Word/Art

This class will explore the interconnectivity of writing and visual art by asking the question, what is possible in the relationship between text and image? We'll look at concrete and graphic poetry, comics and graphic nonfiction; as well as chapbooks, broadsides, erasures, visual alphabets and syllabaries, and even tarot cards. In this process we'll conceive broader questions about language and representation: what can words do that visual images cannot and vice versa; what capacities does each have for conjuring reality; what becomes imaginable only when text and image fuse? Students will have the opportunity to try out a number of small-scale exercises, as well as to craft a sustained word/art project. They will come away with a new understanding of their own relationship(s) to language, and an expanded sense of possibility in their creative practice. No experience with writing or visual art is necessary though students should be prepared to experiment as both writers and visual artists. For undergraduates only.