Readers of this blog will probably find much of interest in Sucking on Words, a new documentary on conceptual poet Kenneth Goldsmith. Goldsmith, as I’ve noted before, is the wizard behind the curtain at ubu.com; this documentary, by Simon Morris, focuses on his work as a conceptual poet. Like much conceptual art, Goldsmith’s work tends to make many sputteringly angry; as he himself readily admits in the film, the idea of reading it can be superior to the act of reading it, and the exploration of his work in this documentary might be the best introduction to it that’s available.
A typical Goldsmith piece is to take all the text of a day’s edition of The New York Times – all of it, from the first ad to the last – and to put it into a standard book format: viewed this way, the daily paper has the heft of a typical novel. It becomes apparent from this that when we talk about “reading” a day’s New York Times, we really only mean reading a tiny subsection of the actual text in the paper. Our act of reading the paper is as much an act of ignoring. (Nor is this limited to print media; taking a typical page on the online Times, one notes that of the 963 words on the page, only 589 are the article proper: our reading of an article online entails ignoring 2/5 of the words. This quick count pays no attention to words in images, which would send the ignored quotient higher.)
Goldsmith starts from the proposition that there’s enough language in the world already. Like many in the digital age, he’s trying to find ways to make sense of it all; in a sense, he’s creating visualizations.
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
the entry on this page was 306 words, out of the 831 total,
so “readers” had to ignore 525 words here, more than half… :+)
-bowerbird
Main
Blog
Page
Main
Site
Page
a
thought
experiment:
reading
in
parallel
Main
———————- begin entry
the
really
modern
reader
Post
date
11.07.2007,
12:33
PM
Readers
of
this
blog
will
probably
find
much
of
interest
in
Sucking
on
Words,
a
new
documentary
on
conceptual
poet
Kenneth
Goldsmith.
Goldsmith,
as
I’ve
noted
before,
is
the
wizard
behind
the
curtain
at
ubu.com;
this
documentary,
by
Simon
Morris,
focuses
on
his
work
as
a
conceptual
poet.
Like
much
conceptual
art,
Goldsmith’s
work
tends
to
make
many
sputteringly
angry;
as
he
himself
readily
admits
in
the
film,
the
idea
of
reading
it
can
be
superior
to
the
act
of
reading
it,
and
the
exploration
of
his
work
in
this
documentary
might
be
the
best
introduction
to
it
that’s
available.
A
typical
Goldsmith
piece
is
to
take
all
the
text
of
a
day’s
edition
of
The
New
York
Times
–
all
of
it,
from
the
first
ad
to
the
last
–
and
to
put
it
into
a
standard
book
format:
viewed
this
way,
the
daily
paper
has
the
heft
of
a
typical
novel.
It
becomes
apparent
from
this
that
when
we
talk
about
“reading”
a
day’s
New
York
Times,
we
really
only
mean
reading
a
tiny
subsection
of
the
actual
text
in
the
paper.
Our
act
of
reading
the
paper
is
as
much
an
act
of
ignoring.
(Nor
is
this
limited
to
print
media;
taking
a
typical
page
on
the
online
Times,
one
notes
that
of
the
963
words
on
the
page,
only
589
are
the
article
proper:
our
reading
of
an
article
online
entails
ignoring
2/5
of
the
words.
This
quick
count
pays
no
attention
to
words
in
images,
which
would
send
the
ignored
quotient
higher.)
Goldsmith
starts
from
the
proposition
that
there’s
enough
language
in
the
world
already.
Like
many
in
the
digital
age,
he’s
trying
to
find
ways
to
make
sense
of
it
all;
in
a
sense,
he’s
creating
visualizations.
Posted
by
dan
visel
———————- end entry
on
November
7,
2007
12:33
PM
tags:
Kenneth_Goldsmith,
conceptualism,
conceptualpoetry,
documentary,
poetry,
reading
comments
(0):
(Because
of
spam
troubles,
first-time
comments
from
unfamiliar
addresses
or
containing
multiple
links
might
be
held
for
moderation.
If
your
comment
isn’t
spam,
we’ll
publish
it
very
soon.
Thanks
in
advance
for
your
patience.)
Name:
Email
Address:
Remember
Me?
YesNo
Comments:
(you
may
use
HTML
tags
for
style)
HOME
letters?
comments?
posts?
curator@futureofthebook.org
search
if:book
recent
entries
the
really
modern
reader
a
thought
experiment:
reading
in
parallel
au
courant
“digitization
and
its
discontents”
anmoku
no
ryokai
what’s
the
word’s
worth
on
the
world
wide
web?
harry
potter
and
the
litigants
of
doom
unbound
reader
wood
book
seed
key
water
word
of
forests
and
trees
links
Academic
Commons
Bryan
Alexander
Infocult
Daniel
Anderson
I
Am
Dan
Arts
&
Letters
Daily
John
Battelle
Searchblog
Beatrice
Chris
Boese’s
Weblog
Boing
Boing
Chris
Meade
Bookfutures
Book
News
Danah
Boyd
Abe
Burmeister
Abstract
Dynamics
Nicholas
Carr
Rough
Type
Chekhov’s
Mistress
Click
Opera
(iMomus)
Tom
Coates
plasticbag.org
Copyfight
Cosmic
Variance
Susan
Crawford
Crooked
Timber
Eyebeam
reBlog
K.
Fitzpatrick
Planned
Obsolescence
Geeks
R
Us
Global
Voices
Online
Grand
Text
Auto
>>>
Alex
Itin
IT
IN
place
>>
MediaCommons
>>
Mitchell
Stephens
Without
Gods
Reading is a physical act. The daily paper newspaper is a physical adventure. We do not delete the physical pages. We explore them. And consider the liberation of throwing the paper newspaper away. Electronic waste is not just abandoned toxic hardware. We abandon electronic news by not physically reading it to begin with. Its, like, unreal.