my favorite poem from the book “thirsty”

This city is beauty

unbreakable and amorous as eyelids,

in the streets, pressed with fierce departures,

submerged landings,

I am innocent as thresholds

and smashed night birds, lovesick,

as empty elevators

let me declare doorways,

corners, pursuit, let me say

standing here in eyelashes, in

invisible breasts, in the shrinking lake

in the tiny shops of untrue recollections,

the brittle, gnawed life we live,

I am held, and held

why, the touch of everything blushes me,

pigeons and wrecked boys,

half dead hours, blind musicians,

inconclusive women in bruised dresses

even the habitual gray-suited men with terrible

briefcases, how come, how come

I anticipate nothing as intimate as history

would I have had a different life

failing this embrace with broken things,

iridescent veins, ecstatic bullets, small cracks

in the brain, would I know these particular facts,

how a phrase scars a cheek, how water

dries love out, this, a thought as casual

as any second eviscerates a breath

and this, we meet in careless intervals,

in coffee bars, gas stations, in prosthetic

conversations, lotteries, untranslatable

mouths, in versions of what we may be,

a tremor of the hand in the realization

of endings, a glancing blow of tears

on skin, the keen dismissal in speed

The Truth about Sound: Aphex Twin “Ventolin”

The Truth about Sound: Aphex Twin “Ventolin”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4j9goCerOg&feature=channel

“Ventolin” is a piece of electronic music directed by Steve Doughton and composed by Richard D. James. It was named after the drug Salbutamol, which is a bronchodilator used for the treatment of asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other breathing disorders. It makes the breathing procedure much simpler for a person who has breathing problem. Richard D. James used different effects and sounds in his piece. For example, he incorporated high-pitched ringing sound, heavily distorted techno beats and the sound of elevator button.

Honestly, this was the most annoying, disturbing and harshest sound I have ever experienced. I think the purpose of this music was to get individuals to experience the side effects of Ventolin. I truly felt that I was in the position of dizziness. No wonder this piece was cited as “one of the most abrasive singles ever recorded”. I never knew that a piece of music that simple can make a person feel exactly how the artist wants them. It’s amazing how that works!!! It’s like the artist has the power to control our reaction and emotions through his piece of work. All this makes me wonder, what makes us feel that way? Why do we human’s react differently to different sounds? This idea can generate new interesting ideas about sound and feelings. I personally, want to study more about different sounds that can make people feel different sentiments.

source: http://www.answers.com/topic/ventolin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Twin