Kenneth Goldsmith
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Goldsmith is an American
poet
. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb
, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania
and is Senior Editor of PennSound
. He hosted a weekly radio show at WFMU
from 1995 until June 2010. He has published ten books of poetry, notably Fidget (2000), Soliloquy (2001) and Day (2003) and Goldsmith's American trilogy, The Weather (2005), Traffic, (2007) and Sports, (2008). He is the author of a book of essays, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age (2011). As editor he published I’ll be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews (2004) and is the co-editor of Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (2011). He resides in New York City with his wife, artist Cheryl Donegan and his two sons.
. He was trained as a sculptor at the Rhode Island School of Design
and graduated with a B.F.A in 1984. Goldsmith worked for many years within the art world as a text-based artist and sculptor before becoming a writer. http://www.jacketmagazine.com/21/perl-gold-iv.html
. His process, a series of writing and self-induced constraints has produced 600 pages of rhyming r phrases, sorted by syllables and alphabetized (No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96, 1997); everything he said for a week (Soliloquy, 2001); every move his body made during a thirteen-hour period (Fidget, 1999); a year of transcribed weather reports (The Weather, 2005); and one day, the September 1, 2000 issue of The New York Times
, transcribed (Day, 2003). The Goldsmith's practice embraces the performance of the writer as process and plagiarism as content.
Extensive creative and critical responses to his work are archived at Kenneth Goldsmith, Electronic Poetry Center with several being consolidated in Open Letter: Kenneth Goldsmith and Conceptual Poetics (2005). Notable addresses of Goldsmith's poetry include those of the eminent critics Marjorie Perloff
, Craig Dworkin, Sianne Ngai and Johanna Drucker
and poets Bruce Andrews
, Christian Bok
, Darren Wershler-Henry
, Christine Wertheim
, and Caroline Bergvall
. Poet and Critic Juliana Spahr
asserts, "Kenneth Goldsmith is without a doubt the leading conceptual poet of his time".http://www.ubu.com/papers/kg_ol_intro.html Mexico's leading national newspaper Mileno said, "Joyce hoy, Kenneth Goldsmith es el autor más emblemático de la primera década del siglo XXI."http://impreso.milenio.com/node/8700500
The first symposium on Conceptual Poetics was held at the Olso Poetry Festival in November 2007. A larger conference, Conceptual Poetry and its Others, organized by critic Marjorie Perloff
was held at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in May 2008.
In 2011, he co-edited with Craig Dworkin "Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing" (Northwestern University Press, Chicago) http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/Title/tabid/68/ISBN/0-8101-2711-3/Default.aspx and published a book of essays related to notions of conceptual poetics, "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age" (Columbia University Press, New York). http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14990-7/uncreative-writing
, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, http://www.english.upenn.edu/People/Faculty/profile.php?pennkey=goldsmith. Goldsmith’s syllabus includes Uncreative Writing http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2006/Fall/ENGL111.301, Interventionist Writing http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2008/Fall/ENGL111.301 and Writing Through Art and Culture http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2007/Fall/ENGL165.301 in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
. Class tools are appropriation, theft, stealing, plundering and sampling. Cheating, fraud and identity theft are all encouraged. For Goldsmith the classroom, is a free space into which ethical queries can be conducted in a safe environment. An in-depth article from Penn's Daily Pennsylvanian discusses Goldsmith's pedagogy http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/18/419c2e5a214f8/. In addition, Goldsmith has also run a graduate seminar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago entitled "Publishing as Project."
He was awarded the The Anschutz Distinguished Fellow Professorship http://www.princeton.edu/ams/anschutz/ in American Studies at Princeton University
during 2010.
, the New Jersey-based freeform radio station, from 1995 until June 2010, using the broadcast name of "Kenny G". The show is an extension of Goldsmith's writing experiments, his pedagogy and UbuWeb
.
He has also had numerous collaborations with musicians and composers. In 1993, Goldsmith embarked on a collaboration with avant-garde vocalist Joan La Barbara
, resulting in a CD and book 73 Poems (Permanent Press / Lovely Music).
