Limited Fork Video Anthology

Digital quilting of interior images (by Shaelyn Smith) and exterior still & moving footage (by Thylias Moss) of the demolition of an historic University of Michigan building in the further documentation of an exploration of the nature of what contains and the nature of what is container, a dual & simultaneous possibility, the status of container or contained determined by perception prevailing at the moment of perception (the eye of the beholder). The complex textures and structures revealed through the irregularity of details in the stages demolition as captured by Shaelyn become visual metaphors for intangible qualities of experience associated with interactions with the physical space. An understanding of internal and external systems of structural integrity associated with Frieze become more revealed (or exploited) as the building is demolished. The patterns of the demolition offer aesthetic qualities that should not surprise as the mapping of these patterns through Shaelyn's digital lens reveals repetition and similarity with patterns related to stabilizing systems as well as to other destabilizing systems. Without Shaelyn's work, an ability to study these patterns would not exist.

Mike, a student practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics, walks through principles of Limited Fork Poetics.

A video poam exploration of the nature of containment where it intersects with notions of War. Alana is a student practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

A video poam exploration of the nature of containment where it intersects with notions of War. Mavis is a student practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

Shaelyn Smith's video poam exploring (some of) the nature of what contains and (some of) the nature of what is contained through an investigation of the changing nature of the Frieze building during its time of demolition. Hear the soundtrack in the Limited Fork Music podcast. Shaelyn is a student practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

A video poam that explores Limited Fork Poetics by a student practitioner in fulfillment of course requirements at the University of Michigan.

A video poam exploration of Limited Fork Poetics by a practitioner of LFP in fulfillment of course requirements at the University of Michigan.

A video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics at the University of Michigan

A video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

A video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics. The soundtrack is available from the Limited Fork Music podcast.

This video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics offers a visual meditation that links the perceptual distortion of dyslexia and the perceptual distortion experienced as love.

A video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics. The soundtrack is available in the Limited Fork Music podcast.

This video poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics in exploring the interface of Limited Fork Poetics and some of the science on which LFP is based simultaneously explores the aesthetic potential of the interface.

A video poam that meshes aesthetic opportunities at the cellular level and in the personal fulfillment that can be derived from work involving diagnosis and treatment of physiological anomalies (the beauty of such work) with Limited Fork Poetics which can enjoy compatibility and usefulness across many subjects. LFP is a(lso) tool of inquiry.

A video poam of interactions in language systems that also explores repetition as translation. The soundtrack is available in the Limited Fork Music podcast.

Angie's statement: "This piece is intended to serve as a silent, guided visualization of what it might look like to re-enter the world after one survives an apocalypse. I mean "apocalypse" as the kind of life crisis that consists of an explosion: this may be a literal one, or it maybe the aftermath in which we find both our hearts and our dreams completely demolished. This piece of art is one I watch when I lose faith in myself. It of course is a visualization that I watch on my iPod as I walk through a period in my life that is uglier and more degrading than the actual fight for my life that I won the night I was sexually assaulted and escaped in order to save myself, and to tell the police so that I could let go of the pain that experience was causing me, andlet the authorities do the right thing in catching him and putting himin prison for crimes he had already committed against so many otherwomen. IT IS POSSIBLE, and it has been done, by a woman who at the time, was completely alone. The fate of that woman has yet to be determined, and her optimism comes and goes, but I know I'm going to keep watching thiswhen I lose faith in myself to try and remember it's not always goingto be like this."

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.

A movie poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics

A movie poam by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

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" available in the Limited Fork podcast. The image of the women in burqas is by Steve Evans and is used under the Creative Commons license.

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.

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

a poam (product of an act of making) by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics. As is typical of constituents (or members) of a complex dynamic system, this poam also attempts to locate the ethics on the many levels (or scales) of a traumatic situation. The silence is significant, of course. Angie hopes that this poam might also be useful to those confronting similar situations.

A video poam 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 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.

A video poam that explores interactions among sets of embedded interactions and sets of exposed interactions. The suppression of the sonic suggests the holding of breath during a prolonged gasp.

This movie poam from May 2005 explores what led me to write the narrative-in-verse SLAVE MOTH when my son, the composer of the soundtrack for this short piece, 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 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 feelings are poorly suppressed; there are conflicting understandings of responsibilities to self and to 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; on my way out 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.

a poam (product of an act of making) by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

a poam (product of an act of making) by a practitioner of Limited Fork Poetics.

a poam (product of an act of making) that explores what lies at the fundamental level, at the heart of interaction --understandings of what happens in connections that explore chromatic manifestations of meaning. What Jen's ideas about Limited Fork Poetics look like, sound like.