ACID WESTERN
Robert Balun
the operating system brooklyn & worldwide c.2021 the operating system {unlimited editions} print//document
ACID WESTERN
ISBN: 978-1-946031-79-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020930888 copyright © 2021 by Robert Balun edited and designed by Elæ Moss, Constantine Jones, and Robert Balun using the Operating System Open Design Protocol cover art & typography design by Elæ Moss
is released under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC- ND (Attribution, Non Commercial, No Derivatives) License: its reproduction is encouraged for those who otherwise could not aff ord its purchase in the case of academic, personal, and other creative usage from which no profi t will accrue.
Complete rules and restrictions are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
As of 2020 all titles are available for donation-only download via our Open Access Library: www.theoperatingsystem.org/os-open-access-community-publications-library/ Th e Operating System is a member of the Radical Open Access Collective, a community of scholar-led, not-for-profi t presses, journals and other open access projects. Now consisting of members, we promote a progressive vision for open publishing in the humanities and social sciences. Learn more at: http://radicaloa.disruptivemedia.org.uk/ about/
Th is text was set in 04b, Minion, Minipax, Freight Sans, and OCR-A Standard. Minipax is an Open Source typeface designed by Raphaël Ronot inspired by the novel 1984. You can fi nd it, and many more (as we do) on the Libre/Open Source Foundry VELVETYNE.
Cover image: Th e cover image uses an aerial photo of the California Aqueduct at the Interstate 205 crossing by Ian Kluft , via Creative Commons/wikimedia. Seen here is a close crop of the dual, mirrored paths of the aqueduct system moving through the state’s dangerously dry farmland grid, textured and colorized in super saturated tones suggesting an altered, dystopic retro-future, with the title and author’s name in 04b, a chunky typeface reminiscent of pixelated retro video game text.
Books from Th e Operating System are distributed to the trade by via Ingram, with additional production by Spencer Printing, in Honesdale, PA, in the USA.
Your support makes our publications, platform and programs possible! We < You. the operating system brooklyn & worldwide www.theoperatingsystem.org ACID WESTERN
robert balun
AFTERIMAGE / 7 FELL / 19 GALLERY / 20 WHERE / 21 HIDING PLACE / 22 AMBIENT FIELD / 23 WHEN / 24 DESERT / 25 CYBERNETIC / 26 ACID WESTERN / 39
BACKMATTER / 60 /// 6 /// | | /// 7 /// AFTERIMAGE all this this here or there here I eat the dream the I eat it’s disappear to easy I don’t remember exactly remember I don’t fell through the portal into the through fell /// 8 /// | a derelict spacecraft the mountains ofcloud passing through I don’t remember exactly each being from molten time seeping away shimmer years | /// 9 /// spent all day inertia in deltas the name that drips that to try to keep try to to from a mouth from of cloud and nebulae of cloud and pulling up the shadow pulling up the to get at the time beneath time the at get to looking in the stone corners stone looking in the /// 10 /// | drifting in matters of sun and season sinks through leaves as light slipping to spectrum of the prismofself memory a rippledthrough atmosphered heat and sweat | /// 11 /// collapsing stormed dusk stormed in the architecture in the of the event unfolding event of the into refracted skylines refracted into the house made of dawn housethe made its dimensional phase space phase its dimensional of who I meant to claim to be claim to to I meant of who looking for futures in the expanse in the futures looking for /// 12 /// | the live-in deserts in the static of the sovereign ego the prayers to the excavated legacy the sun pealing you canstill hear theinside music into history into aname that slips | /// 13 /// in the in the loop in the loop the loop the mutagen weird rain weird truck routes eyeball grind eyeball flight paths— flight disaster into spectacle into disaster of the making of the making of making of the making of the the twelve thousand year present’s year thousand twelve the /// 14 /// | into the melted next into the next iterates the morning program runs like agameshow me it’s a goddamn centuries dust the made house ofspin and spit into the fine edge ofaday | /// 15 /// wake up wake what me what you what void what subroutine what portal what look for traps look for into the wake up wake the into what umber decades umber what scattered in atmosphere in scattered what therapeutic pennies therapeutic what what taken your hair and hexed it hexed and hair your taken what what banners will come to cover me cover to come will banners what /// 16 /// | being each through passing being each here in the ambient low-bent quantum hewn the fragility ofmoments unstable in the dispatches’ days’ years’ of | /// 17 /// slips you fragment into you into fragment you a song dissolved in the dawn in the a song dissolved /// 18 /// | | /// 19 /// FELL exactly into all this this all this into I don’t remember I don’t through the portal the through the rest of the beginning of the rest the
