Limited Fork

Slideshow of "Mother's Day," a graphic prose poam in eight 20x30 panels, part of the Place.Mark exhibition opening 7 March 2008 at the Work Gallery on State Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Features text extracted from conversations that took place between Thylias Moss and Ansted Moss, beginning in 1999 when he was eight-years-old, and features images captured with a digital SLR camera, a digital point-and-shoot camera, a 50x USB microscope, a camera phone, and a Polaroid camera. Images of Thylias Moss shot by Strexx, all others taken by Thylias Moss. An audio file of the Artist's Statement is available from the Limited Fork Music podcast.

Slideshow of the window installation at Work Gallery - Detroit featuring "Cogs in the Glass Machine," a Detroit Intersections Project on which Jim Cogswell, visual artist, and Thylias Moss, text artist, collaborated. The text may be downloaded in pdf format in another episode of this podcast.

Text of the window project in collaboration with Jim Cogswell for an installation on the windows of the Work Gallery - Detroit. A slideshow of the installation may be experienced in another episode of this podcast.

Video poam stanza of the longer video study "Heat Dozens with Lightning Wings," with sound by Strexx of http://www.strexx.com who wrangled the sound produced by an Empire toy stove and used it to form the basis of damage control audio for the soundtrack. This poam explores a system trying to organize itself, seeking a point of unification for its population, a theme that will have some joyousness tethered to it, too, for emerging, for existing, and for functioning as connective tissue so while there may be multiple forms of elements of damage, the system functions and as a (newly) functioning system perhaps is headed toward refined function, toward further blossoming of increasingly illuminating ways to map the possible configurations of the members tethered to this system on multiple scales to varying degrees. This is the situation in which the elements seek and locate connection points (that can also become, may have already been, may concurrently behave as bifurcation points --a network of activity that also establishes itself as a neural network and so is capable of acquiring forms of meanings. Multiple forms of damage on multiple scales; the connection points themselves may be damaged, supporting configurations of a community functioning within compromise, which can be a generous habitat. This video stanza is also a map. There are locations of beautiful elements and location of beautiful damage.

A video poam exploring the mapping of neural networks in the mind through the linking of memory, a toy stove, the body's physiological responses to neurological temporary neurological damage, and imagination. Ideas about heat from one hub of this network, a hub which allows this hub to connect with other idea hubs in the mind. Anyone watching "Heat Dozens" has an opportunity to form a memory of the video poam and to form a network of associations formed by elements in the video poam linking with experiences already mapped in the mind and with environmental experiences occurring while watching the poam. The non-human produced sounds in the music track were produced by manipulating the oven door and heating elements switches of the Empire toy stove; these sounds were recorded by Ansted Moss and are the only sounds used in the instrumental portion of the soundtrack. Made in conjunction with the November 2007 University of Michigan "Arts and Minds""learning studio" event in which leading international artists, scientists, scholars, activists, and students explored the interactions of art and mind. The actual Empire toy stove was part of the "Heat Dozens" presentation, the oven filled with a small format booklet (soon to be available in this podcast in psd format) featuring video poam stills pulled from moments of video frame interface. The keepsake memory booklet was available to any participant who opened the oven and removed a booklet from it.

EGGS! VISUAL I SPY! Look closely at the eggs, in the eggs, in the eggs within eggs in this low resolution version of the "Bubbling to Memphis" video poam for those with storage issues. The compression will be strained on those large LCD and plasma monitors, but on a portable device, it should look fine. A video poam that is a component of the Bubbling series that explores interior activities and the architecture of spaces that may be accessed when expansion occurs in or near centers. The series investigates what happens to notions of containment in such situations. This video poam is for Primus. Thank you for asking me for a video poam when I was in a location (the middle of an investigation) that lent itself to making one. Look for the "Bubbling to Memphis" soundtrack and the a cappella version of the soundtrack in the Limited Fork Music podcast.

EGGS! VISUAL I SPY! Look closely at the eggs, in the eggs, in the eggs within eggs. A limited fork video poam that is a component of the Bubbling series that explores interior activities and the architecture of spaces which may be accessed when expansion occurs in or near centers. The series investigates what happens to notions of containment in such situations. This video poam is for Primus. Thank you for asking me for a video poam when I was in a location (the middle of an investigation) that lent itself to making one. Look for the "Bubbling to Memphis" soundtrack and the a cappella version of the soundtrack in the Limited Fork Music podcast.

