What is it? Basically, it’s a collage party The Varsity is holding this weekend (see bottom of this page for dates, times, and location), where the majority of what we’re cutting and pasting are words (there are a couple images), specifically words and images from books having to do with Toronto.
The why is a bit more complicated, but not a whole lot more.
This idea came out of Chris Berube’s story in the fall issue of The Varsity Magazine, “Death of the artist?” In particular, this passage:
But this type of artistic thievery has
a rich history. “At some point in
time,” says Zeilinger, “copying
someone’s work was the highest level
of homage or respect that you could
pay to a venerable prior author.” Dada
collage in the early 20th century, for
example, was one of the first
instances where artists would actually
physically rearrange their influences
into a new work of art. Last year, the
copyright documentary RiP: a Remix
Manifesto pointed out that this ethos
has been especially present in music,
which has its own language of
borrowing. The Rolling Stones took
riffs directly from Muddy Waters, who
had himself taken them from sources in
traditional folk music.And of course, mashups now take the
idea of reproducing one’s influences
in a much more direct way, by
recontextualizing them in a new
composition. In a given piece by
Pittsburgh “sound collagist” Girl
Talk, the lyrics from Lil’ Maoma’s
“Lip Gloss” play over a bed from
Metallica’s “One,” before giving way
to a mashup of beats from Soulja Boy
and yacht rock from Styx.
It got us thinking: What would a literary mashup look like? And can we make this a party? Well, let’s find out. Everyone is welcome, and we’re very seriously considering printing the results in the next issue of the magazine, our All Arts issue, which hits stands January 19.
How does it work? Well, we’re not entirely sure. We’ve never done this before, you see, so we’re kindof making it up as we go along, and also hoping you’ll help us out. It’s going to be pretty freeform, but if you like fridge magnet poetry, oh man, is this going to be the party for you!
We’ve got all the books and we’ve taken them a part a bit. If you can cut and/or paste, you have the requisite skills to take part and the thing is, we want as many people to take part as possible, so please do.
Friday, January 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. (Just after the Varsity Open House!)
Saturday, January 9, noon ’til 5
Sunday, January 10, noon ’til 2
You don’t have to be there all three days to take part. You don’t have to be there for a lot of time at all. You don’t have to sign up. You are allowed to just show up and everyone will be really happy you did. It doesn’t cost anything. There will be food and beverages (free).
Where we’re at: 21 Sussex Ave. (behind Robarts), second floor