/// 20 /// | GALLERY crystalline I a brittle attuned to in afrequency glown visage reverberating now’s just left inthe noise of of time facets oscillating operating the elusive walking through I keep seeingyou | /// 21 /// WHERE where maybe bursting tomorrow a contingent I drink the cough syrup I drink the cup as I water the plants with plants the cup as I water where I drink water from the same the from I drink water where where I can’t take the day off of work off of day the take I can’t where where I say hello to my spider friends spider my to hello I say where where my heart races to seemingly almost to races heart my where you’ll find someplace soft to rest for awhile for rest to soft someplace find you’ll where I get paid by the hourly contingency hourly the paid by I get where /// 22 /// | HIDING PLACE of when you become the question of value maybe better to it’s remember to forget forever spent here of the energy ofourtime the last glow chambers that we hope to keep hiddenfrom you we mustbuild many more secrets the quickanswer isthat a requirement we can’t guarantee for thisrendering ofthorn there willbeareason unspool alogic but maybe ifyou to fallapart the world ceases which doesn’t mean for the fires ofthe dream to oxidate a hiding all ofthat for this here isnot aplace ofhonor | /// 23 /// * * * city spent AMBIENT FIELD AMBIENT shipwreck in the time in the hungers on hungers serpent is lord serpent in the arranged in the in all of this this the penitent rush penitent the worshipping time worshipping in the bones on the table on the bones in the a whispering voice in the dark in the voice a whispering the wilderness of a vast organism of a vast wilderness the a banner so big the wind couldn’t lift it couldn’t wind so big the a banner /// 24 /// | WHEN the pantheon oftriumphant tribunal avenues inthe desertofthe real all ofthe equestrian statues inevery cityinthe world assembled in the beginning the end ofthe map like looksjust into day— into day unfolding it you spun inthe gauzy visionofirradiated light sellingyour youth back to making pattern did we beginthe performance ofthe day’s | /// 25 /// DESERT data’s world dream tell me tell melted building memory memory montage to return to collapsing the lifetrap’s the I just wanted across my back my across we have bail bags have we to touch my debt my touch to what my name was name my what chewing on my lips on my chewing visions in the scrim visions in the these were the years the were these the particle mandala particle the we have emergencies have we we have chimerizations have we hold the weight of its corpus weight the hold /// 26 /// | CYBERNETIC * the world kept * these are secrets * breathing information dissolves in atmosphere * fragments oflooping the looped gyred in * the rest ofthe beginning I cannever remember * this into allthis the portal through fell * | /// 27 /// * * * * * * kept liquid the city the promised time’s melt time’s drips through of old sunlight the bunker life bunker the dressed up like dressed settled in cement the map slithers its shape slithers map the the remnants and the relics the and remnants the imbued in the shrapnel of the executed broadcast executed of the shrapnel in the imbued /// 28 /// | stare through the ads * strata extracted * data * abstract my * situ in * the shimmered * of out and to in- * shifted phase | /// 29 /// * * * * * * * * static dream papers edifictic I see myself the tremoring the in the clacking in the otherwise they otherwise won’t let you in let you won’t from time to time time from have you got your got you have try to remember shit remember try to /// 30 /// | looking for the edge ofthis * the territory ofmutation * and toxic skin waxy * sustenance sustained * to stay afloat someone tells the story * here isnot aplace ofhonor * in the body strangers * kept | /// 31 /// * * * * * * * logged motion workfare searching surveillant movement’s in the ledger’sin the the game score game the of your past and past of your predicted future predicted for participation in the in participation for correlated and captured and correlated what are the details of your model of your details the are what /// 32 /// | the perpetualpresent * right * find more hours * of consensual sentiment * individual deployed inthe privatized * the pace aches in the body * kept close * a flyin your ear * look like you of someone who might | /// 33 /// * * * * * * * who scatter pluming taught to taught machines through it through each being each to be burned to who was there was who fast and bright and fast my smoke hole smoke my the looped fragments of looping looped fragments the /// 34 /// | function performing revenants * atmosphere the viscous through move * as you * the turbulence ofair * as you * made to be an object * a bucket fullofteeth a pocket fullofwires * put to | /// 35 /// * * * * * * * * * told gold dream memory memory cut from economy performing as spoken voids as spoken scraps and citations and scraps the psychic pollution psychic the the ground sparkles with stolen sparkles ground the /// 36 /// | myth origin circuit in the control key * by the automated fetish gods * in the dialecticof apocalypse * time to from time * summoned * to be allowed * offered a medium * speech * landscape | /// 37 /// * * will be who is allowed to be who we will become to be who will build what we we will build what be who to will become we be who to is allowed who /// 38 /// | | /// 39 /// fell this keep into all into shadow through ACID WESTERN ACID the portal the remember I can never operating here operating the memories I memories the the rest of the beginning of the rest the /// 40 /// | program runs the morning of looping fragments in the looped collapsing we’ve