{"id":40148,"date":"2022-12-09T02:10:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=40148"},"modified":"2022-12-08T18:26:48","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T02:26:48","slug":"serious-play-with-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/12\/09\/serious-play-with-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious play with language"},"content":{"rendered":"

I always look forward to reading whatever Adeena Karasick writes, even though I know I won\u2019t understand all of it. To be generous to myself, I\u2019d say at least 20% of her latest publication, Massaging the Medium: Seven Pechakuchas<\/em> (Institute of General Semantics, 2022), went over my head \u2013 or will require a few more reads and some discussions with friends to get the most out of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>Massaging the Medium<\/em> is part of the Institute of General Semantics\u2019 Language in Action series, which \u201cpublishes books devoted to creative modes of expression that can open the doors of perception and foster better understandings of the nature of language, symbols, communication and the semantic, technological and media environments that we inhabit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The preface is written by Maria Damon of the University of Minnesota. She explains, \u201cFor anyone still unfamiliar with the format, pechakucha \u2013 Japanese for \u2018chitchat\u2019 \u2013 is a highly stylized presentation form that comprises a public speech accompanied by 20 slides for visual demonstration, each of which is shown for 20 seconds, while the speaker addresses their (his\/her) topic. Initiated in 2003 by a pair of architects working in Japan, the format (trademarked and copyrighted, by the way, in true contemporary entrepreneurial style) has spread to encompass a worldwide enthusiasm for a storytelling\/info delivery style that relies on the visual as much as, or even more than, on the verbal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Karasick\u2019s \u201cdazzling linguistic pyrotechnics on page and stage,\u201d writes Damon, the pechakucha format is ideal, \u201cas the propulsive energy that characterizes her writing and reading style is given sharper urgency for being trapped in a small temporal space\u2026. These seven tours de force<\/em> of serious play celebrate meaning and unmeaning, communication and miscommunication, the happy errors\/eros of semantic and sonic slippage, the glories of the im\/p\/precise.\u201d<\/p>\n

This description is better than I could ever give. I had to look up several terms, such as \u2019pataphysical \u2013 \u201ca \u2018philosophy\u2019 of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry intended to be a parody of science,\u201d according to Wikipedia. \u201cDifficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the \u2018science of imaginary solutions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I also had to look up some of the names of people Karasick cites as if they\u2019re old friends. While I\u2019ve heard of folks like Jacques Derrida and Marshall McCluhan, and of Jewish texts such as The Zoha<\/em>r, my knowledge barely touches the surface. I think that\u2019s part of why I have such fun with Karasick \u2013 I\u2019ve no preconceptions going into my reading of her work and, while I don\u2019t take it all in, I do feel as if my mind expands from the experience. She is at once academically rigorous, poetically versatile and sensically nonsensical, or nonsensically sensical (I\u2019m not sure which would be most accurate).<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
Here is but one example of a section of one of the pechakuchas featured in Adeena Karasick\u2019s Massaging the Medium: Seven Pechakuchas, to give readers an idea of the book\u2019s content and form. (\u00a9 2022 Adeena Karasick)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her introduction, Karasick notes that the seven pechakuchas comprising this book were originally created for and presented at academic literary conferences that took place during the period of 2013 to 2019. For a printed publication, she had to adapt them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visuals,\u201d she notes, \u201cconsist of both found and original collaged material which both speak to and against the text. And each of the original slides were embedded with audio and video clips, gifs, other forms of kinetic digital media such as montages of sound poetry,\u201d pop songs, movies and more. \u201cWhat is illustrated here, however, are stills from the digital live motion presentation and, although originally all consisting of 20 separate components, they are now of slightly varying length.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t even begin to simplify any of the pechakuchas, in order to give an example of their content and form. Best to experience them yourself. Not everything will land \u2013 I enjoyed the first few most \u2013 but they do offer the possibility of changing how you think about many things. The list includes but is not limited to language, technology, physiology, time, space, cyberspace, mysticism, consumerism, reality, truth. As does any good Jewish text, it will raise more questions than it answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always look forward to reading whatever Adeena Karasick writes, even though I know I won\u2019t understand all of it. To be generous to myself, I\u2019d say at least 20% of her latest publication, Massaging the Medium: Seven Pechakuchas (Institute of General Semantics, 2022), went over my head \u2013 or will require a few more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[6842,2728,21988,21987],"class_list":["post-40148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-adeena-karasick","tag-language","tag-massaging-the-medium","tag-pechakucha"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}