List of participants: Chris Alexander (New York City), Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Henry Goldkamp (New Orleans), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Joe Milutis (Seattle), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Sean Munro (New Orleans), Anna Murray (Dublin), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Barrett White (NYC), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
Something in your fridge Courtney Bush
RESPONSES
Stephanie Barber
Robert Fitterman
Henry Goldkamp
Chippin in/dippin in for this month of wonder: “I eat pieces of book like you for brechtfast”
List of participants: Chris Alexander (New York City), Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Henry Goldkamp (New Orleans), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Joe Milutis (Seattle), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Sean Munro (New Orleans), Anna Murray (Dublin), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Barrett White (NYC), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
I was waiting for the A train at JFK and I sneezed and a guy who was writing in a card said bless you. A few seconds later, he asked me for the date, and I told him what it was. A few minutes later, he asked me if he could ask me something and I was like of course you may ask me anything you like. He said he and his coworker, a woman, keep getting in screaming fights. He’s been on the job 25 years and she’s been on the job 17 years. Last time he tried to apologize she told him to fuck off, so he’s trying again by writing this card. He asked me to read it and ask if it was enough. I read it and it said that he swore on his father and mother’s lives that he was going to start respecting her. Love, Pascuale. I was like I think it’s cool. He said do you think it’s going to work? And I was like I don’t know but I think it’s cool you’re trying. He also included a Saint Jude’s prayer card. But he did also say she was a crazy bitch and a liar.
List of participants: Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
BE THE CAT SEEING THROUGH THE WALL AT YOU Ed Steck
RESPONSES
Stephanie Barber
Erica Baum
Be the Cats
Elisa Biagini
eli e leoni
Courtney Bush
Alessandra Capodacqua
Sky holds my outline light bends through a drifting frame, I dissolve in blue.
List of participants: Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
Open Ethan Fortuna
In the Random House unabridged dictionary, there are eighty-two entries under the word ‘open’ that could be set on separate lines, as in a poem. For me those entries are most beautiful. Robert Motherwell
RESPONSES
Roberto Balò
Stephanie Barber
Open w/ g + g music factory
Erica Baum
Elisa Biagini
Courtney Bush
1. Rilke says animals can see into The Open. That people who die become it.
2. My landlord wants to try to trim the tree from inside my bedroom by hanging his body out the open window with a set of shears even though I told him I tried to do the same thing and cut branches with kitchen scissors and found it to be very dangerous and a bee tried to fly into my apartment and so did a green bug and I only had the window open for about five minutes.
3. FILM JOINED TO LAY OPEN THE LOGIC OF A PERSON’S THOUGHT, Tarkovsky said that, about something.
4. I saw Peter and Julia’s show Open Mic Night, which was truly beautiful. In the show, Julia said the first thing Peter ever said to her was, “I can’t wait to make you laugh but I can’t do it right now.”
5. My mom called the Mardi Gras store that is only open six months out of the year a multi-million dollar juggernaut.
6. One of the little girls opens the bags of mango for the other little girls because she’s good at opening the tricky bags.
7. A24 needs to take a note from Saving Silverman for once and open a movie with Steve Zahn talking directly to camera, narrating footage of his mother going into labor.
8. Does anyone know why I bought this hard-boiled egg and gouda box from Starbucks and then why I opened it on an airplane?
9. Peter Falk in Opening Night. Someone who died and became it.
10. Anyway, the landlord did come and trim the trees by hanging out my fifth-floor window that can only open one foot and I’m pretty sure he stole a book while he was here. (My Struggle by Karl Ove Knaussgard)
List of participants: Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
The experience of saying Tyler Little
RESPONSES
Roberto Balò
Stephanie Barber
Erica Baum
Elisa Biagini
Robert Fitterman Klaus Killisch
I, too, am sad and lonely Klaus Killisch & ambientfunk: music, visuals Robert Fitterman: words, voice
I, too, am sad and lonely you told me that you are too my ticket reads: sad and lonely what do you expect us to do?
I, too, am giving up you say you gave up long ago giving up on every day it’s a feeling I know you know
I, too, am looking down on this world we left behind got a suitcase full of sad— got a world that’s so unkind
CHORUS:
You ought to know that your sadness just might be mine. You’ve already said what I wanted to say every time The world that’s forgotten about me has forgotten about you too. I, too, am sad and lonely. and I know that you are sad and lonely too.
I, too, am sad and lonely you told me that you wrote that too too many of us feel too empty too many days feeling blue
I, too, am sad and lonely I’m sad when you go away and if you’ll allow me this honesty I’m sad when you’re here to stay.
