I thought it might be of interest to some readers of this site that I've set up a blog for the purpose of planning an alternative writing conference in Ashland, Oregon. The process is in its infancy, and all the organizational groundwork remains to be laid, but I'm looking at a target of early summer 2008, however realistic that does or doesn't turn out to be.
Advice, assistance, contributions, or general wisdom of any kind appreciated. Please e-mail me at ksilem at gmail dot com and/or leave comments here.
1 comment:
Kasey,
What about Google as a funding source? I do propose that quite seriously: There are obvious connections to be explored, what with the growing use of the Google Corporation's central tool for creating what's seen by many as cutting-edge poetry.
This could obviously be a promotional thing for Google, too, and I'd bet there's a good chance they would go for it: Corporations are famously eager to promote their relationship to the Arts, and here we have (at least as practiced by key organizers of the conference) a sub-genre that is the virtual creation of this company's world-changing Search Engine. What could be more natural, therefore, than getting money from Google? Money is a kind of poetry.
There could, for instance, be an annual section of the conference devoted exclusively to the Corporation: to the most recent applications of Google to poetic composition, its interface with the other cyber arts, search engine aesthetic theory-- the possibilities, since they are evolving, are quite endless, I'm sure.
I'd propose it's worth a careful letter of query, at least. What's $10,000 a year to an outfit like Google, especially if the conference would be helping, in its small way, to promote the company and its product? You might even get enough to make the conference international, invite poets from abroad, though with Google, I suppose, you might have to leave out certain Chinese poets :~ )
But that would be a minor problem. We've been waiting to find a way to make avant Poetry relevant to the real world. Here is a potential way, and who knows where it might lead.
I do think I am on to a good idea, here.
And also, isn't Google headquarters somewhere in Oregon?
Kent
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