LFMK is a video poam made for the SAPAC (Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center & SafeHouse Center) "rEVOLUTION" show in the Duderstadt Center Gallery to launch the LFMK brand. LFMK (Looking for My Killer) is a (type of) PSA that hopes to call attention to the vulnerability of humanity through an extreme selfless act, that of a woman using herself to attract the attention of an attacker in order to protect other women the attacker might pursue if she were not willingly available. Because she enters into her humanitarian mission joyfully, the music is spirited, the colors of the embedded ads (by Ansted Moss of abstract-projections.com) are vivid. Look for LFMK T-shirts, mouse pads, mugs, picture frames, tote bags. Read some of the LFMK print poams in The Canary, Callaloo, NOR, and the Oleander Review. The LFMK soundtrack is available in the Limited Fork Music podcast.

A video poam that explores what is just out of reach, at the 50x scale where there is enough resemblance to soothe and enough enhancement to unsettle. What is seen of the eye, by the way, at the 50x scale is the (magnified) iris and the (magnified) pupil. The white part of the eye is not visibile except for a fraction of it for a second. Made in attempts to distract myself from the recent loss of 600GB of data when a 1TB external hard drive failed at the moment that I was trying to move what I arrogantly deemed my "best video work ever" to another drive. Perhaps arrogance got what it deserved, perhaps not, but The "Monday Aardvark of Laundry" updated pieces are the poams that came out of my attitude adjustment.

Short form of the longer update, both of which feature more images by Ansted Moss. This video poam explores how war and other physically, emotionally, and psychologically turbulent situations affect attempts to do laundry in an otherwise comfortable urban location. The update became necessary when external hard drive failure caused the loss of some of the source files. This piece is the outcome of salvage, replacement, and reinvention. Thank you, Evie, for asking for a poam when I was doing laundry. Thank you, Ansted for all the dirty socks and for images of me draped with laundry. The print poam may be read at mipoesias.com.

This updated version of the full-length video poam is about how war and other physically, emotionally, and psychologically turbulent situations affect attempts to do laundry in an otherwise comfortable urban location. Featuring more images by Ansted Moss, the update became necessary to make when an external hard drive failure destroyed some of the source files. The update is an outcome of salvage, replacement, and reinvention. The sound poam portion comes from a print piece prepared for MiPO (mipoesias.com), guest edited by Evie Shockley. Thanks, Evie, for the occasion that led to these makings and remakings.

Short video poam form of "Monday Aardvark of Laundry." Features images by Ansted Moss and faces of Martha, Mattie, and Donna --thanks for the likenesses. Thanks also to Evie of MiPO who got this bifurcating Aardvark bifurcation started.

A video poam exploration of some of the visual potential of some of the content of the sound & text poams of the same name. This video poam is also for Evie of MiPO who asked me to submit some work. Thanks for getting this tine of the fork in motion. This video poam is not likely to be the final bifurcation. "Monday Aardvark of Laundry" contains images by Ansted Moss (see more of his visual work at abstract-projections.com) and Thylias Moss. The "Monday Aardvark" sound poam is available in the Limited Fork Music podcast. Thanks Mattie, Martha, and Donna for your wonderful faces.

Video poam treatment of "Verde," a prose piece available at poetrymagazine.org. The video includes Spanish by Federico Garcia Lorca from the poem "Somnambule Ballad," and a still image by Ansted Moss whose image work may be seen at abstract-projections.com. The soundtrack is available in Limited Fork Music.

Video poam short of the installation projection piece in three parts, each about 9.42 minutes long. Related to "Pi Song" and to the video poam "Tornado Pi," and features close-ups of two of the human vortices. Explores merging, diverging, and fluctuating identities. Dreams of golden ratios. Also related to the video poam "Place Value." I am grateful for the generous participation of two University of Michigan practitioners of Limited Fork Poetics: Rachel Harkai and Nate Barron who has two video poams in the Limited Fork Video Anthology podcast.

A video poam of "Rush Hour," from my first collection of poetry, and a companion piece to the sound poam in the Limited Fork Music podcast, made for Phoebe and Kathy of Symphony Space. Intersects with and departs from "Rush Hour (too)," a video poam available in this podcast. The soundtrack of this video poam is available from the Limited Fork Music podcast.