I got a ticket to sad and lonely the seat next to me is free you thought the same thought I just thought— we’re not who we thought we’d be
REPEAT CHORUS
Sophia Le Fraga
“I Believe;” acrylic and ink on found library card, 3”x5”, 2025
Ethan Fortuna
Kristen Gallagher
Endicott, Ronald P., “Inner speech,” Frontiers in Psychology, Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical, Psychology, Volume 15, 20 March 2024
In honor of Rosa Luxemburg’s birthday today, I’ve been reading her prison letters to Sophie Liebknecht. Frequently she draws attention to the sound of birds (or to birds, and living creatures generally—in one particularly moving letter, to buffaloes from Romania –“Poor wretch, I am as powerless, as dumb, as yourself; I am at one with you in my pain, my weakness, and my longing.”). Examples below.
May 2nd, 1917: “… Do you remember how, in April last year, I called you up on the telephone at ten in the morning to come at once to the Botanical Gardens and listen to the nightingale which was giving a regular concert there? We hid ourselves in a thick shrubbery, and sat on the stones beside a trickling streamlet. When the nightingale had ceased singing, there suddenly came a plaintive, monotonous cry that sounded something like “Gligligligligliglick!” I said I thought it must be some kind of marsh bird, and Karl agreed; but we never learned exactly what bird it was.”
May 23, 1917: “Will you believe me, Sonyusha, when I tell you that a little snatch of bird song can be so full of meaning, can move me so profoundly. My mother, who considered that Schiller and the Bible were the supreme sources of wisdom, was firmly convinced that King Solomon understood the language of birds. In the pride of my fourteen years and my training in natural science I used to smile at my mother’s simplicity. But now I have myself grown to be like King Solomon; I too can understand the language of birds and beasts. Not, of course, as if they were using articulate speech, but I understand the most varied shades of meaning and of feeling conveyed by their tones. Only to the rude ear of one who is quite indifferent, does the song of a bird seem always the same. Those who love birds and beasts, those who have a sympathetic understanding, can perceive great diversity of expression, and can recognise a complete language.”
May 12, 1918: “For my part, however, my interest in organic nature is almost morbid in its intensity. A pair of crested larks here have one young bird – no doubt the other three have come to a bad end. This little one can already run. You may have noticed the quaint way in which crested larks run. They trip along with short, hasty steps, not like the sparrow which hops on both feet. This young lark can fly quite well by now, but is not yet able to find its own food (insects, grubs, etc.) at any rate while the weather is still so cold. Every evening in the court beneath my window, it utters its sharp, plaintive pipe. The old birds promptly put in an appearance, answering with a soft and anxious “hweet, hweet”, and they bustle about to hunt up some food in the chill evening twilight. As soon as they find anything, it is stuffed down the throat of the clamorous youngster.”
…
Rosa Luxemburg’s last written words are available to read here. ““Order prevails in Warsaw!” “Order prevails in Paris!” “Order prevails in Berlin!” Every half-century that is what the bulletins from the guardians of “order” proclaim from one center of the world-historic struggle to the next. And the jubilant “victors” fail to notice that any “order” that needs to be regularly maintained through bloody slaughter heads inexorably toward its historic destiny; its own demise.”
Aurelia Guo
Atef Al Jaffa
Monica McClure
Hella Mewis
The text is written with pomegranate buds from the garden of Bait Tarkib
List of participants: Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
I is the bane of my existence Stephanie Barber
RESPONSES
Roberto Balò
Stephanie Barber
cycle 7 task 02, Stephanie Barber
Erica Baum
cycle 7 task 02, Erica Baum, Sale!!!
Laura Boggia
Felipe Cussen
Robert Fitterman
Ethan Fortuna
Sophia Le Fraga
cycle 7 task 02, Sophia Le Fraga, Chugga Chugga Chugga
Kristen Gallagher
Tyler Little
Monica McClure
Hella Mewis
cycle 7 task 02, Hella Mewis, design by Atef Al Jaffal.
Cole Modell
Title: eyes Date:05.31.2025 Medium: typewriter, ink and photocopy paper Artist: Cole Modell
Yedda Morrison
Kim Rosenfield
“it is better to be a sinner in a world ruled by God than to live in a world ruled by the Devil” —W. D. Fairbairn
Michael Prado
Zaid Saad
Jeff Shapiro
Eighteen Life Lines on the Eighteenth of the Month
I is the bane of my existence I thought early on when fear of the dark and my parents’ someday death and my chronic unsuitedness made me dream of dying ahead of time.
I is the boon of my existence I believed and didn’t believe when living happened anyway and I couched myself in comfortable certainties that later fell apart.
I is the bone of my existence suffices today like the elbow I banged last spring that still hurts but works enough to rely on for years to come.
