A conversation with Houston-based poet Radames Ortiz and his audio collaborator, the composer Trills (Jonathan Jindra).
Topics include: How electronic music is composed; the arts scene in Houston; composing and improvising music to accompany poems; making the transition from ambient music to electronica that demands active listening; how Radames started writing poetry and why he chose not to get an MFA; turning a poetry reading into a multimedia experience and getting the audience involved; online reading, e-book readers and the supposed death of the text; the obligation of poets and writers to master multimedia tools; making and watching videopoetry.
Links:
- The Amplified Bard (Radames’ blog)
- Trills Music
- Modular Puzzle from i, absentee records
- Review of Modular Puzzle in textura
- Radames’ poems in Cortland Review
- Family Group Day (videopoem)
- Jonathan Jindra on Vimeo
Theme music: “Le grand sequoia,” by Innvivo (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike licence)