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Week 6 February 20, 2020

Mechanical Reproduction

“A fundamental epistemological gap lies between symbolically coded writing (the alphabet) and the gramophonic recording, which can record as well the accompanying noise (i.e., the index) of the physically real within and outside the recorded voice (intonations, timbre, the “grain” of the voice—as defined by Roland Barthes with respect to early gramophone recordings of Caruso’s voice).” Wolfgang Ernst (Digital Memory and the Archive 64) 

Walter Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (note the alternate translation of the title)

Samuel Beckett “Krapp’s Last Tape” PDF (7-29) PDF in our Google Drive Readings Folder and watch performed by Patrick Magee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otpEwEVFKLc (33 minutes)

Kittler “Preface” and “Typewriter” from Gramaphone, Film, Typewriter  available for download here: https://b-ok.org/ or in our Readings Folder.

Case Studies: Gomringer on concrete poetry and “Silencio,” Charles Olson Maximus excerpt (PDF in Google Drive), Jen Bervin “Tactile Language Series”  http://jenbervin.com/projects/tactile-language 

Textual Practice: Recreate Charles Olson pages from Maximus with a typewriter. (K)