In 1998, the Whitney Museum of American Art
commissioned vocalist Theo Bleckmann
to stage an interpretation of Fidget. http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/goldsmith/princenthal.html
In 2004, he released a CD with People Like Us (musician)
called Nothing Special (Soleilmoon) and has done numerous radio performances with Vicki Bennett. http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/people.like.us.and.kenny.g.html
In 2005, Goldsmith collaborated with guitarist Alan Licht
to stage an evening length performance of The Weather, as well as excerpts from Fidget. Goldsmith has also collaborated with musician David Grubbs
with texts from Fidget.
In 2006, was Goldsmith wrote the libretto
for and performed in the TRANS-WARHOL, Chamber Opera based on his book I'll Be Your Mirror; The Andy Warhol Interviews , a collaboration with choreographer Nicolas Musin, composer Philippe Schoeller and Ensemble Alternance
. The opera premiered at the Bâtiment des forces motrices in Geneva in March 2007.http://www.abcdancecompany.at/3450_ENG_HTML.htm
Goldsmith has written extensively on experimental music A Popular Guide to Unpopular Music and has curated numerous musical events and compact discs. He was a musical curator for the Whitney Museum of American Art's The American Century, Part 2, which included 73 Poems. In 2004, he curated a CD for the Sonic Arts Network
in London called The Agents of Impurity. In 2006 he organized a CD for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston called The Body is a Sound Factory. Also in 2006, he organized an 8 hour-long performance at The Sculpture Center (New York City) of Erik Satie
's Vexations "Pianoless Vexations" (UbuWeb) for any instrument other than piano.
In October 2007, a documentary film of Goldsmith's life and practice, Sucking on Words, by filmmaker Simon Morris was screened at Shandy Hall
in Coxwold, UK, where Lawrence Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy, and in London. The film was premiered at the Eccles Center at the British Library
in London and subsequently screened at the Olso Poetry Festival in November 2007.
In February 2008, he performed at the Instal
08 festival in Glasgow.
On April 17, 2009 Goldsmith organized an evening of contemporary poetry at The Whitney Museum of American Art in conjunction with the Jenny Holzer
Retrospective entitled "Conceptual Writing vs. The Flarf Collective" featuring poets from both camps. Conceptualists included Christian Bök
, Kim Rosenfield, Darren Wershler, formerly (Darren Wershler-Henry
) and Goldsmith himself. Flarf poets included Gary Sullivan
, Nada Gordon, Sharon Mesmer
and K. Silem Mohammad.
For the July / August 2009 issue of Poetry Magazinehttp://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=237176 published by The Poetry Foundation, Goldsmith introduced and edited a highly controversial portfolio of Conceptual Writing and Flarf.
In April 2009, Goldsmith was awarded a Qwartz Electronic Music Award http://www.qwartz.org/ in Paris for his work on UbuWeb
.
In October 2009, Goldsmith advised, curated and participated in The Serpentine Gallery
's 24-hour Poetry Marathon http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/poetry_marathonsaturday_and_su_1.html in London.
On May 11, 2011, Goldsmith was featured at President and Mrs. Obama's A Celebration of American Poetry at the White House
. http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/11/celebration-american-poetry-white-house He read works by Walt Whitman and Hart Crane, as well as from his work "Traffic." Others performing at The White House also Billy Collins
, Common
, Rita Dove
, Alison Knowles
, Aimee Mann
, Jill Scott
and Steve Martin
and the Steep Canyon Rangers
. During the afternoon, Goldsmith led a poetry workshop for high school students with Michelle Obama
.
Goldsmith has been invited to participate in dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany, 2012. In 2011, dOCUMENTA published his chapbook, Letter To Bettina Funcke http://d13.documenta.de/panorama/#participants/participants/kenneth-goldsmith/ as part of their 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts series. http://www.hatjecantz.de/documenta13/en/notebooks/index.html?book=3046
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and is Senior Editor of PennSound
PennSound
PennSound is a poetry website and online archive that hosts free and downloadable recordings of poets reading their own work. The webiste offers over 1500 full-length and single-poem recordings, the largest collection of poetry sound-files on the internet, all of which are available free for...
