writing « The odd tag

Mar 24 2011

link, text, video

Incroci di civiltà 2011- Incontri internazionali di letteratura a Venezia

links:
- www.incrocidicivilta.org
- www.facebook.com/incrocidicivilta
-

txt: incroci di civiltà – www.incrocidicivilta.org

La quarta edizione di INCROCI DI CIVILTÀ, Incontri internazionali di letteratura a Venezia, promosso da Comune di Venezia, Assessorato alle Attività e Produzioni Culturali e Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia si svolgerà dal 13 al 16 aprile 2011, presentandosi con una nuova collocazione nel calendario e con un programma ricco di novità per portare ancora una volta il mondo a Venezia e Venezia nel mondo.

Si conferma la formula di osservare il mondo di oggi, avvicinarsi alle culture vicine e lontane, analizzare il loro incontrarsi ed incrociarsi, affrontare le tematiche più attuali attraverso lo sguardo privilegiato degli scrittori.

Ad Antonia S. Byatt, Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris, i nomi di punta già annunciati al momento del lancio del ciclo preparatorio Verso Incroci, si aggiungono un ospite di straordinario prestigio come il premio Nobel V. S. Naipaul, gli enfant terribile della narrativa contemporanea Etgar Keret e Wladimir Kaminer, i bestseller italiani Gianrico Carofiglio e Alessandro Piperno, la coraggiosa narratrice croata Dubravka Ugrešic, l’artista del fumetto Joann Sfar, dodici poeti di tutto il mondo venuti a celebrare il centenario di Czesław Miłosz, e molti altri autori e culture da scoprire.

video: INCROCI DI CIVILTÀ (edizione 2010) youtube.com

Tagged cultura, venezia, Venice, writing

Jun 16 2010

Piccolo Festival della Letteratura – Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza)

txt: www.piccolofestival.it Piccolo Festival della Letteratura (Small Literature Festival) Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza) 18-19-20 june 2010

Many writers feel less and less comfortable in a literary environment densely populated by publishers, editors, agents, distributors, brokers, advertising, chain bookstores, sales staff, cameras and photographers. The writer and his reader, the two most key chain, today are more isolated than ever.

[it] Molti scrittori si sentono sempre meno a loro agio in un ambiente letterario fittamente popolato di editori, redattori, agenti, distributori, mediatori, pubblicitari, catene di librerie, addetti alla vendita, telecamere, fotografi. Lo scrittore e il suo lettore, le due figure più importanti della catena, oggi sono più isolati che mai.

Dubravka Ugresic

Tagged veneto, vicenza, writing

Mar 26 2010

1 Comment

book, link, text

Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Lezioni americane)

txt: Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Vintage Books edition) Commentary on Lightness

Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium contains five memos, or personal testaments. The sixth was never written on paper. Each memo on lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity acts as a guideline for life and creativity. Six Memos for the Next Millennium is a book one should all read to endure a more satisfying life of clarity and simplicity.
Although Calvino’s book was primarily written in regards to literature, his book can also relate to the fields of art and design. As in writing, design and typography should be light, clear, and simple while still maintaining a visually appealing and comprehensive story. Essentially, a designer and typographer convey to their audience “a story” that must be visually read and understood. Typography, design and writing portray messages, personalities, and hidden meanings for their audience in different ways but also much in the same vein.

link: Italo Calvino – Six Memos for the Next Millennium – Harvard University Press

book: Six Memos for the Next Millennium/the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures 1985-86 (Vintage International) – amazon.com

Tagged culture, italo calvino, literature, writing

Mar 21 2010

1 Comment

text, video

21 March, World Poetry Day: the unrestricted pursuit of truth

txt: 2010 World Poetry Day “The Words of Nature, the Nature of Words” – UNESCO

Doubling as International Year of Biodiversity and of the Rapprochement of Cultures, 2010 celebrates two essential facets of diversity: the heritage which is key to human life on Earth. Through poetry and science, humanity has been able to capture a full range of the world’s diversity. From their distinctive perspectives, poetry and science embody humanity’s noblest quest: that which UNESCO’s Constitution identifies as “the unrestricted pursuit of truth”.

video: Forgetfulness – Billy Collins Animated Poetry on youtube

Tagged poetry, writing

Dec 23 2009

Who finds 1000 True Fans finds a treasure

via: The Technium: 1,000 True Fans.

The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.

But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist’s works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.

Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?

One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.