been all these years coding history agrilogistic mesopatamian in the twelve thousandyear | /// 41 /// me light make I keep is today the fumes the attuned to attuned excuse me the elusive the wednesday a frequency walking through walking /// 42 /// | is gravity is documentation is permeable skin every day is come home again please noise and light all droney machine inyour station the glasscoin the certifiedwindow | /// 43 /// I in the see you walking by walking but I forget many times many keep thinking I keep my yellow grows yellow my in the wandering in the is that where I live where is that save your money and die and money your save along my hands and chest and hands along my the houses filled with stones housesthe filled with I wander around the front yard front the around I wander light dripping from your fingers your dripping from light I sit around and wait for good news good for wait and I sit around everything sparkles when you fill your head with glass head your fill you when sparkles everything
/// 44 /// | atmosphere ledger’s figure’s the count’s begun and the day hasn’t even all that energy smoke turns out timeline’s friction into and outofphase made many substances I have been wednesday is today excuse me of looping fragments the looped the morning program runs | /// 45 /// one atom at a time at preacher body been the echo in echo the the storefront the the highway static highway the the sports broadcast sports the the smoke in my hair in my smoke the of slow disintegration of slow /// 46 /// | by amind that isabsent an armdriven no personality only everything keepI just asking for be made clean when willI wake upbrand new when doI where have Ibeen excuse me many times I forget the promise ofstasis | /// 47 /// I was thirsty I was all the lights all the a leaky vessel a bright singing a bright canyons of mist canyons ash on your sleeve on your ash a careless appetite a careless like a good assassin a good like chorus in the ambient chorus in the time gets all fucked up all fucked gets time the spectacular frame’s spectacular the and died from thirst there thirst died from and send your soul through the ringer the soul through your send pushing through the space before it before space the pushing through crashed and scattered along the street along the scattered and crashed for the pennies I let leak into my mouth my pennies I let leak into the for the smoke of a tenuous life in your lungs in your of a tenuous life smoke the and only a little blood from the teeth today teeth the only a little blood from and /// 48 /// | present mesopatamian in the twelve-thousand year an ill-fitted suit of sand my brain leaksdecades the ambient here the dream allday but Iforget many times | /// 49 /// into am I my lungs my collapsing recollection in my shaky in my how far away how maybe this is maybe environment was I anywhere was the hyperobject the spectrum of particulate spectrum the geode of the haze rainbow’s haze of the geode the what kind of money is in my pocket is in my of money kind what shifting through the visions in the scrim visions in the the through shifting /// 50 /// | flood my mouth with mutagen I forget exactly I the same mornings I light keeps shifting to the rest ofthe beginning I forget the incomplete present of past unfolding entity rippling history’s another day ofnews and another again and everything allat once | /// 51 /// kept in kept blurred synthetic fragrance extracted I extracted and smoke and in the maze in the own no time no own the ads stream by ads the stream the ads stare back I back adsthe stare resolve sometimes in sometimes resolve the angles of surveillance the resolve sometimes in the I in the sometimes resolve /// 52 /// | shifting phase kept rummaged inyour head in the regimental medics in the dissolvingcollapse to belack designed de facto bodies inthe bend second-hand shirts only the worn out heels in the onlyhere in the no place in the agrilogistics at the edge ofvision microcosmic works | /// 53 /// 21st from drone honey looped the eye the century photons low bent low dripping centurion of looping fragments the mirrored the in the ambient in the in the privatization of stress of privatization in the /// 54 /// | a targeted I smell like ahotel room cleanly gated I amcomfortable and clean in the dream in the dream rendering ofthorn the future’s drifting to the dissolvingcollapse the morning program runs wednesday is today excuse me | /// 55 /// voider neuro- marked marketing but I forget many times many dressed up like dressed in the end command end in the in service of the static in service of the the bunker life promised life bunker the the garbage scows drift by drift scows garbage the in the military parade of the everyday camouflage everyday of the parade military in the /// 56 /// | that’s wherethat’s they’re buildingthe ziggurat we can’t go home again and here and here [ ] and [ ] and [ the programming inside the ruins in afacet ofamap ofinfinity ] was here | /// 57 /// sun dust the time the I see you anymore someone who gets to be to gets who the mythology the I keep thinking I keep in the hyperruin in the in the heavy heat heavy in the in the uncanny everything uncanny in the the land of magical bullshit of magical land the secret kings and client states client kings and secret gathered up and arranged here arranged up and gathered in the snuff of stale sweat and piss and sweat stale of snuff in the inside the perfect standards of a pop