Introduction to Project 366

PROJECT 366

Project 366 is a poem-centric collaboration of artists and writers taking place daily throughout 2016, starting on January 1st. Nine of us are involved at this point – Lies van Gasse, Andrew Burke, Iris Fan Xing, Kevin Brophy, Yao Feng (Yao Jingming), Anna Couani, Mikaela Castleldine, Loene Furler and myself, Kit Kelen. We are poets and painters and photographers and whatever else we care to be. There are and will be ways for others to get involved in this daily art-practice collaboration.

And why are we doing this? Because poetry is a process, art is a process. Poetry and art happen because we do it, because we make the effort to make it. So the object of this project is not to create finished art objects on a daily basis; it's to get work on the way every day. Project 366 is to encourage the everyday business of artmaking for those who work – however they work – with word and image. Some people will post only pictures, some people will post only poems or short prose pieces. Some people will alternate among the various forms of their practice. And some may evolve new practices over the course of the year.

There are no set topics or themes for the project but participants add a short draft work daily so that the possibility is always there for response and for a conversation in the work. The project will be blogged daily and republished to other social media, for instance facebook.

Project participants have their own keys and make their own posts each day. English is the language-in-common of the project and translation of other-than-English works will likewise happen on a daily basis.

If you have any questions about the project or how it might work for you, please e-mail or fb message Kit Kelen (KitKelen@gmail.com).

Before we begin, here's some encouragement in the form of a challenge in the form of a poem from Norwegian poet, Olav Hauge:

A POEM A DAY

I will write a poem a day.

every day.

That should be quite easy.

Browning managed it, although

he rhymed and

beat time

with bushy eyebrows.

So, one poem a day.

Something strikes you,

something happens,

something stands out.

– I get up. It's getting light.

I have good intentions.

And see the bullfinch rising from the cherry tree,

stealing my buds.

 

 

 

http://project365plus.blogspot.com.au/