| Poetics of the Ampersand is a research-based book art project that conjures a queer context for the use of experimental typography in American Poetry & visual art. This project was created as part of the Mills College MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing, poetry degree with a focus in video art. Poetics of the Ampersand is based in queer feminist & ecopoetic theory, especially works by Elizabeth Freeman & Joyelle McSweeney, that take an interdisciplinary & multimedia approach to art & culture. I claim the letterform "&" exists in contemporary queer American poetry as a non-binary typographic body that is capable of staging zones of social collision. The Ampersand is both a tool for expressing hybrid embodiment & exists as hybrid non-binary body itself, capable of reconstructing linguistic values & visual hierarchies.;The Poetics of the Ampersand thesis project includes the PDF text of the handmade limited edition chapbook research project content & the following supplemental materials: (1) One video poem which correspond to the poetry manuscript: Splash Country & three video poems which correspond with my thesis installation: Advice for Scholars: Part One, Advice for Scholars: Part Two, A Force That Distorts (2) A poetry manuscript: & if it flows like pity/then it spills like viscous fluid (3) Installation shots from Nov 2016 MFA Exhibit in Aggregate Space Gallery (which display two of three videos, two broadsides, two found-object books, 4 of 20 limited edition handmade letterpress printed books of Poetics of the Ampersand research text). |
