Jackson Mac Low
Encyclopedia
Jackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer
and playwright
, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage
, Earle Brown
, and Christian Wolff
. He was married to Anne Tardos. He wrote 31 books. His work has been published in more than 90 anthologies and periodicals and read publicly, exhibited, performed, and broadcast in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He read, performed, and lectured in New York and throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Asnières, Paris, Bouliac (near Bordeaux), Marseilles, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and New York.
from the University of Chicago
in 1943, where he continued study in philosophy and literature into 1945, and his bachelor's degree
in Ancient Greek
from Brooklyn College
in 1953. From 1957 onward, Mac Low worked as an etymologist, writer of reference-book articles, copy editor, indexer, proofreader, and fact checker for many publishers, including Knopf, Funk & Wagnalls, Pantheon
, Bantam
, and Macmillan
. Beginning in 1981, Mac Low and Anne Tardos
wrote, directed, and performed in seven radioworks.
From 1964 through 1980, Mac Low participated as a visual artist, composer, poet, and performer in the Annual Festivals of the Avant-Garde in New York. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1969 he produced computer-assisted poetry for the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In 1986 he received a Fulbright travel grant for New Zealand, where he was the keynote speaker at the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association conference at the University of Auckland
. He also participated in a composers’ conference and led a workshop in Nelson, New Zealand
. He read, performed, was interviewed, and led workshops in Wellington
, Dunedin
, and Auckland
as well.
In 1989 Mac Low participated in the Fine Arts Festival at the University of North Carolina
. From 1990 to 1991, Mac Low served on the poetry panel of the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 1993, Mac Low and Anne Tardos gave a joint concert of their works for voices with prerecorded tapes at Experimental Intermedia, New York
. In January 1996 he presented readings and performances at Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In 2000, Mac Low performed two readings of his poetry at the Bjørnson Festival 2000 in Molde, Norway. He also unveiled a monument to Kurt Schwitters on an island off Molde.
. He used words or phrases drawn from source material to spell out a source word or phrase, with the first word having the first letter of the source, the second word having the second letter, and so forth, reading through (dia in Greek) the source. During the last 25 years of his life, he often collaborated with Anne Tardos
.
In 1999, he received a Dorothea Tanning Award from The Academy of American Poets and a Wallace Stevens
award.
Animal survive. Survive. Animal survive. Survive. Injects no survive.
In nasty spitting eye cost. This
Assassin spitting spitting assassin spitting spitting in nasty spitting
Insectivorous nutriment species encounter Charles to
Are species species are species species insectivorous nutriment species
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Earle Brown
Earle Brown
Earle Brown was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems...
, and Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
. He was married to Anne Tardos. He wrote 31 books. His work has been published in more than 90 anthologies and periodicals and read publicly, exhibited, performed, and broadcast in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He read, performed, and lectured in New York and throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Asnières, Paris, Bouliac (near Bordeaux), Marseilles, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and New York.
Life
Mac Low received his associate's degreeAssociate's degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges, and bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1943, where he continued study in philosophy and literature into 1945, and his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1953. From 1957 onward, Mac Low worked as an etymologist, writer of reference-book articles, copy editor, indexer, proofreader, and fact checker for many publishers, including Knopf, Funk & Wagnalls, Pantheon
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
, Bantam
Bantam
Bantam may refer to:* Bantam , a small variety of poultry* Bantamweight, a weight class in boxing-Places:* Bantam , a city and former sultanate on Java island, in Indonesia...
, and Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers (United States)
Macmillan Publishers USA, also known as Macmillan Publishing, is a privately held American publishing company owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than 30 others....
. Beginning in 1981, Mac Low and Anne Tardos
Anne Tardos
Anne Tardos is a poet, visual artist, and composer born in Cannes, France. She lived as a small child in German-occupied Paris, then after the war moved with her parents to Budapest, where she learned Hungarian. The Hungarian revolution resulted in her having then to move to Vienna, where she...
wrote, directed, and performed in seven radioworks.
From 1964 through 1980, Mac Low participated as a visual artist, composer, poet, and performer in the Annual Festivals of the Avant-Garde in New York. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1969 he produced computer-assisted poetry for the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In 1986 he received a Fulbright travel grant for New Zealand, where he was the keynote speaker at the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association conference at the University of Auckland
University of Auckland
The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...
. He also participated in a composers’ conference and led a workshop in Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
. He read, performed, was interviewed, and led workshops in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, and Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
as well.
