eu project 2015-2017

CREATIVE WRITING - TRANSLINGUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING

following the eu-project in 2014, from 2015 until 2017 sfd is involved in classes/workshops, a symposium and lectures that foster translingual teaching and learning in europe.

classes/workshops

acoustic poetics

class with juergen berlakovich (aut)
4-6 november 2015 in madrid, spain

the music of language. acoustic poetry as a field of research and as an inspirational startoff point for writing texts of prose. class organised by escuela de escritores, madrid.

class info: >> http://sfd.at/programm/2015/acoustic-poetics

© ede

escritura creativa en español

class with daniel saavedra aguirre/escuela de escritores (chi/esp/ger)
23 & 24 may 2016 in vienna, austria

short class on creative writing in spanish, for spanish learners and native speakers. in association with escuela de escritores, madrid.

class info: http://sfd.at/programm/programm-2016/escritura-creativa-en-espanol

© sfd

rhythm & sound

class with jörg piringer (aut)
22 & 23 june 2016 in turin, italy

how to enhance poetic language through the manipulation of rhythm and sound? rearranging and modifying one's own voice for live performance and prerecorded pieces by using simple but effective electronic devices and software.

class info: >> http://sfd.at/programm/programm-2016/rhythm-sound

© jörg piringer 

eacwp symposium

21 to 22 september 2016, turin

orhan kipcak and harriet nachtmann from the vienna poetry school participated in the XIIth symposium of the eacwp (european association of creative writing programmes) – of which the sfd is a founding member – in turin (organised by scuola holden). participants are the representatives of european creative writing schools.

      

(by sfd)
the newly elected eacwp-board 2016, sfd represented by harriet nachtmann

international conference: creative writing and storytelling

22 to 25 october 2016, turin, italy.
organised by eacwp (european association of creative writing programmes) and scuola holden, turin.

topics of the conference: ideas, experiences, methods, philosophy, pedagogics, results etc. concerning creativity, or teaching of writing

the main aims of the conference are:
– to create an exchange of best practices and didactical methodologies among different stakeholders involved in creative writing (teachers, schools, educational system);
– to stimulate the imagination and launch some pedagogical proposals and challenges connected to creative writing and storytelling;
– to create a network of interesting ideas and contacts.

participants: anybody who teaches, makes program plans for writer’s schools, or works in other professions in the field of creativity, or writing; also scholars, writers, editors, critics and students are welcome.

http://scuolaholden.it/iccws2016/

sfd representatives: FALKNER, harriet nachtmann, fritz ostermayer, orhan kipcak (from left to right)

lectures

during the international conference: creative writing and storytelling, held by FALKNER, fritz ostermayer and orhan kipcak:

abstracts:

FALKNER

THE GESTURE OF THE MANIFESTER
or: be relentless and look onto the present!

FALKNER investigates the gesture of the genre of the manifesto, the gesture of the manifester. the performative dimension of language, the intentional impetus of texts. tactics of confrontation via the manifesto. wanting to do things with words. sentences as powerful hymns! through rhythm, repetition and the play with sound FALKNER spurs a movement within language itself, which – true to the genre of the manifesto – relies on proclamation.

besides these formal aspects and the possiblilities of an intentional text, FALKNER is concerned especially with the attitude of the manifester: the claim of his/her nearly totalitarian view of the world and its creation. FALKNER’s artistic work ethic is an absolutely clear, unprotected and hardly bearable glance onto the world, to confront oneself, to expose oneself to what is terrible, violent and repressive in the world. And to give this confrontation expression. the one who manifests is the one who does not fall silent. first and foremost, to manifest means not to be silent, but to speak. FALKNER intends to show – via a manifesto – to which extent life, violence, suffering and love are usually inconceivable behind the facades of verbal constructions. the revolutionary impetus of the manifester is the creation of an utopia as a perception of what is missing.

FALKNER also talks about her class at the vienna poetry school (sfd): “THE MANIFEST. THE MANIFESTER. to put yourself up against the wall is to play a deadly serious game ...” the class culminated in a performance lasting several hours from sfd’s balcony and was titled “an angel went up in flames”.

the following year the material of this performance was used for the class “video poetry. ways of documenting performances”. it was about developing dramaturgical conceptions that facilitate the transformation of material deriving from a performance lasting several hours into an independent product (video clip, short film). the film created was a short documentary (“video poetry”, dvd, 25 minutes, vienna poetry school/materials 2010).

fritz ostermayer

a radio play class and its synergetic Interconnectedness with the medium radio

besides aesthetic/literary positions of current radio play making, the lecture primarily debates the strategies and opportunities of a poetry school to introduce “experimental” works into the (structurally conservative) medium radio. as a concrete example serves the co-operation of the vienna poetry school with Ö1, the “classic-radio station” of the austrian broadcasting corporation ORF.

each year, a competition of short radio plays organized by Ö1 and named “track 5” proves anew that the joy of taking narrative and formal risks in the literary genre of radio plays has long given way to a secured and “well-behaved” narration – despite the editor’s desire for a variety of styles and topics. we wanted to send a signal against this artistic backlash: with a “micro-drama”-class which draws on traditions of the avant-garde from DADA to punk. by playing with trash and camp to our heart’s content, we also wanted to polemise against the return of psychological narration in “new” radio plays. useful tools for this: humour and emotion.

based upon sam peckinpahs film classic “bring me the head of alfredo garcia” our class was called “bring me the head of wolfgang bauer”, named after the well-known austrian dramatist and peckinpah-fan whose absurd and likewise grotesque humour was intended to be our model and inspiration.

even though our strange micro-dramas eventually did not make it onto the winner’s pedestal: at least we got a lot of airplay, additionally, we received positive reactions from a young and open audience and – last but not least – increased attention for our vienna poetry school.

orhan kipcak

“wider das glatte” – against smoothness”
visualising online poetry. a didactic cooperation between the vienna poetry school and the media design department of fh joanneum graz (university of applied science).

"the smoothness," writes philosopher byung-chul han, is "the signature of the present. it connects the sculptures of jeff koons, the iphone and brazilian waxing". he further argues that there is a connection to the smooth politics of neoliberalism – scratches, fissures, even cracks are hard to bear in our culture of polishing each and everything: the rougher economic and social realities become, the more concealing and smoothing tools have to take effect. viewed like this, smoothness becomes a hostile element.

following this thesis, the vienna poetry school (sfd) realised an internet-based poetry class for the poetic roughening of such polished surfaces. the aim: the production of poems against smoothness, poems with built-in errors and poetic interfering frequencies – because, according to the dictum of the project, only cracks and dents reveal to us the truths hidden behind pretty appearances

german speaking writers followed the invitation to participate in the online-class and 188 texts were produced. the class was led by fritz ostermayer, artistic director of the vienna poetry school, who reviewed and commented on the contributions. the participants were established and non-professional writers. the broad formal range of the texts corresponded to the very open requirements: explicitly political literature as well as experimental forms and texts that artfully celebrate imperfection; existentialist, didactic, etc. texts.

a selection of the results was visualised by media design-students of the fh-joanneum, university of applied sciences, graz under the guidance of orhan kipcak. the students of this university are educated in designing time-based media. most of them specialise in animation, motion graphics and 3d-visualisation. working with artistic or literary content is unusual for them, therefore, the project provided the students with new experiences. in a seminar, held in co-operation with sfd, they were prepared for the project. they were introduced to the text of byung-chul han and to different traditions of visualising lyric poetry (projects by gerhard rühm, konrad bayer and h. c. artmann). for creating the movies, the production and post-production studios and the equipment of the university were used. the outcome: 23 very rough short and shortest movies. they were shown already at a media exhibition of the austrian broadcasting corporation and at the cinema next festival. more screenings are planned.

of course, the quality of the project lies in its controversial topic that combines aesthetic and political aspects in an original way. another advantage is its great didactic impact: it involves a wide audience – poets, writers, moviemakers, animation artists. additionally, the application of online technology demonstrates a state-of-the-art version of telelearning in the creative field. finally, the project is a good example for the co-operation of a non-formal creative writing institution with a university.

project funded by:




this project has been funded with support from the european commission.
this publication reflects the views only of the author, and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.