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The pieces that became these poems (arranged/written/glued by Dylan Zavagno) were the first envelopes that I made for this project. Even though I’ve never been interested in writing poetry, I’ve become fascinated by the process over the past year or two. Out of every creative act, writing seems to have the most level playing-field in a certain sense. Singing takes a certain physical ability – there’s something that someone like, I don’t know…Joanna Newsom does that most of us couldn’t. Even if her voice seems like a bunch of elf-squeaks (I like it), it’s obvious that most people aren’t able to make that type of sound. This extends to other types of art as well, the consideration of abilities and limitations. There are almost always financial limitations as well, and so many ideas can’t be realized because the artist lacks the means to fulfill their plan. It’s great when someone has the money to do something like THIS, but most of us never will.
Poetry became fascinating to me when I realized that none of these limitations were present. No materials have to be used up, it doesn’t have to consume anything or take up space. Also, it’s so weird to think of the fact that it’s just the careful arrangement of short phrases and usually entirely composed of words that I already know…it’s sort of amazing to think about being moved by a reorganization of stuff I’ve already heard and seen.
With this in mind I wanted to make a project that explored these thoughts. I wanted to test them and see if my belief in a sort of alchemic transformation could hold up. Starting the project, I worked from the finished works of others, taking tiny bits and pieces of texts apart (usually old National Geographics) hoping to turn them into something new. My goal was to take something, an article about a trip through a jungle, the fishing villages of a faraway country, or a shipwreck – and begin the process of turning it into something new. I wanted to work toward a full conversion of meaning and see what, if anything was left of the original intent.
I liked this process enough to do another one, and am maybe 24%? 38%? done with a sort of round-two/second version that I’ll post about soonish…
dylanmaysick 
