BAKERSFIELD FAN FORUM
November 7- December 3, 2016

Mon, Dec 10, 2018 10:00 AM  
Sat, Jan 5, 2019 11:00 AM
Todd Madigan Gallery (map)

THE POETIC RESEARCH BUREAU
with
Joseph Mosconi
&
Maryah Chester
Barry Michael
Viridiana Pena
Marco Silva

~

Everyone is a fan of something. The concepts of “the fan,” “the amateur” and the “self-published writer” have often been denigrated and ridiculed in popular culture and the mass media. However, over the past several centuries the cultural practice of “fandom,” of being a fan, has broadened and diversified, and become more participatory in the process. As sociologist Henry Jenkins has written, fans "redefine the politics of reading" and "view textual property not as the exclusive domain of textual producers but as open to repossession by textual consumers." This exhibition charts the research of The Bakersfield Fan Forum, under the direction of the Poetic Research Bureau. During the course of the forum, poets, artists and scholars discussed the politics of fandom, appropriation and the concepts of the amateur and the enthusiast. Members of the forum created print-on-demand books and posters, culminating in a pop-up bookshop situated in the gallery.

THE POETIC RESEARCH BUREAU attempts to cultivate composition, publication and distribution strategies that enlarge the public domain. It favors appropriations, impersonations, 'compost' poetries, belated conversations, unprintable jokes and doodles, historical thefts and pastiche. The publication emphasis is on ephemeral works, short-run magazines and folios, short-lived reprints and excerpts in print-on-demand formats. The Bureau advocates for intellectual resource sharing, material re-use and the “creative commons.” It values artistic experiment and archival research equally, as well as translation and cultural encounter, pluralism and intellectual debate. The Bureau’s activities include, but are not limited to: readings and presentations, screenings and exhibitions, courses and lectures, as well as the production and distribution of art and literature.

Detail 2

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Detail 3

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