Video poam companion to "Rush Hour" sound poam in the Limited Fork Music podcast, made for Phoebe and Kathy of Symphony Space and for the adult literacy students who used "Rush Hour" in their program. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to revisit a poem from my first book.

A spoken poam for practitioners, dabbler or immersed, the curious and for the attendees --also for those who could not attend-- my CREW (Collaboratory for Reseach in Electronic Work) Seminar last week in the School of Information (north campus), a session during which an attendee in the remote West Hall (central campus)location asked me about the challenge of judging the quality of Limited Fork poams if there are no boundaries to what may achieve the status of poam. This audio poam comes from further consideration of the question and my response at the time. This is extended collaboration with the asker of the question. This audio poam also suggests ways to respond to work created outside the system of evaluation within which student forkers explore my Limited Fork learning opportunities. To the attendee whose name I don't know, thanks for asking. Thanks also to Mick and David for arranging my participation in CREW.

An answer poam for Cheryl's question about why a fork is the instrument of this poetics of interacting language systems, why a fork is the tool of choice for making. An answer poam for Cheryl that is also for the participants of the CREW seminar (for whom this answer poam is also a ladder).

This sonic poam is for Profjr!, and for any others curious about the basics of what happens when formal poetic structures are forked. Just a little bare-bones map of fork possibilities to consider when laboring through an act of making and hoping for multiples, but not necessarily identicals or even twins at all. If something's born on/in/over/under/through/with/navigating/zigzagging/climbing/opening/folding/unfolding [& so forth] the ladder, and you'd like to share it with me (and possibly other Limited Fork podcast subscribers), please send it to thyliasm@umich.edu. Thanks.

This video poam, dedicated to Haesong Kwon and the CREAM CITY REVIEW where "The Culture of Snowmen" appeared as a print object poam, is a product of investigations of scale and simultaneity of activity in interactions in language systems, and is part of the Limited Fork Simultaneity Studies Series. This video poam forms different structures (including structures of meaning) when it interacts with static and focused platforms (also achievable by pause functions) such as document forms such as the pdf visual poam, available in this podcast, of still images from the video. The interactions are not limited to the sound poam, the video poam, and the pdf of stills. The print object poam "The Culture of Snowmen" is part of TOKYO BUTTER, my new collection of poetry from Persea. Please send any requests for LFP information or for sonic and/or video forked treatment of any of my print object poams to thyliasm@umich.edu and I'll post the resulting poams to the appropriate Limited Fork podcast(s) as soon as the poams are made. A high resolution widescreen version of this video poam is available from Thylias Moss (thyliasm@umich.edu).

A book of still poams, images from "Ostrich Culture of Snowmen" from the Limited Fork Poetics simultaneity studies video series. Companion poams are available in this podcast and in the Limited Fork Music podcast. This visual poam, dedicated to Haesong Kwon and the CREAM CITY REVIEW where "The Culture of Snowmen" appeared as a print object poam, is a product of investigations of scale and simultaneity of activity in interactions in language systems. The print object poam "The Culture of Snowmen" is part of TOKYO BUTTER, my new collection of poetry from Persea. Please send any requests for LFP information or for sonic and/or video forked treatment of any of my print object poams to thyliasm@umich.eduand I'll post the resulting poams to the appropriate Limited Fork podcasts as soon as the poams are made.

A video poam for Mikel Alvarez whose request for the sound poam "Tornados" led to the creation of this video poam. I hope you like it, Mikel. "Tornado Pi" contains an image of the mother of Limited Fork Poetics taken by Ansted Moss. "Tornado Pi" also contains footage of the "Pi Song" ENG 429 players: Nate Barron, Rachel Harkai, Jennifer Obidike, Julia Ris, and Jennifer Sharkey. Nate and Jennifer Sharkey's video poams are available in the Limited Fork Video Anthology podcast. The soundtrack of "Tornado Pi" is available in the Limited Fork Music podcast. "Pi Song" is available in the Limited Fork podcast and the the Limited Fork Music podcast. The soundtrack of Jennifer Sharkey's video poam is also available in the Limited Fork Music podcast. "Colorful Dimensions," composed and performed by Ansted Moss, is the sonic structure that emerges with visual structures in this video poam. Please send any requests for sonic and/or video poams to thyliasm@umich.edu

This video poam reconfigures, in a context of access, images taken by the MADD Poets Society of Toledo, Ohio on the occasion of their visit to the north campus of the University of Michigan. The MADD Poets are Making a Direct Difference in their community with positive actions. Their Director is David Bush.