song standards perfect inside the pacing /// 58 /// | where ourlives intersect here the problem ofreality inside the dissolvingcollapse | /// 59 /// /// 60 /// | | /// 61 /// ), ), , Terre , Terre Eternity Into AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ), ), Florian Hecker, Ian Ian Hecker, ), Florian ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS , SMiLE World, Green Another ), Nanni Balestrini (Blackout ), Nanni for publishing versions and excerpts of some of these of some of excerpts and versions publishing for ), Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2, Chuck Johnson Johnson 2, Chuck the Mattson Meets ), Chaz Bundick ), Shay Roselip, Graves (Greg Olin), Olin), (Greg Graves Roselip, Shay ), ), Leslie Kaplan (Excess), Leslie Kaplan the FactoryManuals Börjel Sabotage (The Ida Fisher, ), Hackers Matter, Berg Aase (Dark Bhabha, Rogie, Huma SE Always Coming Home, Home, Coming (Always LeK Guin Ursula Band, theSolar Motel and ChrisForsyth The Dispossessed Thaemlitz, Khruangbin, Reza Negarestani (Cyclonopedia Negarestani Reza Khruangbin, Thaemlitz, Alejandra Pizarnik, Nicole Eisenman, Andrei Voznesensky, Kazim Ali, Tia Myles, Myles, Tia Ali, Kazim Voznesensky, Andrei Eisenman, Nicole Pizarnik, Alejandra (Safe Dunbar Donald Word In no particular order, an incomplete list of people and work I was reading, looking looking reading, I was work and people of list incomplete an particular no order, In thinking via: and to, listening at, decomP, Dream Pop Press, Ghost City Review, ’Pider, Powder Keg Keg Powder ’Pider, Review, City Ghost Press, Pop Dream decomP, to thanks Many Beach Reality , and Magazine poems. Ecology), Dark Thought, Ecological The (Hyperobjects, Morton Timothy Cheng, William Mergia, Hailu Cymande, Simone, Nina Turrell, James Marcelle, Cinthia Country (Modern Tyler ), World the of End the Preceding (Signs Herrera ), Yuri Art Free (Duty Steyerl Hito Mark Elæ for all of your labor, not just on this book, but for building the visionary and the visionary and building for thisbook, on but just not labor, your all of Elæ for System The Operating is that radical process Constantine Jones for always being up for discussing poetry and beyond, and for poetry discussing for for and being up beyond, and always for Jones Constantine to galley draft, to notes, this book, with from help your ), Nayland Field Hydrothermal City (Lost Greiner Milne ), Peter Arc Velvet (Balsams, (Savage Messiah Ford Oldfield Golden, Laura Samara Fritsch, Katharina Blake, Marie Davy, Josh Hari, and Camille Moussard for all of the music and meals and the music all of for Camille Moussard and Hari, Josh Davy, Marie Josh Goulding for all of our talks and easy time, and for your dance moves dance your for talks and easy time, our all and of for Goulding Josh Carlos Franco for all of the theoretical conversations, big and small and big conversations, the theoretical all of for Franco Carlos Rozanne Gold for all of our work together at your kitchen table kitchen your at together work our all of Gold for Rozanne Michelle Valladares and David Groff for your generosity and support, in numerous numerous in support, and generosity your for Groff David and Valladares Michelle person and a poet, as me teacher, in shaping ways, Mom, Dad, Jess, and Chris for always being there providing foundations, near and and near foundations, providing being there always Chris for and Dad, Jess, Mom, far Bianca for your luminous warmth, your unceasing pursuit of your creative practice, practice, creative your of pursuit unceasing your warmth, luminous your for Bianca silly I am being as as for and Grateful love and acknowledgement to those to this who book made possible. acknowledgement and love Grateful /// 62 /// | A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT BALUN AGRILOGISTIC LOOPS a white professor space, inthis it for vital has been me to consider my own of largest the and most diverse public university systems country. inthe As in different ways. The City University ofNew York university system is one and dismantling obfuscated the structures that dominate each of our lives, study,literary working with students to practice revealing, understanding, As ateacher, working classroom inthe is away to explore and ideas to apply in my work as aunion organizer. constructive work. In my work this case, manifests itself in my teaching and Iwas world,who inthe and that it was important for me to on take additional, one of world. in aspect being the Writing helped me to consider and inform identification. Butalso, more importantly, as poet beingonlybegan a see I to vocational, and isIfelt this when comfortable and confidentthat in At some point my writing something practicebecame more intrinsic, do you prefer/feel are more accurate)? comfortable calling yourself apoet/writer/artist, what other titles or affiliations When did you decide you were apoet/writer/artist (and/or: do you feel with a reader, aliteral point of connection, ifasynchronously. working to mitigate harm the adialogue of privileges, beginning those while my place init, privileges the particularly I have as astraight, white, male, writing)actual is ameans about to think and process world the around me, for (which apoet me entailsBeing an being active reader as much as it does Why are you apoet/writer/artist? OperatingThe System. Hello! Iam honored and humbled spaceas inthis acollaborator to be with introduce yourself, in away that you would