In 1989 Mac Low participated in the Fine Arts Festival at the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
. From 1990 to 1991, Mac Low served on the poetry panel of the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 1993, Mac Low and Anne Tardos gave a joint concert of their works for voices with prerecorded tapes at Experimental Intermedia, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In January 1996 he presented readings and performances at Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In 2000, Mac Low performed two readings of his poetry at the Bjørnson Festival 2000 in Molde, Norway. He also unveiled a monument to Kurt Schwitters on an island off Molde.
Composition
One type of non-intentional composition that he used relied on an algorithm he dubbed "diastic", by analogy to acrosticAcrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
. He used words or phrases drawn from source material to spell out a source word or phrase, with the first word having the first letter of the source, the second word having the second letter, and so forth, reading through (dia in Greek) the source. During the last 25 years of his life, he often collaborated with Anne Tardos
Anne Tardos
Anne Tardos is a poet, visual artist, and composer born in Cannes, France. She lived as a small child in German-occupied Paris, then after the war moved with her parents to Budapest, where she learned Hungarian. The Hungarian revolution resulted in her having then to move to Vienna, where she...
.
Awards
In 1985, Mac Low won a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1988 he was awarded a Fellowship in Poetry by the New York Foundation for the Arts. He shared an America Award with Robert Creeley's Echoes for a book of poetry published in 1994.In 1999, he received a Dorothea Tanning Award from The Academy of American Poets and a Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
award.
From "Insect Assassins"
Injects no survive. Efforts control theAnimal survive. Survive. Animal survive. Survive. Injects no survive.
In nasty spitting eye cost. This
Assassin spitting spitting assassin spitting spitting in nasty spitting
Insectivorous nutriment species encounter Charles to
Are species species are species species insectivorous nutriment species
Selected works
- The Twin Plays (1966)
- Verdurous Sanguinaria (1967)
- August Light Poems (1967)
- 22 Light Poems (Black SparrowBlack Sparrow BooksBlack Sparrow Books, formerly known as Black Sparrow Press, is a book publisher originally founded in 1966 by John Martin of Santa Rosa, California. He founded this company in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski and other avant-garde authors. He initially financed this company by...
, 1968) - 23rd Light Poem (For Larry Eigner, 1969)
- Stanzas for Iris Lezak (Something Else Press, 1971)
- 4 trains (1974)
- 36th Light Poem (Buster Keaton, 1975)
- 21 Matched Asymmetries (1978)
- 54th Light Poem: For Ian Tyson (1978)
- A Dozen Douzains for Eve Rosenthal (1978)
- phone (1978)
- The Pronouns—A Collection of 40 Dances—For the Dancers (Station Hill Press, 1979)
- Asymmetries 1-260 (1980)
- "Is That Wool Hat My Hat?" (1982)
- Bloomsday (1984)
- French Sonnets (1984)
- Eight Drawing-Asymmetries (1985)
- The Virginia Woolf Poems (Burning DeckBurning Deck PressBurning Deck is a small press specializing in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. Burning Deck was founded by the writers Keith Waldrop and Rosmarie Waldrop in 1961.-Overview:...
, 1985) - Representative Works: 1938-1985 (1986)
- Words nd Ends from Ez (Avenue B, 1989)
- Twenties: 100 Poems (1991)
- Pieces o' Six: Thirty-Three Poems in Prose (Sun and Moon Classics, 1991)
- Twenties (Segue, January 1992)
- 42 Merzgedichte in memoriam Kurt Schwitters (Station Hill Press, 1994)
- From Pearl Harbor Day to FDR's Birthday (1995)
- Barnesbook (1996)
- 20 Forties (1999)
- Doings: Assorted Performance Pieces 1955–2002 (Granary Books, 2005)
External links
- Jackson Mac Low website
- A Blog Catalog in Honor of Mac Low's Birthday, with images of his books
- Academy of American Poets
- SUNY Buffalo Electronic Poetry Center
- In Remembrance of Jackson Mac Low EOAGH (Issue#2) includes poems and remembrances on-line
- "Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Mac Low participated in
- The Register of Jackson Mac Low Papers 1923-1995 @ Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego
- Jackson Mac Low in Virtual Space a remembrance by Barrett WattenBarrett WattenBarrett Watten is an American poet, editor, and educator often associated with the Language poets.Since 1994, Watten has taught modernism and cultural studies at Wayne State University in Detroit...
, including links to other Mac Low sites