Birkensnake 6

When assembling my Birkensnake theme, I was interested in the changes in writing when posed before a large audience vs. oneself. I was interested in private and public writing and what could happen to the same piece as it moved from one realm to another. I wanted to remove certain elements of expectation or pretense by requesting pieces that had not been intended for publication. I wanted amateur writing, not in craft but motivation. I was hoping to break down certain barriers to allow for freer experimentation or honesty. I then wanted to place these private, inward writings into a public forum. I did not consider blogs to be public in terms of this project despite the fact that anyone can write or read them. You still have to garner a readership. I only had a passing interest in blog writing, which has its own set of rules and desires and private-to-public relationship. So, instead, with my bookmaker, Andrew Oesch, we struck on the idea of creating posters which would be visible to those people passing them — so perhaps not unequivocally public — but it would put the writing into a more-or-less free and public space. And then privatizing them again by way of photographs accompanying the original text in Birkensnake 6. I feel like this could be just the beginning of a potentially ongoing process, shifting and responding to the ways stories are told, information imparted, etc.