Word interventions and installations in public spaces. Text plus context equals interactivity to spark learning, reflection, dialogue, the sharing and viewing of multiple points of view etc.
Silence
A Project (started June 12, 2020)
One entry per day exploring the meanings of silence, the different kinds of silence, the expressions of silence...
https://www.facebook.com/marjorie.kanter
Im/politeness
For the 100 Im/polite Days project, I generated 100 tweets for 100 days to provoke thinking (my own and others) on the topic of communication and incommunication in general & politeness &impoliteness in particular; both within a culture &crossing cultures. The project came about because of Josie Long’s call for 100dayprojects (to improve yourself) in conjunction with the London Word Festival.
The project consists 100 tweets (+) that I posted on Twitter and Facebook from December 2, 2009 until March 10, 2010. Posterior to the live project, a book was produced. Each format allowed different kinds of things.
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As part of the project I used my original Twitter page @MarjorieKanter, opened a special Im/polite Facebook page and a special Im/polite blog. Each format allowed different kinds of things. I liked very much working with the 144 Tweet character limit &how the Facebook page allowed for dialogue &also kept everything on the theme in one place without intermixing of other topics and entries. I used the blog format in a non-traditional way, more as a file cabinet for storing resources I found &materials I wrote. I will most probably continue to add to the blog beyond the one hundred days and would like to receive suggestions of material to add, be it theoretical, applied or creative.
These are some of the qualities I strove to achieve when developing the im/polite project: Non-frivolous/Interesting/Investigative/Communicative (dialogical)/Focused/Useful/Aesthetic/Pleasing/Engage in playfulness/Be provocative...
For the purposes of this book, I’ve added a few comments or changed the type size, modified spellings&markings (becuz each medium&moment in time/space calls for specific things.) The added texts appear in 12 point type to differentiate them from the original Tweets.
Logo design by Jose Luis Delgado Guitart, delgadoguitart@gmail.com
The Bagged Stories
The Bagged Stories is an on-going poetry-literary art project by Marjorie Kanter begun in 2007. the project consists of a poetry-story text by Marjorie Kanter printed on a gray card (14 ½
by 10 ¼ centimeters) and joined with an object that is carefully selected for meaning and size to go with the piece and then both items are popped into a zip-lock bag (11 x 20 centimeters). Some packets are produced in an unnumbered series and others in numbered limited additions. There is a special collection of one only (1/1 signed bags), other numbered editions may range from 2 to 100 copies of the same text + object. For some texts, there are a variety of objects, each is then a separate piece. At the outset, as this began as a popular culture project, an attempt was made to find free or very cheap objects always controlling for something that the author liked and felt satisfied with in its mesh with the text. As time has gone by, the project has expanded to more unique objects, including a few antiques, one being a handkerchief hand embroidered by a great great political grandmother or maybe from even before that. The project is on-going.
Marjorie Kanter’s writings are often essences, essences of life, epiphanies or creators of epiphanies ie. the reader gets the epiphany. Her writing comes out of her journals from the past 27 + years when she has largely lived outside her original culture. These writings often explore relationships within and cross cultures. She writes in English and works with native Spanish speakers, translators and laypersons, to also evolve the texts in an adaptation in Spanish.
Objects may be made of cloth, plastic, metal, contain magnets, wood, glass, etc. Some objects are perishable but they can be replaced by the collector-caretaker...coffee beans, vache que rit triangular cheese portion, oreo cookie, baby onion, chicken bone, sugar packet, tea bag, cigarette, uncooked miniature packet of spaghetti, flan chino mandarino in individual packet, hard candy, jelly candy, uncooked grains of rice, toast, curry, red peppers, turkey wishbone, chicken bone, potato chips, leaf...
Images of many of the pieces can be found on Flickr by going to www.elasunto.com/mkd.htm (Some of the images are rough drafts, but should give an idea of the item, and will be changed shortly) and clicking on The Bagged Stories hyperlink. If the bag you are interested in viewing is not yet on Flickr it can be uploaded upon request giving several weeks lead time.
Prices vary (10 euros – 10,000 euros) according to how hard it was/is to find the object or would be to replace it, how much the item cost, how much the author likes it, sentimental value, historical value, what the investment in time and money was... All limited editions are signed and numbered. When there is a substantial purchase of multiple items some prices can be negotiated. The prices in many cases are the artist/authors price, any distribution costs should be added on or negotiated with La Espiral Escrita. Prices are specific to this inquiry and may change.
Published by La Espiral Escrita (laespiralescrita@gmail.com)
If multiple bags are purchased a storage box can be included in the purchase. Pricing depends on the characteristics of the box...cardboard, wood, etc. Framing or the use of a glass windowed box is suggested for display. This can also be purchased from La Espiral Escrita if so desired.