Audio extraction from the (Incredible) ACCESS video poam; a sound poam of only the words spoken about access, inspired by the occasion on which the MADD Poets Society of Toledo, Ohio came to the north campus of the University of Michigan. David Bush is Director of the MADD Poets Society.

A medley of three video poams made by three teams of members of the MADD Poets Society of Toledo, Ohio during their single day of access to Limited Fork Poetics and the north campus of the University of Michigan in April 2006. The MADD Poets Society is a group of teens Making A Direct Difference through positive actions in their community. David Bush is the director of the MADD Poets Society.

This movie poam debuted at the "Pleasurable Complexity" Limited Fork poetry event on 14 September at the University of Michigan. The theme is "place value: implications of the lattice." 37 layers (communities) of interacting language systems (communities) are latticed in the making of this poam. Poams related to this theme, including a "Pleasurable Complexity event book," may be found throughout all three Limited Fork podcasts: Limited Fork, Limited Fork Music, and Limited Fork Video Anthology. This poam contains images © 2005 by John Chervinsky and are used by permission. This poam also contains content from the "Pleasurable Complexity event book" also available in this podcast. The image of the women in burqas is by Steve Evans and is used under the Creative Commons license.

This visual poam is a companion to the "Pleasurable Complexity" Limited Fork poetry event that considered notions of place value and implications of the lattice. Some of Ansted's lattice looking images were part of a larger lattice or woven piece featuring the poam "Shadowbox Suite" by KC Trommer. This larger piece, "Latticed Shadowbox Suite," is available in the Limited Fork Video Anthology podcast and in the Limited Fork podcast. Other pieces related to the "Pleasurable Complexity" are also available in the Limited Fork podcast. Implications and interactions extend beyond the separate poams; such is the nature of resonance available for notice and further interaction and transformation.

A video poam exploring implications of the lattice in conjunction with the "Pleasurable Complexity" Limited Fork event on 14 September. A variation of the image sequence is also woven (interacting) into "Latticed Shadowbox Suite" which also features work by KC Trommer, a Limited Fork practitioner, and cellist Pablo Casals performing a suite for cello by Bach. Related poams are available in this and other Limited Fork podcasts. These poams are part of a lattice of inquiry considering notions of place value.

A video poam (product of an act of making) exploring scale and the simultaneity of experience in interacting language systems which form and reform poetic structures as a consequence of the ways in which their existences fold and unfold. "Place Value" is also about the location of poetry and the need for people to be (more) receptive to the incredible readiness for poetry exhibited by all that exists. The poam considers how value both is and isn't assigned to instances of this incredible readiness. The soundtrack is available from the Limited Fork Music podcast.

This video poam is an unintended collaboration that in the lack of intention becomes a lattice itself, a community of interactions from multiple locations intersecting on a number of levels (or lattices). The compatibility of KC's video, and the spoken language with Ansted's images seems designed rather than incidental, yet it wasn't until I had these separate components for the Gallery exhibit component of "Pleasurable Complexity" Limited Fork poetry event that I realized the benefit of seeing the separate pieces together, allowing them to speak a shared language in addition to the multiple levels of saying in their separate languages. Two themes of the "Pleasurable Complexity" Limited Fork poetry event were "place value" and "implications of the lattice," with "implications of the lattice" contained in notions of "place value," and notions of "place value" contained in "implications of the lattice." More "Pleasurable Complexity" materials are available from the Limited Fork podcast. --Thylias Moss

Text of poam (product of an act if making) part of a University of Michigan Engineering 477 VRML (virtual reality modeling language) Project, Fall 2003, related to themes, images, & attempts to locate what remains dealt with in Tokyo Butter © 2006 by Thylias Moss. This poem, though a part of the book, is outside the book. Go to http://www.engin.umich.edu/class/eng477/projectsf03/POEM/Report/Report.html to see details of the Virtual reality Modeling Language project.

