BART 97A90 - Text and Art/Text as Art: Collage, Erasure, and Bookmaking

In this course, students will explore modes of creative writing that encourage interactions between the visual and the written word. We will examine how these processes can be used to generate new creative work. We will begin with the process of collage, exploring its history rooted in modernist traditions as a visual device. Next, we will look at texts that translate the concept of collage into a literary form and use found material to create new texts. This includes experiments with artists and writers such as Pablo Picasso, Hannah Höch, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, and Rosmarie Waldrop. This exploration will lead us to erasure poetry, another form of textual manipulation. We will investigate the role of found text in creative production and examine ideas about originality and authorship through the works of Tom Phillips, Stephen Ratcliffe, Mary Ruefle, and Vikram Pradhan. In the final part of the course, students will use the material they have produced to create a digital or physical book that draws from the history of book arts, resulting in a mode of reading in which the visual and the written word are inseparable. We will look at ancient and avant-garde traditions of book-making to create a book that is also a work of art. Discussion of assigned texts each week will be followed by opportunities for new writing and peer workshops. Students will learn how to work collaboratively and provide constructive feedback and will be encouraged to transform their hand made books into digital formats. Students will also learn how to contextualize their creative work through self-reflective and critical writing. Academic expectations Students are expected to attend every class session as well as any make-up sessions the professor might have to schedule. Students should come to class prepared, having done the necessary readings and assigned homework. Students should understand that they are expected to gain a theoretical and contextual understanding of these practices as much as the creative aspects of the artistic processes we will study in class. Students should be prepared to produce creative work each week, share it with their colleagues for feedback, and present their final portfolio to the class at the end of the semester.

Biswamit DWIBEDY

Atelier

English

Spring 2024-2025

Class Presentation of Portfolio: 20% Attendance, Discussions, and Feedback: 10% Short response/reflection paper: 20% Portfolio: 50% Late work policy Students are expected to submit their work the day before class each week. Failure to do so might mean that their work will not be discussed in the next session. No late portfolios will be accepted. Late arrival policy Students should come to class on time and prepared. Anyone who is more than 15 minutes late will not be allowed into the classroom and will be marked absent. Students who are late more than twice will lose a grade point with each subsequent tardiness.

Session 1 : Erasures : an introduction Humument, Tom Phillips Assignments : Reading essays by Tom Phillips + create an erasure Séance 2 : Erasures as Visual Art Discussion of essays by Tom Phillips Looking at Jen Bervin and Stephen Ratcliffe Assignment : Self-reflective essay + erasures Session 3 : STUDENT WORKSHOP Assignment One : 7 Erasures Assignment : Writing poems out of a textbook Reading essays about collage Session 4 : The History of Collage History of collage in the avant-garde : Pablo Picasso, Hannah Hoch The Russian Avant-Garde book Assignment : Creating a visual collage Reading Sonnets by Ted Berrigan Session 5 : The Sonnet as Collage Discussion of Sonnets by Ted Berrigan Assignment : Writing Sonnets out of news headlines Reading Alice Notley and Bernadette Mayer Session 6 : Collage and Autobiography Discussion of Notley and Mayer Discussion of Experiments by Mayer and Bernstein Assignment Two : 3 Collages (Workshop) Assignment : Creating a list of experiments Reading Rosmarie Waldrop and Mei-mei berssenbrugge Session 7 : Collage and the Sciences Discussion of Rosmarie Waldrop and Mei-mei berssenbrugge Discussion of Books at the Eclipse Archives Assignments : Creating a collage prose poem Session 8 : STUDENT WORKSHOP Assignment Three : Three Prose Poems Assignments : Reading Cole Swensen Session 9 : Ekphrastic Writing MUSEUM VISIT WITH COLE SWENSEN Assignments : Put together a draft of your book Session 10 : STUDENT WORKSHOP Discussion of Cole Swensen Assignment Four : Two Ekphrastic Poems Session 11 : Student Presentations Session 12 : Student Presentations