Traveling north to Bridgeton, Maine in early October, we (Suzanne Churchill, Linda Kinnahan, and Susan Rosenbaum) were treated to a good dose of autumnal color as backdrop for our fall work retreat. Tucked on the edge of a lake, we spent several days focused on the project while trying not to be distracted by nature’s spectacle.
The gathering gave us a chance to reflect upon the recent “Post(cards from the En Dehors Garde” project, a flash mob event event that resulted in about 65 Post(cards) from all kinds of folks addressing possible ways to theorize, define, or characterize alternative ideas about the avant-garde. Moved by the creativity and diversity of the Post(cards), we plan to post an account of the experiment soon.
Susan and Linda spent a good deal of time revising and beginning to post various chapters of the newly titled “Mina Loy Baedeker: Scholarly Handbook for Digital Travelers,” which develops extended and immersive discussions. Drawing about UX design feedback from her students, Suzanne redesigned the page displays and menus to facilitate the site and enhance its “Baedeker” concept. We also worked together to post close readings of “Costa Magic” (one of Loy’s three “Italian Pictures) and “Ceiling at Dawn” to the newly functional platform for split screen analysis, allowing us to display the poem and analysis side by side. More to come!
We also had the pleasure of a visit from Roger Conover, Loy’s literary executor, Executive Editor at MIT Press, and project advisor. Over coffee, we updated him on our work while discussing ways to incorporate Loy’s work and history as an artist. Suzanne and Linda hope to return in March to further these discussions with him. Before leaving town, we lunched at a perfect Maine diner and headed back to our respective lives south of Maine and its autumnal glory.