choose? Greetings! Thank you for talking us to about your process today!Can you | /// 63 /// position of privilege and how to be most effective towards, and supportive of, of, supportive and towards, effective be to most how and privilege of position students my that thetrying issues understand to students, my theneeds of dealto considering with, have not do large and by I that be issues facing, may useful relevant and potentially curriculum is of that this in the development life student’s each their experience. to While validating their needs and to their to empower is teacher as a my job of part will differ, background and their through world with the to engage students for tools offer perspective, to their through their voice of vitality assert and to theexperiences, validity and institute like things done I’ve structurally, More coursework. and writing the so-called mitigate help to classes my in basedlabor contracts grading the neoliberal academy. perpetuated by schema grading typical meritocracy of precarity, economic is against I run up that the primary issue adjunct, an As my the issues thisto connect and understand to me for beenimportant it’s but struggles, experience link be our to facing, might I do not though students they might. that degree this the same country to of violences the hierarchical more get to important it found I thein classroom, work my to addition In specifically in general, CUNY confronting in the issues involved directly learning student’s my of the quality undermines that austerity the racist help to delegate, a union to become volunteered I is This why conditions. the group example, For of union. and trajectorythe conversation shift the pass help to managed Rank File with, Action, and I caucus that organizers of begin to strike preparation, the union calls for explicitly that a resolution from cut after CUNY faces cut even as resisted, had the leadership something Cuomo. Andrew Governor Democratic for grateful I’m and roles, Being active a poet, these led to then, more me has the impetus. cultural as your see you do What anyway? “artist”) or “writer” (or a “poet” What’s beyond)? and community / creative / artistic literary the (in role social and in directly more working to the external, to the internal Poetry led from me further the than somewhat afield getting meant that me for and the world, constructive and be to collaborative as I think working literary community. reason one which is in this regard, been motivation has a general possible as volunteer as a andthen fan as a first System, The Operating to I came that this below). on (more general) in work your (or poems these move to instinct or process the about Talk happen? this did why and How work. of a body into entities as independent confounded and/or encouraged What a while? for intention this had you Have a struggle? it Was together? coming general) in a book, (or this /// 64 /// | Jorge Luis Borges stands out as influential the to shape poems here.the of personally,Less world-building the work inthe of Ursula Guin KLe and to pursue.poetics my Karin friend Olander fundamental was also to facilitating of asense a such away that Ibegan to feel comfortable inthat time, this mode. During narrative, and Michelle and David encouraged both that experimentation in (2011-2014), Iwasthen writing weird little that poems weren’t particularly Groff were immensely supportive in terms their of responses to my work. Even While completing my MFA at City College, Michelle Valladares and David write? or readings/writings/work of other creative people informed the way you work/ the creation of your work? Have certain teachers or instructive environments, What formal structures or other constrictive practices (if any) do you in use (more on that below). how it could fit together. Figuring out titlethehelped also cohere everything Iwas writing how fit helped which collection, me see everything together, or About through halfway process, the Iunderstood that Iwas writing a being written /the work was being made? How or how not? writing or making specifically around a theme while the poems themselves were Did you envision this collection asacollection or understand your process as instead of individual the poem. writingI started first, collection the thinking thethe collection as of object, permission to work differently. writeto I stopped singularpoems andtrying Putting together way in this collection the opened up my process and gave me to arrange into them appear sequences they the as book. inthe cut out or best Iliked parts thought the were most the interesting and started sequence, and Ibeganto get of rid individual their titles, Ibegan to literally of 1-2page all “poems” these Irealized collection, were of part abigger At some point process inthe of that writing poems the would become this writing arestrictive them, mistake, now. Ithink usually pretty to make into structured,them as I was trying as I was poems and composing then into those “standard” These notes 1-2page poems. were writing notes, lines, phrases, stanzas, on move, the commuting, usually while a tremendous amount of anyway.time As a result, I developed a practice of line. Plus I’ve worked 2-3 jobs at for atime past the 9 years Idon’t so have thingexternal that off sets alinethat downthinking of becomesthepoem a I’ve able never really been to sit down and There’s write apoem. always some | /// 65 /// In different ways, there seems to be a shimmering