Poetics of Totality, with Fan Wu

A poetics of totality excludes nothing from its potential purview; it plays in all of transformation’s crosscurrents; it invites us into a cosmic generosity. In this workshop, we will expand our own writing & reading practices by drawing from the essential interdependence of the world and the ethical-linguistic stance that it entails. We will study with some of my beloved teachers of totality. We will soak in their approaches: the stuplime populist taxonomies of game shows and reality TV; the tele/microscopic metamorphoses of Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and Leslie Scalapino; the Daoist synecdoche of Wang Wei and Du Fu; the deep-seeking queer transgressions of Pierre Guyotat and Robert Glück. Through undisciplined performance art, theatre, and music, we will also reconceive poetry readings in their total context as a social and spatial form. We will be writing & performing separately and collaboratively. Participants may bring a pre-existing project, or start from scratch.

About the Facilitator

Fan Wu writes, performs, and teaches. His current poetics of totality constellates noise music, the Zhuangzi, and participatory aesthetics. His most recent projects include: The Herald at Buddies in Bad Times (as performer), “The Semiotics of Men’s Socks” for Cafe Sprinkle (as writer-performer), and Elixir Frame at Images Festival (as orator & workshop facilitator).

Accessibility Information

This event will be taking place over Zoom. The link will be sent out to participants in advance of the event. Live closed captioning will be available. If you would benefit from live ASL interpretation throughout the workshop, please indicate so when prompted in your registration form.