WORD THE WORD was/is an ongoing series of projects intended to initiate and affirm the connections between exploration and language, consciousness and articulation. The series contemplates what role language might be able to play in transformation and groundedness. Into the ether, into the ether; we speak of and to the ether, so as to make the tacit tactile. The first five parts of WORD THE WORD were presented by the Experimental Meditation Center of Los Angeles.
WORD THE WORD Part 1: Meta Psych
Held in a private home, Los Angeles
August 22, 2010
A Guided Listening Session facilitated by Anna Mayer. Invitation: We will gather in a Lincoln Heights apartment for this approximately one-hour, non-silent meditation on the following: limitlessness myths, infectious sound, and editorialized flow. Facilitator Anna Mayer will present examples of psychedelic pop and rock that reference in their lyrics language and/or the experience of tripping itself. These songs, interspersed with lateral ruminations on observation, perspective, and awareness narratives, will serve as opportunities to rhythmically reflect and project on what role language serves in facilitating transformation.
WORD THE WORD Part 2: Succuthis
Art Los Angeles Contemporary
January 30, 2010 (presented by Liz Glynn as part of her Verse | Chorus | Verse project)
Artist-participants performed portions of the Surrealists' round-table sex research sessions. Reenacting the mostly-male conversations from 1928 word for word using the Surrealist-published transcripts, the 2010 group collectively animated the voices of others in a contemporary investigation of how bodies arouse language and taste becomes audible. Readers: Steven Anderson, Enrique Castrejon, Megan Hoetger, Malisa Humphrey, Elana Mann, John Martin, Anna Mayer, Nancy Popp.
WORD THE WORD Part 3: Unimplanting
Held in the backyard of Candice Lin’s Altadena home
May 20, 2011
Fire with performances by Anna Mayer and Corey Fogel. Invitation: On earth the earth easily buries the earth. We: bringing to light and reverberations. You: are welcomed at 8 pm on Friday, May 20th to listen, observe, and generate. Drinks from below-ground will be served.
WORD THE WORD Part 4: Negative Sessions
Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College
November 15, 2011
Negative Sessions explores what we are not. Informed by the structure of the ‘Negative Confession’ from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and linguist George Lakoff’s ideas about framing, the event considers how language is used to constitute the self, identity, and intention in the negative; by asserting what it is that we are not, we are articulating what it is that we are as well as what we refuse to be. In a world that encourages strong, positive assertions and affirmations as the primary opportunity for an individual to set goals and achieve clarity, Negative Sessions proposes that a complementary practice based on the process of elimination can be just as useful for creating a space for resistance. Sometimes you’ve got to cross things out before you can write anything new. Presented by The Bureau of Experimental Speech and Holy Theses / Experimental Meditation Center of Los Angeles.
WORD THE WORD Part 5: Negative Sessions, Radio Edit
KCHUNG Radio
May 19, 2013
listen here, the show is 1:49:58