contour of strange yet yet strange of contour to shimmering be a seems there ways, different In in similar something attempt to I wanted and in their works, worlds familiar poetry. a collection of listed are that thinkers writers, artists, the musicians, all of broadly, More all vital to were page the acknowledgements of portion notes” in the “liner exist These poems don’t these poems, way. of in some the aesthetic texture resonance. that without thinking about to theory agrilogistics also was of important Morton’s Timothy algorithm of kind a is agriculture thiscollection. Agrilogistics the idea is that plants to cultivate began first humans since itself been has upgrading that those why (which is scale, beginning in Mesopotamia a large on animals and by be to optimized continued agriculture in the book). up As pop references and forms different into mutated and itself upgrade to continued it humans, aristocracy, kings, all writing, things: sorts and of in new technologies resulted begins globalization, civilization, history, human of The trajectory etc. etc., through iterating through, looping we’re that and that, of outcome an is there, to dominate seems repetition that of looping quality This original input. that this book, of primary a is concern States/west United century thein 21st life racist of tragedies, and traumas the same this country replaying keeps how out played marginalization, and repression poverty, cycles of police brutality, settler colonialism. of legacies in the ongoing land Indigenous stolen on Talk generated? it was How represent? title your does what monikers, of Speaking (individual naming of process your how and book, the titled you way the about specifically. work your colors and/or you influences etc) sections, pieces, made started being that films western of is a smallsub-genre western acid The westerns. countercultural or anti-westerns, essentially in the 1960s, which are and a title as it to drawn immediately I was the name across I came When on. the poems working I was for be could a unifying it concept that thought the poems but genre, of in typical the western the exactlysense a The isn’t book with entanglement its and capitalism of in terms the west with concerned are for justification destiny’s manifest of myths reverberating the repeating, influence to which continue exceptionalism, American (North) and genocide the money- and be to “American” means it what of the imaginary archetype see we wealth in of worship general cult and death hustle-bootstrapping kind a as those myths of the perpetuation States; the United of version today’s part. be the western would So that loop. iterative of frequencies: few different on a works acid The part /// 66 /// | Let’s talk alittle bit about the role of poetics and creative community in social oppressive systems that dominate lives the of many. of connection that helps to facilitate work the of dismantling violent the and resonance for readers that offerssome clarity to move pointforwardwith; a out, day afterday, all pointoverthe be a world. will book Ithis hopeof interconnection of ongoing the (and violences carried being ecological) social encourageI hope that will book this readers to to understand seek the practice? your community and beyond? What are your hopes for this book, and for your the world, and how its will presence asan object facilitate your creative role in What would be the best possible outcome for this book? What might it do in is aquestion Iwant to prompt with last the line of book. the related to you. How an translate does idea into praxis out world? in the This to collective ones,individual caring struggles about that those are not directly and that built to collective begins be the one person at atime, connecting afieldfrom further one’s experience, own are a matter of collective action, for justice United inthe States, and globally, that those particularly might be to reader. the Throughthat connection, I posithope thatto the struggles seeks to directly Thelastand particular literally line in book the connect of What does this (asmuch book DO aswhat it says or contains)? phenomenologicaluseful impression of an epoch. My hope is that work this represent will an articulation of arelatable and creative practice? your history? your mission/intentions/hopes/plans? What does this particular work represent to you as indicative of your method/ to construct ajust, inclusivethe and be in place world. dignified to -and lastly, of sense inthe disintegrating and melting that all down of sense -in the sharp-tongued critique; essential character same the seems and fixed; looping the case in this repetition and effect theday of day,to whose of there being, of is a sense atemporality caused by that state, liminal century west; and former ifthe are as adescription viewed of astate collapsing ontologies and realities of eachday spent 21st inthe of sense -acid inthe hallucinogenic, the mutagenic, malleable, and | /// 67 /// and political activism, so present in our daily lives as we face the often sobering, sobering, often the face as we lives daily our in so present activism, political and process, your does How Capitalocene. the of realities dangerous sometimes conditions? these with otherwise interface work or practice, paycheck-to-paycheck living and information, of time, issues The the poems. Beyond of content and the structure inform fundamentally alongside theory, and prose, poetry, reading conveyed, I