WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:07.750 align:middle line:84% I'm going to perform for you some constraint-based work. 00:00:07.750 --> 00:00:11.020 align:middle line:84% These are a series of anagrams, the first one 00:00:11.020 --> 00:00:16.900 align:middle line:84% of which appeared as a book made entirely out of LEGO bricks. 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:19.480 align:middle line:84% The pages, the text, the binding, the cover-- 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.390 align:middle line:84% all of it was made entirely from LEGO tiles, 00:00:22.390 --> 00:00:27.220 align:middle line:84% no piece bigger than a 2-by-2 peg tile, the most atomistic 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:31.300 align:middle line:84% bits of LEGO, so of course, you could dismantle this book 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:33.500 align:middle line:90% and turn it into something else. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:35.770 align:middle line:84% Each page had a single line of poetry, 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:41.730 align:middle line:84% and the book consisted of 10 pages, each of which 00:00:41.730 --> 00:00:46.380 align:middle line:84% consisted of a single anagram of the title. 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:49.500 align:middle line:84% The title is "Ten Maps of Sardonic Wit." 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:52.790 align:middle line:90% 00:00:52.790 --> 00:00:59.210 align:middle line:84% "Atoms in space now drift on a swift and epic storm. 00:00:59.210 --> 00:01:02.960 align:middle line:90% Soft wind can stir a poem. 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:09.710 align:middle line:84% Snow fits an optic dream into a scant prism of do. 00:01:09.710 --> 00:01:12.650 align:middle line:90% Words spin a faint comet. 00:01:12.650 --> 00:01:18.650 align:middle line:84% Some words, in fact, paint two stars of an epic mind. 00:01:18.650 --> 00:01:21.875 align:middle line:90% Manic words spit on fate." 00:01:21.875 --> 00:01:26.660 align:middle line:90% 00:01:26.660 --> 00:01:31.760 align:middle line:84% This next anagram was produced as a work of conceptual art 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:36.020 align:middle line:84% with the Canadian artist Micah Lexier. 00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:41.210 align:middle line:84% It consists of two short texts displayed directly 00:01:41.210 --> 00:01:45.480 align:middle line:84% on the gallery wall side by side. 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:48.330 align:middle line:84% The first text is by Micah Lexier, 00:01:48.330 --> 00:01:51.720 align:middle line:90% and the second text is by me. 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:55.335 align:middle line:84% The poem is entitled "Two Equal Texts." 00:01:55.335 --> 00:01:57.940 align:middle line:90% 00:01:57.940 --> 00:02:00.430 align:middle line:90% "One. 00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:05.620 align:middle line:84% This text and the one beside it are equal. 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.590 align:middle line:84% I wrote this one first, and then I 00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:11.260 align:middle line:84% gave it to my friend Christian Bok 00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:15.070 align:middle line:84% and asked him to generate a new text using 00:02:15.070 --> 00:02:17.620 align:middle line:84% every letter and every punctuation mark 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:20.180 align:middle line:90% that I used in mine. 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:21.655 align:middle line:90% The other text is his. 00:02:21.655 --> 00:02:27.930 align:middle line:90% 00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:30.510 align:middle line:90% Two. 00:02:30.510 --> 00:02:33.450 align:middle line:84% Micah Lexier requested in advance 00:02:33.450 --> 00:02:35.460 align:middle line:90% that I reinvent his text. 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:40.050 align:middle line:84% So I unknotted it and reknitted it into this very form, 00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:44.520 align:middle line:84% but then I began to think that his message had already resewn 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:47.640 align:middle line:90% a touted art of genuine poetry. 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:51.560 align:middle line:90% His eerie text was mine." 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:54.000 align:middle line:90%