Featured Poet Interview: Donna Kuhn
Adam Fieled: Your poems display a sharp sense of meaning and purpose while also playfully overturning conventional vernacular uses. Do you consciously seek to overturn conventions with your poems or are you more motivated by the idea of play and adventure?
Donna Kuhn: I think the playful adventurous nature of cut-ups and other experimental techniques I use automatically overturn conventions so it is both involuntary and subconscious and almost coldly scientific at the same time. The meaning is both coincidental and truer than true or it could mean nothing at all. If there was no discovery or surprise I couldn't do it everyday.
AF: Between words, images, and movements, your work often straddles lines, and you seem very comfortable working with hybrid forms. Could you talk a little bit about your attraction to hybrid/ “multi-media” forms, why they seem useful to you?
DK: I was doing visual and sound text poetry before I ever heard the terms, also giving readings accompanied by improvisational music. When I started dancing I wanted it to include words. Not being able to choose between art forms, I naturally gravitated towards hybrid forms where I would feel less like they were pulling me in too many directions and there was never enough time, to a more integrated place where they would feed and enhance each other. Getting more comfortable with technology has allowed me to explore music and video and not be dependent on others to collaborate with. I'm not sure the forms are more relevant today but I think computers make it easier for people to experiment with other art forms and to present and share them with large audiences.
AF: To follow up on an earlier question, I'd like to address "sense/nonsense" as a working dichotomy in your poems. Does this tie in to the conscious/unconscious mind of the writer or reader? Do you mean for your poems to resonate on a sub or unconscious level? Can nonsense, in the tradition of the "automatic writing" of the Surrealiats, have a kind of validity through this connection?
DK: I think most poetry works on a somewhat subconscious level for the writer and reader. People will read different things into it. I don't mean for them to resonate on a sub or unconscious level but I think they do. I think because it might seem nonsensical the reader probably tries harder to find subconscious meaning in it. if they can't find anything else. Or else you have to just let go and feel the poem, hear the poem; it might stir up emotions or visual images. It might hit you later in the day. I think it has validity. I feel very comfortable in the subconscious realm perhaps because I dance and paint. There's a lot of wisdom, power and magic there. My poems make sense to me. If reality/sense is Iraq etc/bird flu, I'd rather be a surrealist in a time of war.
AF: There's a big debate going among poets regarding online vs. print publishing. What's your view on this? Do you think online publishing can be just as efficacious as print?
DK: Although I love books and you can't replace books the online world has allowed me to get all my work out there so quickly and extensively I am forever indebted to it and am thankful to the better known poets who are doing e-books etc. to give it more validity. For poets who are often short on cash and time, it is easier, faster and yes, cheaper. I spend a lot less time at the post office. I like the newness of it.
AF: As an American artist circa 2005 working in mostly un-commercial idioms, do you feel marginalized? Do you draw strength from being a kind of "outsider" to Bush-World or is this not a consideration for you?
DK: I feel a bit marginalized and I can feel like an outsider in many ways. I both draw strength from it and get weary and scared sometimes. Other artists make me feel less alone. I don't feel like I have much choice. This is how I was born. I try to see it as a blessing.
Donna Kuhn: I think the playful adventurous nature of cut-ups and other experimental techniques I use automatically overturn conventions so it is both involuntary and subconscious and almost coldly scientific at the same time. The meaning is both coincidental and truer than true or it could mean nothing at all. If there was no discovery or surprise I couldn't do it everyday.
AF: Between words, images, and movements, your work often straddles lines, and you seem very comfortable working with hybrid forms. Could you talk a little bit about your attraction to hybrid/ “multi-media” forms, why they seem useful to you?
DK: I was doing visual and sound text poetry before I ever heard the terms, also giving readings accompanied by improvisational music. When I started dancing I wanted it to include words. Not being able to choose between art forms, I naturally gravitated towards hybrid forms where I would feel less like they were pulling me in too many directions and there was never enough time, to a more integrated place where they would feed and enhance each other. Getting more comfortable with technology has allowed me to explore music and video and not be dependent on others to collaborate with. I'm not sure the forms are more relevant today but I think computers make it easier for people to experiment with other art forms and to present and share them with large audiences.
AF: To follow up on an earlier question, I'd like to address "sense/nonsense" as a working dichotomy in your poems. Does this tie in to the conscious/unconscious mind of the writer or reader? Do you mean for your poems to resonate on a sub or unconscious level? Can nonsense, in the tradition of the "automatic writing" of the Surrealiats, have a kind of validity through this connection?
DK: I think most poetry works on a somewhat subconscious level for the writer and reader. People will read different things into it. I don't mean for them to resonate on a sub or unconscious level but I think they do. I think because it might seem nonsensical the reader probably tries harder to find subconscious meaning in it. if they can't find anything else. Or else you have to just let go and feel the poem, hear the poem; it might stir up emotions or visual images. It might hit you later in the day. I think it has validity. I feel very comfortable in the subconscious realm perhaps because I dance and paint. There's a lot of wisdom, power and magic there. My poems make sense to me. If reality/sense is Iraq etc/bird flu, I'd rather be a surrealist in a time of war.
AF: There's a big debate going among poets regarding online vs. print publishing. What's your view on this? Do you think online publishing can be just as efficacious as print?
DK: Although I love books and you can't replace books the online world has allowed me to get all my work out there so quickly and extensively I am forever indebted to it and am thankful to the better known poets who are doing e-books etc. to give it more validity. For poets who are often short on cash and time, it is easier, faster and yes, cheaper. I spend a lot less time at the post office. I like the newness of it.
AF: As an American artist circa 2005 working in mostly un-commercial idioms, do you feel marginalized? Do you draw strength from being a kind of "outsider" to Bush-World or is this not a consideration for you?
DK: I feel a bit marginalized and I can feel like an outsider in many ways. I both draw strength from it and get weary and scared sometimes. Other artists make me feel less alone. I don't feel like I have much choice. This is how I was born. I try to see it as a blessing.
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