{"id":24418,"date":"2023-03-10T23:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?p=24418"},"modified":"2023-07-10T22:01:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T22:01:24","slug":"a-lifelong-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/10\/a-lifelong-pursuit","title":{"rendered":"A lifelong pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rare are the people who start honing their career at only five years old, but this was the case for 56勛圖厙 alumnus Brent Cox. From the time he could hold a pencil, he has been writing poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of these narrative poems emerged from long hours playing in the bathtub with action figures until the water cooled, where I would still remain, shivering \u2014 nonetheless intent on bringing objects to life with language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He developed his skillset further in middle school when he started creating videos to complement his poems. \u201cI experimented with all kinds of mediums,\u201d Cox recalled, \u201cbut I most vividly remember the films I made with animated figurines and clay animation, also known as claymation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some decades later, Cox is now defending his doctoral dissertation that mirrors the very thing he was doing all those years ago but on a much larger, more sophisticated scale by creating video-animated readings of poems and art. \u201cPeople often have a very difficult time with poetry, and what attracted me to the medium of video is its ability to help make it less intimidating, while still preserving its mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a poem is just words on a paper, it\u2019s easy to get lost. \u201cHearing it read aloud gives people a roadmap to follow,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can better identify where sound patterns are occurring and, based on the inflection of the readers voice, can determine how words signify.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a degree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was Cox\u2019s lifelong interest in exploring multimedia poetry that led him to enroll in 56勛圖厙 Bothell\u2019s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Poetics program<\/a> in 2015. In contrast to many other MFA programs, the writers in this School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences<\/a>\u2019 program enjoy the freedom to experiment across genres and media as it suits their creative purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made a very intentional choice to go to 56勛圖厙 Bothell because I greatly admired the work of the faculty and poets there,\u201d Cox said. \u201cThey were incredible role models and teachers \u2014 always encouraging me to experiment with multimedia, publish my work and network with others in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As evidenced by Dr. Amaranth Borsuk, associate professor and the MFA\u2019s associate director, that encouragement extended far beyond the program\u2019s duration. \u201cOne of the things I really appreciate and admire about Brent is his collaborative\u202fspirit and intellectual generosity,\u201d Borsuk said. \u201cI have continued to follow Brent\u2019s work, and I love that I still learn from and am energized by his many creations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same long-lasting support exists within Cox\u2019s cohort of fellow students, too. Six years after graduating from the University in 2017, Cox is publishing two 56勛圖厙 Bothell alumni in The Topological Poetics Research Institute, the autonomous research collective he founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A place for poets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The collective, which launched in 2018, is a manifestation of Cox\u2019s desire to create an institute for poetics that is entirely autonomous and focused specifically on researching poetry and poetics. It encompasses the work of individuals from dozens of different cities, states and even countries. In fact, the TPRI\u2019s first print journal features writers from Ukraine, Russia, Australia, Poland and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the authors, the collective also houses a diverse set of opportunities, including an annual Ecopoetry Workshop that takes place at llaria Mazzoleni\u2019s Nature, Art, Habitat Residency in Taleggio Valley, Italy. Organized by Cox and collaborators Brooke Bastie, Courtlin Byrd and Simon Eales, this two-week residency explores collaborative, critical and creative connections between poetics and contemporary environmental issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo from Ecopoetics Workshop in Italy courtesy of Brent Cox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRather than only providing time to write nature poetry,\u201d Cox said, \u201cEcopoetics Workshop is intent on gathering poets, multimedia and movement artists, theorists, philosophers, and researchers who are committed to advancing the way humans both understand and interact with nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, in partnership with NAHR, the workshop will concentrate on the theme of air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airing out ideas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParticipants will be encouraged to explore the function, mechanism, importance and state of air from a wide range of perspectives,\u201d Cox said, \u201cand to reflect on the impacts of air pollution and air quality degradation as it relates to climate change, atmospheric toxins and environmental racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workshop schedule involves alternating days of structured and open time. On structured days, the group meets in the morning to discuss the day\u2019s theme, and in the afternoon they embark on a creative exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halfway through, a \u2018work-in-progress\u2019 event is held to give participants an opportunity for feedback as, at the end of the workshop, they will be presenting their final projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These projects have historically led to esteemed publications and conference presentations \u2014 including one at 56勛圖厙 Bothell\u2019s &NOW Conference in 2019. There, the TPRI organized two panels: One on the affordances of video for poetry was titled, \u201cAsk Not What Video Can Do For Poetry But What Poetry Can Do For Video\u201d and another on materialist poetics was titled, \u201cToward Topological Poetics: Media, Materiality and the Impossibility of a Desaturated Media Environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, the Ecopoetics Workshop has inspired a course by attendee Joanna Doxey at Colorado State University as well as a number of courses at the University of Buffalo that are taught by event founders Cox and Eales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caffeinated creatives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The TPRI runs a podcast, too, called \u201cBuried Text,\u201d with core members Zack Brown, Byrd and Eales. \u201cBuried Text is a good example of TPRI\u2019s objective of doing fundamental poetics research that insists on expanding poetry beyond the page while building a community committed to unfolding the event of poetry,\u201d Cox explained. The podcast, which has featured a number of esteemed guests, has published more than a dozen episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Expanding the poetics community even further, Cox runs a coffee blog and Instagram account\u202fcalled Pure Happiness Coffee. He describes it as \u201ca multimedia, poem and artwork project that includes writing, video, print zines, a computer game and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like with the TPRI, his intention is to build community and facilitate philosophical and aesthetic reflection \u2014 but in this case specifically surrounding the infrastructure of specialty coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does all of this while simultaneously teaching courses in the Environmental Humanities at the University of Buffalo, where he is currently defending his doctoral thesis. His dissertation, \u201cInfrastructuralist Writing,\u201d presents poems by Louis Zukofsky, Kamau Brathwaite, Asiya Wadud, Jose-Luis Moctezuma, Holly Melgard, Craig Dworkin \u2014 and more \u2014 as \u201cmetamorphic entities that swallow criticism into their identity, freeing us from the illusory mandate of critical distance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Cox said, \u201cmy dissertation argues that we read poems just as much as they read us, and in the process, the poem, and the reader, change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A passion, purpose and pursuit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the past year, Cox has presented work related to his dissertation at the University of Cambridge 2022 Graduate Conference \u201cWhat Does the Poem Think?\u201d as well as in Lake Como, Italy, at the Electronic Literature Organization\u2019s 2022\u202fConference Exhibition of digital works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, he received a race and technology grant to study at University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Media Archaeology Lab and has work recently published or forthcoming at &amp;&amp;&amp; (Triple Ampersand) and in OEI, a poetics journal out of Stockholm, in an issue on Aural Poetics edited by Michael Nardone of the Center for Expanded Poetics at Concordia University in Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, poetry is a lifelong pursuit,\u201d Cox said. \u201cIt has been my passion for as long as I can remember. For those reading this who are committed to getting an MFA and interested in poetry and poetics \u2014 I cannot recommend 56勛圖厙 Bothell enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI moved from California to attend this University and explore new ideas and test the bounds of what is possible in poetry,\u201d he said. \u201cPushing those boundaries is what shaped me into the poet I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brent Cox, 56勛圖厙 Bothell alumnus, research collective founder and now doctoral candidate, shares how poetry has written his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":25410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"page-templates\/news-article-secondary.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,202,197,200],"tags":[],"school":[419],"class_list":["post-24418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-campus-news","category-news-releases","category-profiles","school-school-of-ias"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA lifelong pursuit - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/10\/a-lifelong-pursuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A lifelong pursuit - 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