THE ORIGIN OF THE WORDS –

Five poems written by poets Cin Salach, Louis Rodriguez, Jean Howard, Larry Winfield, and Dwight Okita, sent to Germany weeks before.

THE SITE-

Two floors of former factory in an industrial area of Chicago, the raw and experimental space called the Lab.

THE EVENT –

The Eighth National Poetry Video Festival sponsored by the Guild Complex, Chicago’s non-for-profit organization pioneering cross-cultural expression from literary and art communities.

THE ORGANIZERS –

Jean Howard, performance/video poet, 7 year Director of the National Poetry Video Festival.

Michael Warr, poet and founding Executive Director of Guild Complex.

Stephen Collins, founder of the Lab, where telepresent events, internet radio shows, and living art experiments take place.

COLLABORATORS –

Brian Rullman, founder of OVT Visualz which provides light and projection environments for rock concerts for groups like the Cramps, Korn, Crystal Method, and events such as Dennis Rodman’s birthday party, and Summer Solstice for Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

Dinello, sculptor of living art.

Mark Spybey, word artist and occupational therapist from Canada.[DVOA]

Street Level Youth Media, the non-for-profit organization providing Chicago’s at-risk youth with media tools and mentors to express their views.

Gvoon, from Germany, Europe’s top new media group of programmers, designers, and visual artists who had just finished touring Europe with Can, the cutting-edge rock band.

BACKGROUND -

This was the eighth year of the National Poetry Video Festival, an event that started with Chicago poets Larry Winfield and Kurt Heintz launching a city-wide search for any other video poems to show with their own at Guild Complex. Shortly afterwards, performance poet and founding member of Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam, Jean Howard, joined in to help organize annual poetry video events. Seven years later finds Howard as the director of this festival, Guild Complex still as the principle sponsor with an annual international festival that has a history featuring nationally recognized works.

These include the 1998 Sundance Grand Jury award-winner, SLAM, with live performances by its stars, Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn; the film SlamNation, directed and produced by Emmy-winner Paul Devlin; poetry videos by poet Allen Ginsberg, actor Matt Dillon, Tamlyn Tomira, star of The Joy Luck Club, President Jimmy Carter, actor Jimmy Stewart, students of American Sign Language, MuchMusic (Canada’s version of MTV), and Bikers for Tots.

The festival has also premiered the PBS Special, The United States of Poetry and featured its producer, poet and filmmaker, Bob Holman. In collaboration with Miramax Films, the festival included a screening of the Academy Award winning film, IL Postino, followed by a discussion of poet Pablo Neruda's life and work. In 1997, Andrei Codrescu, poet, National Public Radio commentator, editor (Exquisite Corpse), and novelist (The Blood Countess) performed his poetry followed by a showing of his film, Road Scholar.

From its original screening at the Guild Complex in a bookstore at the time, to its recent years at the Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the festival has taken many turns. It’s primary mission – to explore the interrelationship between technology and the spoken word, for the most part through video, film and performance poetry.

This year, the organizers took a more aggressive approach. Hungry for innovation and to explore the poetic possibilities offered by the newest technologies and the internet, Jean Howard contacted Brian Rullman from OVT Visualz, who introduced her to Steve Collins of the Lab. The Lab had an established following for its experimental events involving the internet, and cutting edge artists of all media including video, film, sculpture, music, projection, and computers, including a telekinetic robotic collaborative performance with the Survival Research Laboratories [SRL] in Oakland, CA.

Stephen Collins, to date, had not done extensive collaboration with poets. His first meeting with Michael Warr, and Jean Howard took place at the Lab, which is situated in an industrial corridor with housing projects just a few blocks away. Events at the Lab had ranged from web based radio broadcasts to Lumpen Magazine’s sex party, a definite departure from the Museum of Contemporary Art or Guild’s Chopin theatre.

Collin’s extreme sense of experimentation and dedication to the exploration of technology for the arts caught Howard and Warr off-guard. His immediate enthusiasm toward a collaboration with video and performance poets set the foundation for the Eighth National Poetry Video Festival. This festival would be one full of risks, experimentation, ambitious technical endeavors, and collaborations not only between inter-disciplinary arts, media, and culture, but also generations.

Howard and Warr were immediately thrown into Collins’ world where the newest computer technology and the internet rules. Collins, in turn, was introduced to poetry video, "Slam" performance poetry, and to the running of a successful non-for-profit organization.

