Horizons: The Poetics and Theory of the Intermedia

by Dick Higgins

Written for the lay reader as well as for academic literary theorists, this book bridges the gulf between the artistic avant-garde in music, visual arts, and  experimental literature and the general pub­lic. Higgins delves into multiple areas, but here is an example of one kind of poem he works with:

 

those pieces

            that move like this

those pieces

                        i say

                                are snowflakes

                        i say

those pieces

            that move like this

those pieces

 

Along with many other artists—John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rau­schenberg, and Jackson Mac Low come to mind—Dick Higgins has investigated and invented a variety of genres and forms, working especially in intermedia, the fusion of two or more discrete media. His poetics travel some distance from the poetry of the past. Here he uses the fu­sion of the “receiver’s” and the artist’s horizons, their knowledge, feelings, ex­periences, and imaginings to provide a vivid account of artistic experimentation over the last thirty years.

152 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

Reviews

[Matthew Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"No reputable artist could be an intermedial artist for long—it would seem like an impediment, holding the artist back from fulfilling the needs of the work at hand, of creating horizons in the new era for the next generation of listeners and readers and beholders to match their own horizons too."