FIELD NOTES: Jacob Perkins, From the Cannery : Pt 3 :: Exxon Oil Spill
Pushing off the dock in Kodiak with a solid three weeks of work behind us, the small cannery we called (temporary) home, Alitak, lies behind a hundred miles of fog and snowcovered peaks. We set off on a thirty hour run north, to an equally small town, Kenai, for the salmon season on the Cook Inlet.
I'd like to tell you about jigging for cod over this time, on a small boat in high wind and waves, but I find myself interested in showers, and their locations, scarcity.
FIELD NOTES : JACOB PERKINS: From the Cannery, Pt 2
Straight from Kodiak -- our second installment from poet and artist, Jacob Perkins.
Here's an excerpt from PT 1 - to contextualize the images and drawings below. More words are incoming... he's on a fishing boat in Alaska, after all!
"Myself, I am Alaskan born. Summer is the season of the sockeye. For others it is re-shingling, re-siding, decking, painting, some kind of hometown gig you begrudge seasonally, out of that season. For me it is sockeye, and a gillnet, and a boat.
Whether or not you’re leaving your medium; the palette, the sound equipment, the studio, the computer; or if you’re lucky enough to bring them along, one thing is clear: summer is time to get down to some hard work, psychologically, ideologically, literally."
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A 45 pound Lingcod we caught in Kodiak[/caption]
EDITORIAL :: FIELD NOTES and the RHIZOME : the series grows wild and free
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"from the seemingly random the rhizome develops" - Bob Holman, June 23rd, 2012 @ Naropa SWP | intuitive responsive visualised field notes by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson[/caption]
Since the inauguration of the Field Notes series there has been a great rumbling -- not only of interest in the project [on deck: filmmakers, musicians, programmers, visual artists, activists...!] but also in the expansion of its attentions.
Given our proclivity towards community collaboration we eagerly sop up the runoff of creative juices that gathers like dew on you all in the morning! So, naturally, to the question, "could we also include ____?" the answer is, why NOT?
If you're new to Exit Strata, this is a good time to introduce you to our commitment to PROCESS: as much or more than we are excited to share and celebrate the products we create, we thrive and exist around the notion of creating community together via an intentional desire to the work of art. That is to say the WORK that is art, and the collaborative acts of craft across many disciplines that make this work so rich. We are not interested in what is NOT. We are interested in IS. Human attention, human questioning, universal energetic wanderings, coding, mathematical formulation, scientific inquiry, yoga, chanting, dance, film, music, sound, translation, fiction, poetry, prose, aphorism. Is it ART? is it art? is it Art? This is an interesting question for another time, but also a different question than it may appear to be. For our purposes, we are more interested in "does it inspire? does it help me and my community grow/think/learn/be better?" and to look at how the creative people (which doesn't necessarily mean "artists") in our midst use their notes to grow themselves and their work.
Above, you see a responsive notebook page of mine that ebbed and flowed, responding to the rhythms of a poetry reading that was introduced by Bob Holman, who spoke the words above: "from the seemingly random the rhizome develops." Something perhaps I never would have shared before this series, which brings some questions to the fore, for all of us:
What does your field-note-book look like?
FIELDNOTES: Jacob Perkins : From the Cannery, pt 1
Field Notes: From the Inlet 
June 5th, 11 pm
Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY
For starters:
Talk of caliopes. Caliopes. Stray cats mewling on stoopfronts and dumpsters, borne into alleys panting. The incoming exodus of pushcarts and their ices, spokes pumped with Mets cards, their winter quarters unknown. Hydrants relieved and their fittings revealed. New streams clearing out trashjams on the G line. Someone saying “someone painted something on some building and did you know?” Big talk about how soon and how bad and how long and how hot. Flat tops and tattoos and everything cut sharp for sweating. Piedmont creeping up from the south and backsweats drickling down.
If you haven’t heard enough of this garbage, just wait. All sorts of things are said about summer in the city and frankly, I will not have it. Whatever intrigue maintained the attention of your Alaskas, your Seattles, your Portlands and Minnesotas has surely dried up by the time you hit June, and if you’re one of them, and you’re lucky, it’s time to hit the road for a few months.
Myself, I am Alaskan born. Summer is the season of the sockeye. For others it is re-shingling, re-siding, decking, painting, some kind of hometown gig you begrudge seasonally, out of that season. For me it is sockeye, and a gillnet, and a boat.
EDITORIAL :: NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT: "FIELD NOTES"
"None of us can ever retrieve that innocence before all theory when art knew no need to justify itself, when one did not ask of a work of art what it said because one knew (or thought one knew) what it did.
From now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task of defending art. We can only quarrel with one or another means of defense."
- Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation
“...writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.” ― Doris Lessing
AWESOME CREATOR: Legacy Russell, Brooklyn NY: Wayward Ceremonies for Our Times
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WHO:
Legacy Russell
Legacy asks of her work, "Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?"
She creates "tangible constructions inspired by the often intangible landscapes of memory and identity, the objects that rise to the surface have escaped their original owners and serve the function of participating in wayward ceremonies of remembrance, iconography, and idolatry."
And we are thankful that she does. Legacy's critical, playful, artful examinations are the work of a committed woman whose production across a range of mediums is at once is intimate and universal, searing and comforting, ephemeral and concrete. Here is someone who has continuously engaged in the public sphere, creating and enabling community and connection, questioning and interrupting our visual and verbal culture -- yet who never ceases to turn the lens on herself, writing fiction and poetry with the deft quietude of the best hermits.
Every inch the model of the AWESOME CREATOR, Legacy is tireless in her efforts, and has been very rightly been recognized as a force to be reckoned with (but also well loved and appreciated) by her peers -- one comes quickly to realize the great humility, kindness, and generosity of spirit in this young artist, one that is rare in someone on whom such accolades have been showered. Just this year she was recognized as one of the "10 Most Inspiring Young Artists in NYC Right Now" by Refinery 29, who had previously profiled her site specific, interactive piece, OPEN CEREMONY, begun in association with Trust Art in 2011.
THIS WEEKEND IN NYC: FOKUS presents The Flock 2012 “Arts Party on the Plaza”
Exit Strata is pleased to invite you to an exciting event celebrating art, collaboration, and community in Brooklyn this coming sunday.
F.O.K.U.S. [Fighting Obstacles Knowing Ultimate Success] is an arts organization founded at UMich in 2003 by art students committed to promoting and creating opportunities for creative individuals and communities -- it now has chapters in New York and Ann Arbor, and is a fully fledged 501c3 nonprofit, which has been organizing public events like this one ever since!
Awesome Creator Anna Barsan, of the Signified Project [in collaboration with Jessie Levandov] started working with FOKUS in Ann Arbor, and is now a member of the NYC chapter; along with Gio(vanna) Fischer, Anna was instrumental in bringing this event into being... and to our attention! The focus of FOKUS is right in line with our own, and we could not be more thrilled to introduce our communities to each other. Without further ado, THE FLOCK:
AWESOME CREATOR: Peter Jay Shippy, Poet/Educator
Amid all the excitement around Exit Strata’s Print! Launch, I have been thinking about the previous launchings that have brought me to this project. One of the most important launches for me was being set off on my journey into
AWESOME CREATORS :: SPRING PREVIEW
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With Poetry Month recently ended, I find myself having separation anxiety from the influx of lovestuff our 30/30/30 series was made of. I've been excited to note that our poetry community's efforts have been making the rounds -- that connections are being established, gratitude circulated, and love received amongst circles of readers, friends, our terrific contributors, and many of the profiled poets, as well.
Of course, to everything there is a season and by no means does April's close equate an end to Exit Strata's commitment to mutual appreciation. In fact, it gives us an opportunity to shine more, and well deserved light on our ongoing AWESOME CREATORS profile series, the inauguration of which slipped in on little cat feet amidst the Poetry Month festivus.
What a bunch of awesome folk we've got in the bullpen to introduce to you this season! We could not be more excited, and since I've always been the kind of kid who wants to wear ALL her new clothes RIGHT AWAY I just *had* to share.
I've given you mini preview schpiels here, in case you want to w(h)et? your whistle.
You can look forward to conversations with:
RICHARD EOIN NASH : RED LEMONADE, SMALL DEMONS
ANNA BARSAN/JESSIE LEVANDOV: SIGNIFIED
NICK LEAVENS : THE CLAQUE
JOSEPH RIIPPII
VELCROW RIPPER : OCCUPY LOVE
POETRY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK / NY POETRY FESTIVAL
___
WOOHOO!
AWESOME CREATORS *EVENT!*: Introducing Our Fantabulous Printers:: Leah Matthews and Kate F Ire Dedlow
This is yet another one of those moments where we must jump to get you a profile of some of the AWESOME CREATORS in our community in order to bring you a kid tested Exit Strata approved event!
You may have heard the until-recently-super-secret news that the premiere print publication of Exit Strata will have a super-special-super-delicious limited edition letterpress run, in addition to our standard run, and that this will be accompanied by a super-special-super-delectable limited edition broadside created in our community CoCo {Collaborative Content} salon? WELL.
I am proud to introduce you to our printers, both of whom work in the print studio at Pratt, and both of whom are producing remarkable, groundmaking work in their own right -- mixing a range of print techniques with installation and multimedia to create environmental, experiential pieces quite unlike anything you've seen.
It just so happens that TODAY is the MFA Thesis show of one of our print team, Leah Matthews, presenting the immersive "Glitter Rock" at the Pratt Studios on Steuben Street.