. He hosted a weekly radio show at WFMU
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
from 1995 until June 2010. He has published ten books of poetry, notably Fidget (2000), Soliloquy (2001) and Day (2003) and Goldsmith's American trilogy, The Weather (2005), Traffic, (2007) and Sports, (2008). He is the author of a book of essays, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age (2011). As editor he published I’ll be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews (2004) and is the co-editor of Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (2011). He resides in New York City with his wife, artist Cheryl Donegan and his two sons.
Life
Goldsmith was born in Freeport, New YorkFreeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...
. He was trained as a sculptor at the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
and graduated with a B.F.A in 1984. Goldsmith worked for many years within the art world as a text-based artist and sculptor before becoming a writer. http://www.jacketmagazine.com/21/perl-gold-iv.html
Conceptual Poetics and Poetic Practice
Driven by a preoccupation with “Uncreativity as Creative Practice”, Goldsmith is essentially the habitual editor of one large project, contributing to both the study and practice of poetry as a writer, academic and as curator of the prolific archives at UbuWebUbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
. His process, a series of writing and self-induced constraints has produced 600 pages of rhyming r phrases, sorted by syllables and alphabetized (No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96, 1997); everything he said for a week (Soliloquy, 2001); every move his body made during a thirteen-hour period (Fidget, 1999); a year of transcribed weather reports (The Weather, 2005); and one day, the September 1, 2000 issue of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, transcribed (Day, 2003). The Goldsmith's practice embraces the performance of the writer as process and plagiarism as content.
Extensive creative and critical responses to his work are archived at Kenneth Goldsmith, Electronic Poetry Center with several being consolidated in Open Letter: Kenneth Goldsmith and Conceptual Poetics (2005). Notable addresses of Goldsmith's poetry include those of the eminent critics Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff is an Austrian-born U.S. poetry critic.Perloff was born Gabriele Mintz into a secularized Jewish family in Vienna. Faced with Nazi terror, her family emigrated in 1938 when she was six-and-a-half, going first to Zürich and then to the United States, settling in Riverdale, New York...
, Craig Dworkin, Sianne Ngai and Johanna Drucker
Johanna Drucker
Johanna Drucker is an author, book artist, visual theorist, and cultural critic. Her scholarly writing documents and critiques visual language: letterforms, typography, visual poetry, art, and lately, digital aesthetics...
and poets Bruce Andrews
Bruce Andrews
Bruce Andrews is a U.S. poet who is one of the key figures associated with the Language poets .-Life and work:...
, Christian Bok
Christian Bök
Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet. He is the author of Eunoia, which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, and which has been said to be "Canada's best-selling poetry book ever."-Life:...
, Darren Wershler-Henry
Darren Wershler-Henry
Darren Wershler aka Darren Wershler-Henry is a Canadian experimental poet, non-fiction writer and cultural critic.A former grave digger, he was the senior editor of Coach House Books between 1997 and 2002, where the works he edited included several highly acclaimed books of contemporary innovative...
, Christine Wertheim
Institute For Figuring
The Institute For Figuring is an organization based in Los Angeles, California that promotes the public understanding of the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts...
, and Caroline Bergvall
Caroline Bergvall
Caroline Bergvall is a poet of French-Norwegian nationalities who has lived in England since 1989.Bergvall has developed audio texts and collaborative performances with sound artists in Europe and North America; her critical work is largely concerned with emerging forms of writing, plurilingual...
