User:Coastmoor

videopoetry - what then of poetryvideo

Today's technology allows for the production, distribution and display of the moving image in ways not possible even five years ago. The viewer's access to video has never been at such a level in terms of volume. But how does the viewer find the quality of work or the area that is of particular interest. And how do the literary arts, for example the poets, how do they define their work, how can they get their poetry placed successfully in front of this potentially huge audience, and how does the poetry world grow that audience.

These are the words of a poet, a poet who believes that poetryvideo is the way to regain the past popularity for poetry. The term poetryvideo means something different to the term videopoetry, this poets definitions are;

videopoetry

With videopoetry the visual medium is prime; the use of moving imagery in a poetic way. That is for the visual experience to hold the artistic exposure, with a rhythm, a pace, a narrative. Firstly with videopoetry it is the visual experience that draws in and holds the viewers attention. That experience can be concentrated or amplified by sound or by the use of text. For sound, this may be spoken word or spoken word with music, or other sounds, for instance those found in the natural or industrial worlds. It is not necessarily that the sound is decipherable as a piece of written poetry as one might see in a traditional book of poetry, more that the sound moves in line with the rise and fall of poetry; that the sound replicates the slow or speedy commencement and ongoing pace of a poem, or that the sound drones on in a continuum with interlaced highlights as of a poem. The purpose of sound then is to become the essence of the feeling of a poem, to portray the journey, the ebbs and flows of a poem. Text may be added to the visual portrayal, but it is not a requirement, if added it may be clearly the words of a poem, but that poem should have been written with the medium of video in mind. Alternatively it may be an existing poem that is being adapted for the visual portrayal, but it cannot and must not simply be an existing poem added verbatim. Text may be used in whatever fashion the visual poetry artist feels adds to the story being told, not necessarily in a normal storyline manner but with the fluidity, experimentation and adventure that visual artists such as Kurt Schwitters uses text and montage. Yet at all times the videopoetry artist has to remember that it is a poem that is being created, a videopoem maybe, but nevertheless a poem and to that end, the portrayal should aim at drawing in the viewer to a point where he feels the experience to have been poetic.

poetryvideo

That the poetry already exists is the key to my definition and the central difference between videopoetry and poetry video. The poetry is not to be adapted, the poetry is prime. Now the visual experience is to be adapted to suit the poem. The techniques and tools of this adaptation are the same tools for videopoetry; still images, moving images, voice, music, sound, spoken word, written word. But now a form is forced upon the producer of the visual experience. The poets words dictate the length and pace of the video, of course every reading of a poem brings in that readers own interpretation. One reader may read more slowly or more quickly than the other, yet, unless it is a particularly perverse reading, even reading slowly, the rate of rise and fall of the poem will follow the sympathies of the writer's rise and fall. The video producer should then respect the art and essence of the poem. If he wants to do otherwise he would be better developing his own adaptation of the poem and make a videopoem and not a poetryvideo.

I believe that the two definitions are essential in order that some order can be maintained for traditional poetry, that poetry itself can be seen as the impetus for and therefore the rightful beneficiary of the video exposure. Nevertheless poetryvideo cannot expect to exist alone and should therefore seek out and build a positive co-existence with its neighbour and co-conspirator videopoetry.

© Christopher Sanderson 2007