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The Weather, 2005

 Item
Identifier: CC-44739-46905

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Scope and Contents

Publisher's Weekly reported the following. Conceptual artist, University of Pennsylvania instructor and WFMU radio host, Goldsmith has earned a great deal of attention for previous projects, among them Fidget (a real-time record of every motion he made in one day) and No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96 (a gorgeous 600-page cull of words ending in "r"). This elegant new volume continues his adventures in "extreme transcription": it consists entirely of radio weather forecasts, written down every day in the course of a year (2002--2003) and set as a book with no (or minimal) changes. Even the forecasters' hesitations and stutters show up in Goldsmith's text: "And what we have here tonight is, uh, brisk conditions under partly to mostly cloudy skies, uh, relatively mild, uh, temperatures, uh, staying above freezing all across the region tonight"; "well, we're continuing to watch snow sloat... spread slowly northward, uh, through New Jersey, uh, snowing around Trenton and, eh, Princeton...." These bulletins of sun and storm accrete a kind of documentary power and a minimalist, repetitive charm. Like Goldsmith's radio work, they show an individual artist deforming and triumphing over a mass medium's attempt to reduce voice to data. After 9/11, each day's report also serves to show Goldsmith-as-transcriber, and his audience, that his city is still there. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 2005

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (1 soft cover book) ; 17.7 x 17.7 x .9 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

alpha shelf

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, gift from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: Los Angeles, California : Make Now. Signed by: Kenneth Goldsmith Miami 03 06 (l.r.- title page). Inscription: For my Dearest Friend Ruth & Marvin Sackner. Nationality of creator: American. General: About 1000 total copies. General: Added by: MARVIN; updated by: MARVIN.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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