Motion Studies

by Jena Osman

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. MOTION STUDIES consists of three essay-poems that begin as meditations on 19th century science and end firmly as research into the present. From chronophotography to algorithmic surveillance, from phrenology to fMRI brain scans, from Victorian specimen collections to the bleached bones of the Great Barrier Reef, each poem in this collection explores technologies of knowing each other and the world we're in.

Genres: Poetry, History

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jena Osman revisits earlier attempts at making legible movement, the body and its inner-workings, citing photograph guns, the first lie detector tests and exams of the skulls of Whitman, Poe and Twain. These historical explorations are spliced with the voice of a bird under evaluation, clipped stanzas, oceans with brain-like coral, the poet herself probing through the city, and a couple's desperate attempt to not just go off the grid and escape today's plugged-in world, but totally nosedive. Osman's stellar creativity makes these interwoven threads work together so well. By hybridizing not just forms of writing but also forms of thinking, Osman demonstrates how 19th century fervor for technology is akin to, or has at least inspired, the frenetic energy that fuels contemporary approaches to technology in unexpected and overlooked ways.

[Marije de Wit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and important account of the human drive to try and comprehend the workings of every facet of the world we live in, and of how technology is employed to help gain this knowledge. From when science and inquiry were ‘innocent’, meaning separate from commerce and profit, to surveillance capitalism and what Douglas Kearny, on the cover, righteously calls the commodification of the living. At the same time the book shows how poetry can counter this commodification, by keeping us aware, and our imagination alive and resilient.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Topology of physiology and affect, species of analytical lyric, Osman's Motion Studies feels itself to be making an act of description, putatively on Etienne-Jules Marey: "He [--Marey--] wanted to turn movement into writing," or what in movement is so difficult to see we willingly say it's invisible; thus, the poet's act takes it out of its juridical state, so that it might be min(e)d -- biometrically.

[juch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. First part was very inspiring for how to write docupoetry that is aesthetically interesting. Loved what it did with that space between these eeriely beautiful early “surveillance” technologies and today’s sinister ones. Loved the sci-fi storytelling and was impressed w how seamlessly it was integrated, in the sense that the book just went for it, and the reader caught on

Second and third parts were much less compelling for me

[Jeanine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of Writers on Writing! The three essays were originally published separately, and it shows. While thematically consistent, the quality and style differs so completely across the three parts and makes for an uncomfortable and unenjoyable reading experience.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars!

[Jon Ciliberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

It tries hard, more than it achieves.

[atito · Rating 4 out of 5]

osman's gambit here is that all knowledge happens in motion; it's the interpretation of a curve, a line, or a trace

[Javi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit bonkers, and admirable in its bonkersness, but wasn't fully successful in my opinion. The first section was the best, I think, but even then the poems were being carried by the science. All very interesting, though.