Rewriting/Recycling

Sustainable Practices

Rewriting

Rewriting is a type of recycling. We write something and then later we remove parts of it, we add to it. Instead of throwing it out and making something from scratch, we modify the writing. That is what I have been doing this week. I take what I have written and maybe I keep the intention or I keep some words, but I am not starting from scratch. It reminds me of circuit bending, the art of playing with existing electronics, often toys, and modifying them to do something different

Also it reminds me of Nerf gun modding that I have been doing with my son.

Trash

What if we lived in a world with zero waste. If we recycled everything. There would be no trash. What does this mean for the written word? There would be no click bate? How is intellectual property, or even digital work, become trash. Is news trash, because it is only read once?

I have been following the ITP Trash Club which explores projects, interventions, and theory around reuse, trash, and circular economies. I highly recommend their reading pages.

So the question here is am I generating trash? And if so how can I change this to be sustainable? What is sustainable writing?

Copying

When we talk about rewriting versus copying, rewriting is about reuse. I am reminded Borges’ short story about Pierre Menard, Menard who rewrite Don Quixote. What is the status of this work? Is it new? Is it a copy? Is it a rewrite? In writing is there ever a rewrite or is everything new all the time - there is only generation.

Next week will be the rewrites of the rewrites.

x

Meredith