BEFORE THE EVENT-

Weeks before, Collins was invited to tour with Gvoon, a new media group from Germany. They were to open for CAN, the avant-garde rock band, on their tour of Europe. When Collins returned to Chicago he was on fire with ideas on how Gvoon could contribute to the Poetry Video Festival. As a personal favor, Gvoon had agreed to fly to Chicago at their own expense to take part in this one night event. After viewing video footage of the European tour, Howard and Warr, immediately welcomed the idea. The actual process and production of the collaboration was still vague.

Gvoon asked for several poems from different poets to be sent to them without giving clear indication of how they were going to be used. Poems had to be secured in one week from poets willing to relinquish control of their work’s format and structure. Stephen Collins kept repeating, "Trust me on this".

Meanwhile, Brian Rullman from OVT Visualz resurfaced from his event in Latin America. Inspired by Rullman’s work at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art’s Summer Solstice, a 24-hour event featuring artists, musicians, dancers, fashion designers, poets, internet artists, DJs, etc, Howard approached him with an idea. The concept was to set up an area in the Lab at the National Poetry Video Festival for people to create their own video poems.

Here a poet could perform his or her poetry with pre-selected video being projected on the walls around him or her. A selection of videos for projection could include cartoons, sci-fi "B" movies, National Geographic footage, vintage black and white films, rock videos, along with an assortment of other footage. A combination of good camera work of the poet’s performance and Rullman’s on-the-spot master mixing would create instant video poems.

Brian Rullman liked the idea immediately. Any one at the festival could visit the "Make Your Own Video Poem" studio and walk away with their own video. Of course, to fire up the sessions, pros like performance poets Cin Salach, Sheila Donahue, and Marc Smith were invited to create their own video poems.

The Poetry Video Slam that was so successful at previous fests was a natural for the unorthodox aura of the Lab. Slam Master, Marc Smith was invited to emcee this competition with four members of the audience judging. With this slam the whole audience judges too, with an applause meter that determines which video wins the "People’s Choice Award".

OTHER SPACES –

Sculptor Dinello’s Theatre of the Senses with raised islands of draped seating would allow audience members to

1. See slides and video (a retro review of 8 years of the festival)
2. Hear words and music
3. Taste tea and poetry
4. Smell incense and passion
5. Touch the soul of stage (Dinello assembling sculpture, piece by piece)

On the second stage upstairs, Youth Level Street Media’s videos would screen poetry videos produced by young poets and artists.

On the main stage, Gvoon, including Arthur Schmidt would collaborate with Mark Spybey, Stephen Collins, Jean Howard, and the poems of five other Chicago poets. Exactly how this collaboration was to take place was yet to be defined. In fact, that defining would become the event, with all of it being webcast to thousands.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FEST –

The thirteen cases of Gvoon’s electronics had cleared customs the day before. There was much rejoicing. The top floor of the Lab was dark and unlit except for the large tarps of projection screens that OVT Visualz had stretched around the room. On these, glowing letters from words were raining - huge, ghostlike vowels and consonants running down the screens, pulsing with eerie other-worldiness. The air in the Lab was throbbing with the sound of words coming to life.

Gvoon had programmed the audio read of eight poems and by accelerating, extending, and manipulating their sounds, the program was creating its own symphony of poetics that synchronized with electronic visuals.

Stephen Collins was holding two baseball-sized orbs in front of him. Interrelating to magnetic signals from his body, these balls created a grid-made entity like a fluorescent sea anemone on the screens. It stretched, contracted and swam along a sea of letters in relationship to Steve moving the orbs in his hands.

Then a rain of letters transformed into full words, then lines. An ongoing poem rolled down the screen created by Gvoon’s computer program selecting random lines from the original eight submitted poems. A line from Dwight Okita’s poem about a sun tattooed on his lover’s chest would roll into Jean Howard’s line about a daffodil’s bra cup flowing over with yellow. Cin Salach’s wild image of marrying her television set would intermingle with Louis Rodriguez’s urban landscape. An exquisite "random poem" would create, then recreate itself, with even one or two words of various lines being constantly replaced by the program’s random selection.

The resulting living breathing poem was constantly transforming with three dimension physicality. Gvoon played this poem like an instrument. One moment it was a wall of words seemingly peeling off of the screen, next, it would curve inward. Switching from the random poem, then a rain of letters, then the interactive grid anemone, an electronic performance unfolded . The concept behind Gvoon’s work finally became real to Howard as a whole new frontier of poetry performance presented itself. The random poem begged for a live reading by one or an ensemble of performers. The accompanying pulsing sound along with the projected imagery invited physical movement in the form of spontaneous performance or choreographed dance interacting with the movements on the screen.

