We’re constantly assaulted by information. Folks like Tristan Tzara, Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Kathy Acker, and other creatives, have worked with cut-ups as a way to break into the patterns of information that emerge when the conscious sequence of data is distorted.
The poet Zac Odinn has taken this approach with auditory information, creating texts from overheard phrases and words. Realize that this process is not some trick of technique, but a method of exploration that allows you to discover hidden currents within the stream of info-noise that surrounds us.
The Television Cut-Ups:
1. This program is called ‘Look at Me’
2. Save Big
3. Instructions
4. The Industry Doesn’t Want People to Know About Their Techniques
the sounds are going on all around me. i sat in my kitchen, blue-white flickering , music playing on the right, tv voices on my left….
and this is what came out. snippets, words and phrases that worked, that made sense as I went along. i wrote on impulse, as fast as i could. sometimes glancing right, mostly immersed in the voices. something came out. the world of impressions was cut up and placed in a different order on paper – the secret logos forms a strange attractor out of chaos.