Many of the texts are from “I displace the air as I walk”, The Saddle Stitch Notebooks, Im/politeness Matters, and works in process for a new book currently entitled “Where does the sky begin?” There are a few pieces available in Spanish translation. More to come.
Supraficciones: In- comunicación
These words are playing around. Fundación La Caixa, Lleida, Spain, Jan. 2007-Jan. 2008. Consists of seven text installations placed on steps, under seats, on mirrors and in the elevator inside the space of the Fundacion. A year long installation. January 2007-January 2008
Literary Walking Tour
A storytelling walking tour of Madrid´s Barrio de las Letras. This one and a half hour tour starts at the old cafe inside the Reina Sofia Museum and ends at the Cerveceria Alemana in Plaza Santa Ana. Along the way there are 8 stops where Marjorie Kanter reads texts in front of the setting where they first occurred.
Historias para la espera: The project
Representado en La Noche en Blanco en el Matadero (Madrid-2008) y por representar:
Se puede repetir en español o en inglés en distintos lugares donde se forman colas - en supers, en el cine, el teatro, el museo, esperando el autobús, etc.)
Historias para la Espera tiene como fin compartir unos textos literarios con los espectadores y así involucrarles en la experiencia, en la escritura, en el esperar, escuchar, reflejar, dialogar y crear. Cambiamos el hecho de esperar en una cola a un evento recreativo, relacional, y creativo. La propuesta tiene elementos para el espectador como espectador pero tiene también como fin llevarle a su propia expresión, su propia creación y finalmente el regreso a ser espectador, pero esta segunda vez en colectivo. Uno de los objetivos es ver las múltiples posibilidades que se pueden generar sobre el mismo tema, desde el mismo punto de partida.
Los tres elementos en los que puede participar el público son:
1. Como Espectador: El Espectador escuchara, recibirá, y leerá textos acerca de experiencias llevadas a cabo mientras se espera en cola,
2. El Espectador se vuelve Creador: Por medio de lecturas, el reparto de textos y el diálogo, incito a los espectadores a reflejar y compartir sus propias experiencias en la cola y también a inventar sus cuentos imaginarios los cuales serán grabados.
3. Como Espectador en colectivo: Posteriormente al evento pasaré algunas de las historias grabadas a texto y las pondré en mi web para que todo el mundo pueda ver la variedad (que es uno de los elementos importantes en la creatividad) de historias que pueden surgir de un simple esperar en cola.
Transformations: A Project
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This project explores and provides creative texts and found information across fields relating to transformations and performance.
What does the word, the concept of transformations mean to you? And if you can, connect it with performance. I have some beginning thoughts and reminiscences: the Picasso film where he draws on a glass as it is filmed, Antonio Lopez film as he watches and paints "El Sol del Membrillo", Michael Jackson in his world videos and morphs, werewolfs and others in tales and film, Piaget and human development stages and processes, Goffman and his ways of seeing human performance and much more.....
The Mad Open Mic
The Mad Open Mic: Captured Words organized by Marjorie Kanter has so far had 10 editions in Madrid, Spain from 2008-2013. The night is a chance for writers to readspeak their work, in English, and is meant to be an open forum for writers to exchange their energies, ideas and texts with each other and with a larger public, to build a network and to spark our creative energies. There are two sets of performances: the first for a maximum of three minutes per person, and the second a spontaneous round of one minuters.
Researching Paul Bowles
Intramuros #26 22/11/2007
Con esta edición dedicada a Marruecos, Intramuros vuelve a tocar el mundo cultural africano y explora, por vez primera, un pais árabe. El escritor Abdelkaer Chaoui coorina este número, que quiere ser un viaje de ida y vuelta y en el que se trata del Marruecos literario (Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla), del hispanismo y la producción literaria marroquí en lengua esapñola (Moohamed Lahchiri, Mohamed Bouissef Rekab), de la literatura en la cárcel (Jaouad Mdidech), de la lengua tamazigt (Fatima Sadiqui), de autores como Edmon Amran El Maleh (Malika Embarek) o Paul Bowles (Marjorie Kanter), de artistas como Said Messari (Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla) y de cine (Alejandro alfaro, Et-Tayeb Houdaifa); se relatan también la experiencia y la vivencia (Mohamed Chakor, Fernando Verdugo, Mohamed Chukri, Fernando Oliván) y se recogen poemas de Ikram Abdi, Imán Jattabi, AÄ«cha Bassry, Widad Ben Musa y Abderrahman El Fathi.
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'Paul Bowles: Mixing Codes and Crossing Borders', Marjorie Kanter in "Bowles Beats Tanger", edited by Allen Hibbard and Barry Tharaud, 2008