have I hope as that, only not understand seek better to to me for been has a way poetry, writing also my but in this world, themselves manifest that structures the ruinous mitigate to those working structures, of the perpetuation within role and place process The and those to undo thesestructures. effects thoseworking effects, has writing) just beyond entails which that the work (and being a writer of of line or project base, one with a knowledge develop to me for been a way to try more, seek always to the to next, know see to and informing research tryin the world. always be out to better speaking in face we challenges the on thoughts your of some hear to curious be I’d social/cultural privilege, class, ability, age, race, of lines across publishing and as community the within identifiers) other (and sexuality gender, background, and remaining of dangers vs. the spaces, safe maintaining and as creating well bounds? institutional and/or disciplinary and/or “silos” isolated in producing within or under conceived system any that suggest I would broadly, Well, large and will by capitalism, within publishing as such system, oppressive an profited and perpetuated, enabled, the oppressions exacerbate and bolster ableist, heteronomrative, patriarchal, dominated, system--white that by from inthe of systems the reflection opaque--a exclusive, financially hierarchical, these struggles are addressed How large. at capitalism and States United either publish, to means it what of conception, of the point from structurally, publisher? or editor, a writer, as was because System The Operating with volunteer to I wanted reason One beyond. and in publishing oppression of these systems challenges directly it way, significant and in a collaborative assist to possible was it a volunteer, As model the OS that at initiatives on working cohorts, and authors with working microcosm capitalist and the exclusionary to alternative actually existing an the just beyond community and resources offering world, the publishing of of the launch with sonow more even consumption, capitalist book object for empowering and collaborative of means additional providing Liminal Lab, outward, turn to Looking inward solidarity. of a node in the network support, to help male, white, a straight, as context my given I personally, can how network? that facilitate /// 68 /// | ABOUTTHE AUTHOR College, and aPhD student inEnglish at Stony Brook University. Apogee, Cosmonauts Avenue, and others. He a union is also delegate for City Reality Beach, Powder Keg, TAGVVERK, Tammy, Prelude, Barrow Street, Americanus Press). His have poems appeared inAmerican Poetry Journal, collections Acid Westernpoetry (ThOperating e System) and Traces where he teaches creative writing and literature. He is author the of the is Balun an adjunctRobert professor at ThCollege e City of New York, (Ursus WHY PRINT / DOCUMENT?
The Operating System uses the language “print document” to differentiate from the book- object as part of our mission to distinguish the act of documentation-in-book-FORM from the act of publishing as a backwards-facing replication of the book’s agentive *role* as it may have appeared the last several centuries of its history. Ultimately, I approach the book as TECHNOLOGY: one of a variety of printed documents (in this case, bound) that humans have invented and in turn used to archive and disseminate ideas, beliefs, stories, and other evidence of production.
Ownership and use of printing presses and access to (or restriction of printed materials) has long been a site of struggle, related in many ways to revolutionary activity and the fight for civil rights and free speech all over the world. While (in many countries) the contemporary quotidian landscape has indeed drastically shifted in its access to platforms for sharing information and in the widespread ability to “publish” digitally, even with extremely limited resources, the importance of publication on physical media has not diminished. In fact, this may be the most critical time in recent history for activist groups, artists, and others to insist upon learning, establishing, and encouraging personal and community documentation practices. Hear me out.
With The OS’s print endeavors I wanted to open up a conversation about this: the ultimately radical, transgressive act of creating PRINT /DOCUMENTATION in the digital age. It’s a question of the archive, and of history: who gets to tell the story, and what evidence of our life, our behaviors, our experiences are we leaving behind? We can know little to nothing about the future into which we’re leaving an unprecedentedly digital document trail — but we can be assured that publications, government agencies, museums, schools, and other institutional powers that be will continue to leave BOTH a digital and print version of their production for the official record. Will we?
As a (rogue) anthropologist and long time academic, I can easily pull up many accounts about how lives, behaviors, experiences — how THE STORY of a time or place — was pieced together using the deep study of correspondence, notebooks, and other physical documents which are no longer the norm in many lives and practices. As we move our creative behaviors towards digital note taking, and even audio and video, what can we predict about future technology that is in any way assuring that our stories will be accurately told – or told at all? How will we leave these things for the record?
