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Village: A Villanelle

 

For my third web event challenged myself to try to weave (or braid) all of the web events together to create something. I wanted to further explore our discussion of structures of language and try to put things that weren't meant to go together, together, but not prioritizing any one part. Rather, by using them to deliver another message entirely. I decided on a villanelle putting a line from each piece in. You can click on the hyperlinks in the piece itself under the video to go to each of the individual pieces, and I would encourage it. It's interesting to see the same words in different contexts. 

 

 

i built a home in you 

time flutters fast away 

can you see it?

 

you may think you own the place

but remember youre just a guest

i built a home in you 

 

what we see is not what we get

i no longer know where my body ends

can you see it?

 

decoupling the visuals and the words

young in a future with no wildness

i built a home in you 

 

wildness and freedom are closely intertwined

collaborate together to avoid indignation

can you see it?

 

listening can be unsettling

im quite guilty of this 

i built a home in you

can you see it?

 

The song in the video is Coffee by Sylvan Esso which was also the song played in Ariel and Rosa's video. This all feels quite ecological to me, a braiding of all we have talked about so far. It was pretty hard to make all of the pieces of this fit together. Especially hard to put non poetic writing into a poetry form. But I was happy with the mixed meda projects like Caleb, Marian, and Abby's because it gave me more material to work with (The photos were Amala's). I'm aided by serendip to be able to share our thoughts like this(The sounds in the first part of the video are from Caleb's site sit a couple weeks ago). I appreciated our conversation about "greening" our language structures, but after this project, I still stand by my point in class. Certain structures add to a meaning, and can make them all the better. 

Comments

Anne Dalke's picture

I'm delighted by the "meta" quality of this project, Nkechi, and by the way in which you braid together the work each of your classmates had done in their web events. I was also quite instructed by the discussion we had in class about what you'd done, and particularly struck by Rosa's challenge to your selection--which (contrary to your claim) certainly does prioritize some parts over others, and as certainly demonstrates your own preferences rather than those of your classmates.

I'd be curious to learn more about some of these choices: why did you give so much attention to Amala's photographs? Of all the poetic structures available to you, why did you chose the villanelle? Why are "home" and "seeing" your keynotes? Why do you say you've conveyed "another message entirely," rather than one that emerges from the messages of your classmates?

I'd also like to hear your final commentary--"Certain structures add to a meaning, and can make them all the better"--spelled out: which structures? how do they add to meaning? and what does it mean, exactly, to make meaning "better"?!?