. Poet and Critic Juliana Spahr
Juliana Spahr
Juliana Spahr is an American poet, critic, and editor. She is the recipient of the 2009 Hardison Poetry Prize awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to honor a U.S...
asserts, "Kenneth Goldsmith is without a doubt the leading conceptual poet of his time".http://www.ubu.com/papers/kg_ol_intro.html Mexico's leading national newspaper Mileno said, "Joyce hoy, Kenneth Goldsmith es el autor más emblemático de la primera década del siglo XXI."http://impreso.milenio.com/node/8700500
The first symposium on Conceptual Poetics was held at the Olso Poetry Festival in November 2007. A larger conference, Conceptual Poetry and its Others, organized by critic Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff is an Austrian-born U.S. poetry critic.Perloff was born Gabriele Mintz into a secularized Jewish family in Vienna. Faced with Nazi terror, her family emigrated in 1938 when she was six-and-a-half, going first to Zürich and then to the United States, settling in Riverdale, New York...
was held at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in May 2008.
In 2011, he co-edited with Craig Dworkin "Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing" (Northwestern University Press, Chicago) http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/Title/tabid/68/ISBN/0-8101-2711-3/Default.aspx and published a book of essays related to notions of conceptual poetics, "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age" (Columbia University Press, New York). http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14990-7/uncreative-writing
Academic
As a teacher at University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, http://www.english.upenn.edu/People/Faculty/profile.php?pennkey=goldsmith. Goldsmith’s syllabus includes Uncreative Writing http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2006/Fall/ENGL111.301, Interventionist Writing http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2008/Fall/ENGL111.301 and Writing Through Art and Culture http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2007/Fall/ENGL165.301 in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative...
. Class tools are appropriation, theft, stealing, plundering and sampling. Cheating, fraud and identity theft are all encouraged. For Goldsmith the classroom, is a free space into which ethical queries can be conducted in a safe environment. An in-depth article from Penn's Daily Pennsylvanian discusses Goldsmith's pedagogy http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/18/419c2e5a214f8/. In addition, Goldsmith has also run a graduate seminar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago entitled "Publishing as Project."
He was awarded the The Anschutz Distinguished Fellow Professorship http://www.princeton.edu/ams/anschutz/ in American Studies at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
during 2010.
Radio, Sound, Live Events and Collaborations
Goldsmith hosted a weekly show on WFMUWFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
, the New Jersey-based freeform radio station, from 1995 until June 2010, using the broadcast name of "Kenny G". The show is an extension of Goldsmith's writing experiments, his pedagogy and UbuWeb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
.
He has also had numerous collaborations with musicians and composers. In 1993, Goldsmith embarked on a collaboration with avant-garde vocalist Joan La Barbara
Joan La Barbara
Joan La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright...
, resulting in a CD and book 73 Poems (Permanent Press / Lovely Music).
In 1998, the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
commissioned vocalist Theo Bleckmann
Theo Bleckmann
Theo Bleckmann is a vocalist and composer.-Biography:Theo Bleckmann is a jazz singer and new music composer, he was GRAMMY NOMINATED and received the ECHO award in 2010...
to stage an interpretation of Fidget. http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/goldsmith/princenthal.html
In 2004, he released a CD with People Like Us (musician)
People Like Us (musician)
People Like Us is the stage name of London DJ multimedia artist Vicki Bennett. She has released a number of albums featuring collages of music and sound since 1992. In recent years, she has performed at a number of modern art galleries, festivals and universities.-Musical career:Since 1991 Vicki...
called Nothing Special (Soleilmoon) and has done numerous radio performances with Vicki Bennett. http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/people.like.us.and.kenny.g.html
In 2005, Goldsmith collaborated with guitarist Alan Licht
Alan Licht
Alan Licht is an American guitarist and composer, whose work combines elements of pop, noise, free jazz and minimalism. He is also a writer and journalist.-Biography:Licht was born in New Jersey in 1968...
to stage an evening length performance of The Weather, as well as excerpts from Fidget. Goldsmith has also collaborated with musician David Grubbs
David Grubbs
David Grubbs , guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol. He has also played in Codeine, The Red Krayola, Bitch Magnet and The Wingdale Community Singers....
with texts from Fidget.
