INSIDE THE
SKULL HOUSE
A Neuropoesis
Joel
Weishaus
"It is still necessary to discover, beneath the noise
of actions,
those creative sensations or those silent contemplations
that bear witness to a brain."
Inside the Skull-House is a journey cast in the epic mode. Brain, its hero(ine), is perhaps the most complex and elegant achievement of this universe. Brain's quest to unravel the chemistry of its circuits and the mystery of their projections, including the "hard problem" of consciousness, adds humor to the science, and relief that my path is not pathology, but metaphor, mythology, etymology, hierology, and devices of electracy.
Because it draws upon the singular experiences that cause its topography to be unique, Brain is outfitted in the first person, while its journey is both modular and interdependent. Each segment begins with three buttons: a PRETEXT that prepares the distance to be covered. Not a "head trip," the soul of this project may be found in: a LOG-BOOK of an ordinary life, endowed with tropes, images, animated or not, quotes, poems, dreams, along with links to a paratext of references, citations, and additional information. The third button leads to focused illustrations with various names.
In its quest to understand itself, Brain is set adrift on a stormy vocabulary. There are promising landfalls, numinous adventures, and a beckoning horizon that serves as a learning curve, "linking acts and footsteps," conjuring a mind that describes a journey while unpacking a life.
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Probe Here
Dedicated to artists, from Paleolithic cave painters to digital poets of the present moment, whose work inspires mine; along with friends and colleagues who have been supportive of this project over the five years of its making: Kevin Campbell, