OPPORTUNITY: BARBARIC AWP SEATTLE 2014 FIELD NOTES
Image: vectorious.net
[h5] The OS Wants YOU! to write journalistic / field notes type accounts of your days in Seattle, as we are unable to attend. [/h5]
These could take very different approaches:
On the one hand, The OS is interested in running naturally humorous, personal accounts of the general overwhelm – the scale, the strangeness of convention centers (and giant, 10thousand strong conferences in general) – and events like the dance party…
But also, there’s the question of whether or not AWP is as useful as it could be in terms of the conversations that are happening in the panels and so forth, or whether the real/functional purpose of the convention is just the giant alumni reunion/nationwide bookfair/networking meet&greet&(re)connect portal that it is. Are the panels not really meant to have impact? I know as a bookseller I went to ONE panel and found that there was little to no takeaway for those who could not attend save a quick conversation with someone who’d gone to something which got lost quickly in the melee.
[box] [h6] Could you see yourself taking quick notes and pictures, signifiers of the whole, which you could send us and/or return to for a recap of the stories and/or meaning and/or people and/or presses you found there? [/h6] [/box]
The intent, as always, is to provide a window and an archive for the ephemera in creative experience. For events like the panels at AWP, I feel this can be a very important opportunity for work that has often been long-agonized over to not be lost in the fray of an insane few days. Whether you are on a panel or not, consider airing it and expanding it here – and please, feel free to conduct interviews if you desire, knowing you have a home for them online.
[h4] Don’t feel any pressure to write FROM AWP /during the madness unless you wish to. [/h4]
If you want, you can tag us on Twitter, Facebook or other social media (@the_OS_), otherwise in addition to text or multimedia you are encouraged send scrappy notebook postings, or pictures of your notes if you jot things in a notebook or journal.
One or multiple entries is totally possible.
You’re also welcome to send a quick paragraph ahead of time with your hopes and plans for AWP this year.
email lynne@theoperatingsystem.org with any questions or entries.
ONWARD
DRINK WATER
PACK ADVIL
and
DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN
