Hi folks!
It's a lovely time of year--the rush to the end of the semester! Keep in mind, though, that there are bits of enjoyment and encouragement all around you to help you combat the stress that accompanies finals week. Two things in particular might be of interest to you:
First, a series of "poetry puzzles"--decoratively written classics of modern poetry, chopped into individual word fragments. Can you piece the poem back together without "cheating" (aka looking the poem up on the internet)? Or can you make your own poem out of the pieces? Try it and find out!!
Next, and perhaps more exciting: the first set of offerings from XU's own In the Loop crochet club! Check out these adorable amigurumi figurines for sale in the machine now. But hurry--they're bound to sell out quickly!
Hang in there--and keep making!
Kristen
Say What?!?! Xavier University's Book/Art Vending Machine
Xavier University has a NEW vending machine--and it's all about your voice! Designed to distribute book/zine/art/media materials made by members of our community TO our community, this vending machine (and this blog about it) will help facilitate expression and engagement among readers/viewers and creators within our community.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
NEW IN VENDING! Fall 2015
Hi folks!
It's been a busy Fall semester here at XU (so--nothing new!), but I wanted to give you all a heads-up on some of the cool new items featured in our vending machine!
First up, we have an awesome brochure entitled The History and Effects of I-71 & I-75, produced through the collective efforts of Xavier University Future of Justice students from Spring 2015. Check out their cool community engaged project work, which draws from archival research, interviews with community members, and philosophical study.
There's also been some additional work added to the vending machine from our own university professors--check out the chapbooks now on display written by English department faculty member (and amazing poet) Tyrone Williams!
XU's very own Art Society has been hard at work at producing a collectively-created print zine based on the work of Mark Mothersbaugh. A retrospective of Mothersbaugh's work is now on display at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center; the Art Society's zine, entitled "Mark Mothersbaugh Print Zine," gives this show a run for it's money. But this is a limited edition product: only 5 zines were made! Come purchase yours soon!
Finally, in response to a recent E/RS lecture series event on campus, Ross Gay's talk and poetry reading of October 29th, the students of ENGL 121 Studies in Poetry have been hard at work creating their own books of inspiration. Gay's most recent collection of poetry, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, has been shortlisted for a National Book Award; check out his book, and then check out your classmates' own "Catalogs of Unabashed Gratitude" that they've created for you. It's easy to get bogged down in all the work and stress of the end of the year: let them help you to take some time to stop, relax, and appreciate all the awesomeness that surrounds us on a daily basis!
Finally...be on the lookout for the awesome handicrafts from newly formed Xavier University crochet club In The Loop: they've made some mini amigurumi figures that will be placed for vending in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, though, check out the club's website, if you would like to join in and get crafty with them!
Till soon--keep creating!
Dr. R
It's been a busy Fall semester here at XU (so--nothing new!), but I wanted to give you all a heads-up on some of the cool new items featured in our vending machine!
First up, we have an awesome brochure entitled The History and Effects of I-71 & I-75, produced through the collective efforts of Xavier University Future of Justice students from Spring 2015. Check out their cool community engaged project work, which draws from archival research, interviews with community members, and philosophical study.
There's also been some additional work added to the vending machine from our own university professors--check out the chapbooks now on display written by English department faculty member (and amazing poet) Tyrone Williams!
XU's very own Art Society has been hard at work at producing a collectively-created print zine based on the work of Mark Mothersbaugh. A retrospective of Mothersbaugh's work is now on display at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center; the Art Society's zine, entitled "Mark Mothersbaugh Print Zine," gives this show a run for it's money. But this is a limited edition product: only 5 zines were made! Come purchase yours soon!
a few of the MANY individual catalogues--all unique!--made by ENGL 121 |
Till soon--keep creating!
Dr. R
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Welcome to Fall 2015--inspiration and update!
Hi XU!
Welcome to what I hope will be another exciting school year, filled with lots of laughter, learning, and cool items to put into the book/art vending machine! Stay tuned for the latest additions I'll be putting in the machine shortly (some collectively-written zines about the newly-updated Mermaid Tavern group on campus; some collaboratively-produced pamphlets on The History and Effects of I-71 and I-75). In the meantime, though, I wanted to draw your attention to this cool round-up of zines about mental health and self-care--important topics for any human (and college students are no exception!). Perhaps you, like me, will find these not only intriguing but also inspiring--and perhaps I'll soon get some of your own takes on these for our machine. One can hope...
All best for an awesome September 2015--and keep creating!!
Dr. Renzi
Welcome to what I hope will be another exciting school year, filled with lots of laughter, learning, and cool items to put into the book/art vending machine! Stay tuned for the latest additions I'll be putting in the machine shortly (some collectively-written zines about the newly-updated Mermaid Tavern group on campus; some collaboratively-produced pamphlets on The History and Effects of I-71 and I-75). In the meantime, though, I wanted to draw your attention to this cool round-up of zines about mental health and self-care--important topics for any human (and college students are no exception!). Perhaps you, like me, will find these not only intriguing but also inspiring--and perhaps I'll soon get some of your own takes on these for our machine. One can hope...
All best for an awesome September 2015--and keep creating!!
Dr. Renzi
Monday, March 23, 2015
3...2...1...VEND!!!!
Alright, everyone! The time is finally here--the vending machine has been stocked with its first community contributions (some of which you can see pictured below). Featured in this first round of materials are lino-cut patches, photography triptychs, LEGO creations, rainbow loom creations, and a poetry chapbook entitled "Ten Portraits of Enya". Once upon a time (fifteen minutes ago), there were crocheted cacti--but they have, in the time it took me to purchase a soda in the CLC, been bought!
So come on, XU--you know what to do!!! Get creating, so that you and your peers have awesome, unique, one-of-a-kind objects to purchase! And, of course, check out the machine to see what you'd like to take home with you!
an assortment of the first for-purchase vending machine offerings! |
So come on, XU--you know what to do!!! Get creating, so that you and your peers have awesome, unique, one-of-a-kind objects to purchase! And, of course, check out the machine to see what you'd like to take home with you!
Monday, March 16, 2015
Artist's Books I've Made (post 3 of 3)
another heart for a colophon image; this one, though, is being repaired after rupture |
+ 10 - is about many things--but one of the prominent things that it deals with are the twinned concepts of poetic revision and bodily healing/scarring. I had this book project in mind long before it came into fruition as the artist book I'll write about here; indeed, the "ten" of the title refers to a number of years. As an undergraduate student in my early 20s, I wrote a series of poems entitled "Drafting Days" that were about the dissolution of a romantic relationship. These poems, part of my larger honors thesis project, were very much invested in thinking through the relationship between words and embodiment, between poetry and fine arts: thus, I chose to photograph these poems as I wrote them, one by one, on my own body. It struck me at the time (and still does strike me, if I'm honest) that skin was a particularly apt vehicle for expressions of the kind of intimacy, pain, and loss that these poems meant to archive--and that allowing a reader to view these poems on a body rather than on a piece of paper would communicate a kind of embodied language that I was struggling to express more traditionally.
as you can see, the techniques I used to bind and affix images in the book, as well as to put the book together, are takes on anatomical suturing techniques. |
this spine binding (as noted above) uses the technique that doctors use to bind tendons together |
digital photo/ poem/ manual photo sandwich |
if I ever use this process again, I will pick a MUCH less slippery thread! |
I was interested in the idea, in the capturing of these revisions/scars, that there would be a lot of text visible that wouldn't necessarily be legible. For instance, in many of the photos (particularly when printed on cloth), the text is fuzzy and hard to make out. To me, this seemed a crucial expression of the essentially private, idiosyncratic nature of the loss of love. In keeping with this theme, I chose to include all of the words from the original poems but to divest them of their poetic structure. Instead, I printed them in alphabetical order at the front and the close of the book: words I used multiple times were printed in red, and ones I used only once were printed in black.
these words are printed on translucent paper, allowing for the above effect |
of course, this suturing is more aesthetic than practical...such a wound would not, it seems, be closed via this thread! |
Here's to the incomplete work we are all doing/being!
Dr. Renzi
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Artist's Books I've Made (post 2 of 3)
another pen-and-ink cover! |
as you can see here, I made only 7 of these books--they were significantly more labor intensive than artist book one! |
As with my previous artist book, the copies of this one were given away to good friends. It pleases me to think of these small fairytales in the homes of my loved ones; hopefully they can open them from time to time and enjoy some of the love in looking at them that I threw into making them.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
First Vending Machine Offering...
...is now available!
These small zines--which both give you instructions on how to make them and serve as an example of said making--are now ready for you to go ahead and get from the Vending Machine (they are in two of the slots designated as free, too--so you don't even have to shell out cash for them!). Anyone looking for an easy, low-cost way to put together a small zine can easily adopt this "book"'s methodology. Want more than 8 pages in your zine? Go ahead and fold up two (three, four), nest them inside one another, and bind the spine with a couple staples!
I'm working on packaging up a few of the submitted items; hopefully by the end of this upcoming week, they'll be for sale! Keep working on your own creations and get them to me--I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Best,
Dr. R
ta-da! |
These small zines--which both give you instructions on how to make them and serve as an example of said making--are now ready for you to go ahead and get from the Vending Machine (they are in two of the slots designated as free, too--so you don't even have to shell out cash for them!). Anyone looking for an easy, low-cost way to put together a small zine can easily adopt this "book"'s methodology. Want more than 8 pages in your zine? Go ahead and fold up two (three, four), nest them inside one another, and bind the spine with a couple staples!
I'm working on packaging up a few of the submitted items; hopefully by the end of this upcoming week, they'll be for sale! Keep working on your own creations and get them to me--I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Best,
Dr. R
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