Sam Winston
I is the bane of my existence & still singing it’s eternal song
List of participants: Alexis Almeida (New York City), Amir Akram (Baghdad), Roberto Balò (Prato), Stephanie Barber (Philadelphia), Erica Baum (New York City), Elisa Biagini (Florence), Laura Boggia (Genoa), Marie Buck (New York City), Courtney Bush (New York City), Alessandra Capodacqua (Florence), Felipe Cussen (Santiago), Mónica de la Torre (New York City), Claire DeVoogd (New York City), Robert Fitterman (New York City), Ethan Fortuna (New York City), Sophia Le Fraga (Los Angeles), Kristen Gallagher (New York City), Sanja Grozdanic (New York City), Aurelia Guo (London), Sabine Herrmann (Berlin), Elijah Jackson (New York City), Atef Al Jaffal (Baghdad), Josef Kaplan (Philadelphia), Christine Kelly (North Adams), Klaus Killisch (Berlin), Tyler Little (New York City), Matt Longabucco (New York City), Kristin Lucas (Austin), Monica McClure (New York City), Holly Melgard (New York City), Hella Mewis (Baghdad), Cole Modell (Pittsburgh), Yedda Morrison (San Francisco), Joseph Mosconi (Los Angeles), Michael Prado (Lima), Théo Robine-Langlois (Paris), Kim Rosenfield (New York City), Zaid Saad (Baghdad), Jeff Shapiro (Siena), Ed Steck (Pittsburgh), Luke Stettner (Columbus), Sam Winston (London), Joey Yearous-Algozin (New York City)
Count on a further duration of joy. In gravel underwritten by sand your vehicle’s cruising wheel distorts like an uninterrupted kiss’ mobility. Count on a future of happiness. Listening into the air which arrives for you alone, you hear: Special Purple Leaf. A public train issues its joyful scream; pseudo-mushrooms wriggle from falling water. Haven’t you taken the day and studied a prepossessing art? The stranger crumbles their little paper into your lap as they pass: <3 [mobile #] Stones lain by the dead cup your route. Without volition, your troublemaker heart leads you to iced coffee spritzer. Seeing dolphins way out there is fine. Pinkish fire doesn’t choose what to touch; having a sense is anti-design. Seeing dolphins way out there is fine. Little can’t be known upon a well-selected complement’s reflection: Special Purple Leaf.
Thirst for twisty water surprises you like the weight of a hollow, sunflower brownish-yellow chain’s link. Standing to watch your lunch-date return to work your being overcome goes on beneath their final, laughing glance. If you accumulate tens of thousands of evolutions and the passage of an immense machine concretises your sublime dream can newly render wet: Special Purple Leaf. Listening for structure and count, can your very dense idea encircle my habits? Listening for structure and count, my love for a silly look is up in the wind with whatever you like to see: Special Purple Leaf.
Klaus Killisch
cycle 6 task 06, Klaus Killisch, A Flight through Berlin
Joseph Mosconi
sporting the most overweening of Leviathans—while at the same time climbing out the skunk of the atmos¬ phere a most extinct stegosaur in our microcost of life. We are treated to the travesty of urban life on a small ranch in West Texas, perfun¬ ded by huge trucks loaded with pastoral wafer dust, bristling with cones and carted anaphorically indeed—biomechanically aggrieved, indefinably breached, muttering “die motherfucker” “die motherfucker” “Don’t you get Joshua Tree?” “Yes, completely.”
You’re a man on a boat But before that you’re a child On your way home from school. Want to smoke a joint? You imagine yourself smoking it Walking to your house Where you were sent to live. You register the sky The way it smells. Suddenly there’s no time to get home And then, there’s only time. Living on a boat sounds wonderful For a couple of weeks. Until your brother drowns. On a Tuesday you reach The west coast. Now every day there’s sun And every Saturday You eat bánh xèo.
Kristen Gallagher
cycle 6 task 05, Kristen Gallagher, page from Vanguard Mail Operations
Topic: Flattening Prompt: Record a 5-15 second long audio piece. Supplemental: Include a piece of text or visual or other. Purpose: Sound will be edited together in collective transmissions or dispersed haphazardly in single transmissions to continue a collective thread through a one-night only Collective Task radio show hosted by Ed Steck. The radio show will include music I listen to, as well. Ed Steck
RESPONSES
Robert Fitterman Klaus Killisch
Robert Fitterman: text & voice, Klaus Killisch: video, ambientfunk: music
Klaus Killisch
cycle 6 task 04, Klaus Killisch, 29,5 x 21cm / 11.6 x 8.3”
Kristin Lucas
cycle 6 task 04, Kristin Lucas
Aug 31, 2021, The New York Times, Bucking the Pandemic, Austin Is ‘the Hottest Market in the Country’ Oct 13, 2021, The New York Times, Tesla to Move Headquarters to Texas from California Nov 16, 2021, Dallas Morning News, Austin is rated as the best place in the world to relocate. Nov 29, 2021, The New York Times, How Austin Became One of the Least Affordable Cities in Americacycle 6 task 04, Kristin Lucascycle 6 task 04, Kristin Lucas
Sam Winston
cycle 6 task 04, Sam Winston, Be Happy!
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