In these documents we say: WE WERE HERE, WE EXISTED, WE HAVE A DIFFERENT STORY
- Elæ [Lynne DeSilva-Johnson], Founder/Creative Director THE OPERATING SYSTEM, Brooklyn NY 2018 RECENT & FORTHCOMING OS PRINT::DOCUMENTS and PROJECTS, 2019-21
2020-21
Institution is a Verb: A Panoply Performance Lab Compilation Vidhu Aggarwal - Daughter Isotope Johnny Damm - Failure Biographies Power ON - Ginger Ko Spite - Danielle Pafunda Acid Western - Robert Balun
KIN(D)* TEXTS AND PROJECTS
Intergalactic Travels: Poems from a Fugutive Alien - Alan Pelaez Lopez HOAX - Joey De Jesus [Kin(d)*] RoseSunWater - Angel Dominguez [Kin(d)*/Glossarium] Bodies of Work - Elæ Moss & Georgia Elrod
GLOSSARIUM: UNSILENCED TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Between Language and Justice: Selected Writings from Antena Aire (Jen Hofer & John Pluecker)) Steven Alvarez - Manhatitlán [Glossarium] Híkurí (Peyote) - José Vincente Anaya (tr. Joshua Pollock) Ernst Toller’s “Vormorgen” & Emmy Hennings - Radical Archival Translations - Mathilda Cullen [Glossarium x Kin(d)*; German-English] Black and Blue Partition (‘Mistry) - Monchoachi (tr. Patricia Hartland) [Glossarium; French & Antillean Creole/English]
IN CORPORE SANO
Hypermobilities - Ellen Samuels Goodbye Wolf-Nik DeDominic 2019
Ark Hive-Marthe Reed I Made for You a New Machine and All it Does is Hope - Richard Lucyshyn Illusory Borders-Heidi Reszies A Year of Misreading the Wildcats - Orchid Tierney Of Color: Poets’ Ways of Making | An Anthology of Essays on Transformative Poetics - Amanda Galvan Huynh & Luisa A. Igloria, Editors
KIN(D)* TEXTS AND PROJECTS
A Bony Framework for the Tangible Universe-D. Allen [In Corpore Sano] Opera on TV-James Brunton Hall of Waters-Berry Grass Transitional Object-Adrian Silbernagel
GLOSSARIUM: UNSILENCED TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Śnienie / Dreaming - Marta Zelwan/Krystyna Sakowicz, (Poland, trans. Victoria Miluch) High Tide Of The Eyes - Bijan Elahi (Farsi-English/dual-language) trans. Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian In the Drying Shed of Souls: Poetry from Cuba’s Generation Zero Katherine Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, translators/editors Street Gloss - Brent Armendinger with translations of Alejandro Méndez, Mercedes Roffé, Fabián Casas, Diana Bellessi & Néstor Perlongher (Argentina) Operation on a Malignant Body - Sergio Loo (Mexico, trans. Will Stockton)[In Corpore Sano] Are There Copper Pipes in Heaven - Katrin OttarsdÓttir (Faroe Islands, trans. Matthew Landrum) DOC U MENT /däkyәmәnt/
First meant “instruction” or “evidence,” whether written or not.
noun - a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence or that serves as an official record verb - record (something) in writ- ten, photographic, or other form synonyms - paper - deed - record - writing - act - instrument
[Middle English, precept, from Old French, from Latin documentum, example, proof, from docre, to teach; see dek- in Indo-European roots.]
Who is responsible for the manufacture of value?
Based on what supercilious ontology have we landed in a space where we vie against other creative people in vain pursuit of the fleeting credibilities of the scarcity economy, rather than freely collaborating and sharing openly with each other in ecstatic celebration of MAKING?
While we understand and acknowledge the economic pressures and fear-mongering that threatens to dominate and crush the creative impulse, we also believe that now more than ever we have the tools to relinquish agency via cooperative means, fueled by the fires of the Open Source Movement.
Looking out across the invisible vistas of that rhizomatic parallel country we can begin to see our community beyond constraints, in the place where intention meets resilient, proactive, collaborative organization.
Here is a document born of that belief, sown purely of imagination and will. When we document we assert. We print to make real, to reify our being there. When we do so with mindful intention to address our process, to open our work to others, to create beauty in words in space, to respect and acknowledge the strength of the page we now hold physical, a thing in our hand, we remind ourselves that, like Dorothy: we had the power all along, my dears.  the PRINT! DOCUMENT SERIES is a project of the trouble with bartleby in collaboration with the operating system