In 2006, was Goldsmith wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for and performed in the TRANS-WARHOL, Chamber Opera based on his book I'll Be Your Mirror; The Andy Warhol Interviews , a collaboration with choreographer Nicolas Musin, composer Philippe Schoeller and Ensemble Alternance
Ensemble Alternance
Ensemble Alternance is a chamber ensemble of soloists devoted to the performance of contemporary classical music. The ensemble was founded in 1983 by the flautist Jean-Luc Menet with intention of "developing, integrating and exploiting the chock of temporal passages as well as cultural and new...
. The opera premiered at the Bâtiment des forces motrices in Geneva in March 2007.http://www.abcdancecompany.at/3450_ENG_HTML.htm
Goldsmith has written extensively on experimental music A Popular Guide to Unpopular Music and has curated numerous musical events and compact discs. He was a musical curator for the Whitney Museum of American Art's The American Century, Part 2, which included 73 Poems. In 2004, he curated a CD for the Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network was a UK-based organisation, established in 1979, that aimed to enable both audiences and practitioners to engage with the art of sound through a programme of festivals, events, commissions and education projects...
in London called The Agents of Impurity. In 2006 he organized a CD for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston called The Body is a Sound Factory. Also in 2006, he organized an 8 hour-long performance at The Sculpture Center (New York City) of Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
's Vexations "Pianoless Vexations" (UbuWeb) for any instrument other than piano.
In October 2007, a documentary film of Goldsmith's life and practice, Sucking on Words, by filmmaker Simon Morris was screened at Shandy Hall
Shandy Hall
Shandy Hall was the home of the Rev. Laurence Sterne who is famous for his novel Tristram Shandy in Coxwold, North Yorkshire, England. Sterne lived there from 1760 to 1768 as perpetual curate of Coxwold...
in Coxwold, UK, where Lawrence Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy, and in London. The film was premiered at the Eccles Center at the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in London and subsequently screened at the Olso Poetry Festival in November 2007.
In February 2008, he performed at the Instal
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
08 festival in Glasgow.
On April 17, 2009 Goldsmith organized an evening of contemporary poetry at The Whitney Museum of American Art in conjunction with the Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.-Education:...
Retrospective entitled "Conceptual Writing vs. The Flarf Collective" featuring poets from both camps. Conceptualists included Christian Bök
Christian Bök
Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet. He is the author of Eunoia, which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, and which has been said to be "Canada's best-selling poetry book ever."-Life:...
, Kim Rosenfield, Darren Wershler, formerly (Darren Wershler-Henry
Darren Wershler-Henry
Darren Wershler aka Darren Wershler-Henry is a Canadian experimental poet, non-fiction writer and cultural critic.A former grave digger, he was the senior editor of Coach House Books between 1997 and 2002, where the works he edited included several highly acclaimed books of contemporary innovative...
) and Goldsmith himself. Flarf poets included Gary Sullivan
Gary Sullivan
Gary Sullivan may refer to:*Gary Sullivan , electrical engineer*Gary Sullivan , American radio host*Gary Sullivan , Australian rugby league footballer*Gary Sullivan , American soccer player...
, Nada Gordon, Sharon Mesmer
Sharon Mesmer
Sharon Mesmer is an American writer. Born in Chicago, she moved in 1988 to New York City and has since made the east coast her home. She is a two time New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in poetry...
and K. Silem Mohammad.
For the July / August 2009 issue of Poetry Magazinehttp://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=237176 published by The Poetry Foundation, Goldsmith introduced and edited a highly controversial portfolio of Conceptual Writing and Flarf.
In April 2009, Goldsmith was awarded a Qwartz Electronic Music Award http://www.qwartz.org/ in Paris for his work on UbuWeb
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
.
In October 2009, Goldsmith advised, curated and participated in The Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
's 24-hour Poetry Marathon http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/poetry_marathonsaturday_and_su_1.html in London.
