As we move into the age of new publishing, when people read off of screens more than pages and have a greater interest in video and music, we at On Squ want to see what collaborative art is capable of. We have our first annual collaborative award, which will be judged by Anne Carson and will highlight a new work that incorporates both creative writing and some other medium, including video, art, graphic design, music, or all of the above. So that begs the question: what can mixed media do that a single medium can’t?
It’s interesting to note that while we think of the most artistically serious books of the past without pictures, many original editions of nineteenth century novels included elaborate engraved plates illustrating the action. One of the earliest mixed-media giants, William Blake, made his poems visual artworks by printing them in hand-engraved color plates with elaborate designs. If you’ve ever seen an original version of Songs of Innocence and Experience, it’s a real treat to read the poems and also see how Blake visually interpreted his writing. That’s one benefit of mixed media: it often sharpens a reader’s focus by coming with its own interpretation. If the words are ambiguous, a picture might make it clearer. Have a song in your novel? If you can have an mp3 of it, then there’s no more wondering of how James Joyce intended those musical numbers in Ulysses to turn out.
Mixed media can be a real delight for the senses and allow us to imagine more. Pop culture introduced us to the music video: now there’s such a thing as the poetry video. You can check out some stunning video interpretations of Billy Collins’ poetry here, called action poetry. It doesn’t dumb the poetry down, or detract from the language; it just makes hearing the words all the more pleasurable.
And having multiple media can be a way to make the experience of art more dynamic and engrossing. If all of your senses are taken up by the art, then you’re more fully immersed in the artistic message. This might not qualify as art, but I can’t help loving the latest Ok Go video, which pairs a song with a spectacular mouse-trap-like device. It’s exciting stuff to watch.