This movie poam explores what led me to write the narrative in verse SLAVE MOTH when my son, the composer of the soundtrack for this short movie poam, was in sixth grade at a grade-six-through-twelve school. During a meeting, some parents wanted to ban a required ninth-grade ancestry assignment that was embarrassing, humiliating, and demeaning for disclosing that their sons could trace their ancestry no further than slavery. Right away, I realized the need for other models of slavery so that the shame being experienced could be attached to a broader, and I felt, likely more accurate context, one more able to embrace the range of possibilities of circumstances during slavery which, even if owners were benevolent, was unacceptable because ownership of human beings was unacceptable. Part of the horror of slavery is that benign gestures might make the peculiar institution seem acceptable, a good indignity. Imagination can make an incredible difference, and in fact made an incredibly negative difference for those mothers who in 2002 were unable to imagine a plausible, less obvious layer of the history so embarrassing for their sons that they would prefer not to explore the rich offerings of a past that their ancestors obviously survived no matter what horrors were encountered. How awful that they were so willing to deny the testimony that survival can be. How awful that they could construct for themselves only constricted, generic, and simplified images of slaves. I remain impressed and inspired by survival. There are layers of experience in SLAVE MOTH, and the Perry household is a complex and dynamic system of existence, relationships stabilizing and destabilizing as alliances shift and as feelings are poorly suppressed; there are conflicting understandings of responsibilities to self and others, and power shifts according to what is stabilizing and what is destabilizing at any given moment. The fact that power shifts makes it difficult for any one person to wield it well or consistently. SLAVE MOTH offers access to more of the layers of humanity that some mothers in 2002 were unable to allocate to enslaved persons. I too spoke at the meeting; just before I left to start writing immediately I informed the group advocating abolition of the genealogy assignment that my son, only in sixth grade that year, had had no trouble completing his assignment to write an ancestry poem. I commented that Ansted had traced his ancestry all the way back to the big bang, and considered himself a descendant of stardust. The text of his poem is part of "Project Genealogy," and is also offered here: Ancestry Poem We all came from a single cell a vast time ago specks coming to life in the oceans of the planets and in space everyone of us evolved from star dust into the form we take on now looking at space through telescopes at the next generation of star dust that will breathe --Ansted Moss, 22 October 2002. The soundtrack and sonic variations of "Project Genealogy" are available at the Limited Fork Music podcast.

poetry as sound art (a poam) --companion to the 15-minute online poetry writing friendly competition at quickmuse.com (see the 27 June archived agon for the real time play back of the writing of the poem and to read the finished static piece)

DOD is a theory piece of Limited Fork Poetics, an experimental film that celebrates how text, sound, and both moving and static images can form sensory communities of varying densities while explaining some of what necessitates such explorations. The sensory paths are not duplicates; the sonic is not trying to say what the visual image is saying or the visual text, but they are all commenting on shared existence, so there are moments of convergence, and moments that contemplate, even if they do not complete, exchange. The death of depth in part suggests that a notion of distance may not belong in LFP, for in Limited Fork Poetics, there are means of instantaneous travel, to any location including the infinitely small and the infinitely large. Once arriving at these locations, surface is encountered. To cut into something, to identify a slice is to expose an interior surface. LFP understands fracture and rupture as an opportunity to build again, and an interest in building again, even while knowing the structures that form are temporary according to varying time scales. An instrumental version of the soundtrack is available from the Limited Fork Music podcast.

2002 performance of "Glory" in which the poet speaks and sings the words, allowing the music composed and performed by Ansted Moss to reshape them for their occupancy of the sonic page instead of the 2D page.

Soundtrack from the first Limited Fork video piece "The Song of Iota," October 2004. The text of this piece, adapted from the video piece where the text was composed, also exists as a print object in Gargoyle 50.

An essay that defines Limited Fork Poetics, the study of interacting language systems, as of May 2006.

sound art; a poam that continues a consideration of the theme of place value. also a companion (not a close relative) of the video art piece "Pi Complex," not yet part of the podcast.

A book of interactions between two visual language systems, images and words, to accompany the 14 September (and as of 15 September, to document the) presentation of "WORKS OF PLEASURABLE COMPLEXITY, a LIMITED FORK POETICS EVENT" by Thylias Moss of the University of Michigan and John Chervinsky of Harvard University. All images © John Chervinsky, 2005. See more at http://www.chervinsky.org

soundtrack from the experimental poetry short "the culture of funnel cake" from the early days of Limited Fork Poetics

Experimental poetry short from the early days (late 2004) of Limited Fork Poetics with images and soundtrack by Ansted Moss, animated text and vocalizations by Thylias Moss interacting in a hybrid literary form (a poam)