On May 11, 2011, Goldsmith was featured at President and Mrs. Obama's A Celebration of American Poetry at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/11/celebration-american-poetry-white-house He read works by Walt Whitman and Hart Crane, as well as from his work "Traffic." Others performing at The White House also Billy Collins
Billy Collins
Billy Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida...
, Common
Common
Common may refer to:* COMMON, the largest association of users of mid-range IBM computers* Common , a British Thoroughbred racehorse* Common , a part of certain Christian liturgy* Commoner, someone does not hold a title of peerage...
, Rita Dove
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...
, Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
, Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.-Early life:Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes...
, Jill Scott
Jill Scott
Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...
and Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
and the Steep Canyon Rangers
Steep Canyon Rangers
The Steep Canyon Rangers are an American bluegrass band from Brevard, North Carolina.In 2008, the band received a nomination from International Bluegrass Music Association for "Album and Gospel Performance of the Year"....
. During the afternoon, Goldsmith led a poetry workshop for high school students with Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
.
Goldsmith has been invited to participate in dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany, 2012. In 2011, dOCUMENTA published his chapbook, Letter To Bettina Funcke http://d13.documenta.de/panorama/#participants/participants/kenneth-goldsmith/ as part of their 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts series. http://www.hatjecantz.de/documenta13/en/notebooks/index.html?book=3046
Works
- No. 110 10.4.93-10.7.93 (Artists Museum, Lodz, Poland, 1993)
- 73 Poems(1993), with Joan La BarbaraJoan La BarbaraJoan La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright...
(1994) - No. 109 2.7.93-12.15.93 (Bravin Post Lee, 1994)
- No. 111.2.7.93-10.20.96(The Figures, 1997)
- Gertrude Stein on Punctuation (Abaton Books, 2000)
- Fidget(Coach House Books, 2000)
- 6799 (zingmagazineZingmagazinezingmagazine is a reverent contemporary art magazine founded in 1995 by artist Devon Dikeou. zing began as a quarterly, black and white magazine. Its first issue contained projects by Kenny Schachter, Gordon Tapper, Ed Web, Gregory Volk, Donald Fergusson, Michael Corris, Amy Sillman, and Susan...
, 2000) - Soliloquy(Granary Books, 2001)
- Head Citations(The Figures, 2002)
- Day (The Figures, 2003)
- The Weather : Winter Spring Summer Fall (Make Now, Los Angeles, 2005)
- Traffic (Make Now, Los Angeles, 2007)
- Sports (Make Now, Los Angeles, 2008)
- Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (Northwestern University Press, Chicago, 2011)
- Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age (Columbia University Press, New York, 2011)
Critical Writing
- Goldsmith's Author Archive at The Poetry Foundation
- On Conceptual Poetics (The Poetry Foundation)
- Being Boring
- Uncreativity as Creative Practice
- If It Doesn't Exist on the Internet, It Doesn't Exist
- From (Command) Line to (Iconic) Constellation
External links
- Kenneth Goldsmith reads at President and Mrs. Obama's A Celebration of American Poetry at The White House, May 11, 2011
- Kenneth Goldsmith at The White House Poetry Workshop with Michelle Obama, May 11, 2011
- Jon Stewart on Goldsmith's White House performance, May 11, 2011
- Talk radio host Michael Savage on Goldsmith's White House performance
- Kenneth Goldsmith page at the Academy of American Poets
- Kenneth Goldsmith Entry from the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry
- Kenneth Goldsmith at the Electronic Poetry Center
- "Sucking on Words" (2007) a documentary about Goldsmith by Simon Morris at ubu.com
- Ubu.com: Kenneth Goldsmith
- Kenneth Goldsmith's sound works on PENNsound
- Kenneth Goldsmith, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania
- UPENN Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing
- Video of Goldsmith reading from Weather, Traffic and Sports in Buffalo on April 7, 2008
- Interview in Rain Taxi Review of Books
- Interview for Ràdio Web MACBA (December, 2010) http://rwm.macba.cat/uploads/songs/sonia116_20101216_96.mp3