A rush of ideas hit at once and Howard was determined to invite Cin Salach and Sheila Donahue to improvise with her at the event the next night. Meanwhile, Gvoon had some of their own ideas. An electronic body suit was placed on one of their members and his actions became the actions of a huge projected "Y" and "O". Suddenly the "Y" had a mouth that spoke and eyes that blinked. Using a digital camera, Gvoon captured Jean Howard’s face and mouth as she performed her poems and incorporated these images with those on the screen. The possibilities ran on and on with only this one night to rehearse them.

THE EVENT –

Stephen Collins called Jean Howard a few hours before the event. His landlord, who was cool with Collin’s events, called to tip him off. An irritated neighbor in this industrial neighborhood was determined to put an end to Collin’s "happenings". This neighbor had notified the police that Collins was throwing commercial events without a license, and was surely selling liquor without one, too. "No problem", Collins assured Howard, "we just need to clearly state on a sign at the door that this was a non-for-profit event and ask for donations only". This is a normal procedure for Guild Complex events, Michael Warr assures them, so they don’t give it much thought.

IT BEGINS –

People were heading down the long alley leading to the Lab. Some were Lab freaks, some were poetry freaks, or Guild Complex regulars, OVT Visualz partiers, Dinello fans, and the rest a curious throng that got the word about the festival through the internet or through the promotion that hit every newspaper and publication in the city. All was good! Gvoon was warming up. Street Level Youth Media videos started running on the top floor. Dinello was pouring tea and lighting incense. The "Make Your Own Video" studio had people signed up and waiting – some of the fortunate early participants: Marc Smith, Larry Winfield, Dan Cleary. Things were starting to percolate!

Marc Smith started emceeing the Poetry Video Slam. Collins, having never witnessed Smith or a Slam was amazed at how the whole audience engages. As the Slam was wrapping up, Collins pulled Howard aside with news – the cops were downstairs. By the time Howard got to the ground floor entrance, there was already a heated discussion going on between four policemen and a Guild Complex board member, a lawyer who just happened to be walking into the Lab as the "bust" was going down.

Basically, the police were shutting down the festival because it was not verbally stated that the money being collected at the door was a donation. Howard, Collins, and Warr were in a state of disbelief. A young volunteer at the door had failed to state to an undercover police that the entrance money was a donation. The board member standing in line had witnessed the whole scene and was insistent that the police did not have the right to shut down the event. The discussion was already getting ugly.

THE DRAMA –

In the alley five police cars were waiting. The police had already started clearing out the festival. People were pouring out of the Lab – an amazing mix of cultures, age, and backgrounds. Michael Warr and a young female volunteer were in a squad car waiting to be taken to the station. There was some physical interchange between the head policeman and the lawyer board member. Stephen Collins was sitting on a stool in the alley, like an observer of the bizarre. Howard stood in the midst of several police showing Guild Complex newsletters and non-for-profit documents to a sergeant who had just arrived from the station. The police were starting to look really foolish.

Lilia Chacon, a reporter from Fox 32 Television News who had just arrived to attend the fest, started to call her camera crew. Pools of people were standing in the street waiting for word from the police headquarters as to whether the festival could resume. Eric Booker from OVT Visualz started shooting his own "Police Files" video of the whole scene. Gvoon continued performing upstairs as cops stared mind-boggled at their equipment and what they were doing. This whole scene was old hat for Gvoon.

THE VERDICT –

After much discussion, uncertainty, and tension, the word came down from the station that the event could continue. Most of the earlier poetry crowd had dispersed, but the Lab crowd, accustomed to arriving after midnight, was just coming through. Collins couldn’t believe that the police bust fell through. It was a night of many firsts, definitely for Michael Warr. Howard was still in a state of disbelief at the incredibly senseless disruption of the night’s momentum and months of work.

But it was Gvoon’s turn to really kick in. Mark Sybey brought up two members of a workshop held the day before where participants wrote individual and group pieces then recorded their readings on tape. Spybey had created new audio compositions by electronically manipulating these recordings and using them as background for the live readings being done at the moment. Gvoon provided engulfing visuals. One massive collaborative creature stretched its feelers to every corner of the room. The rule - "Try it".

Across the walls – a huge glowing green presence pulsing, moving panes of texture, of poems raining upon everyone near, of artists sticking their fingers into the goo of language and electronics, of communication moving like a charged storm. Into these pools people wandered throughout the night, splashed with sound, words, and light. Some just dipped, others jumped right in. Whole oceans exist waiting to be explored. This year, Chicago’s Eighth National Poetry Video Festival definitely got wet trying.

[Editor's Note: To see photos from this event go to: GVOON Live 1999

Visit: The Lab in Chicago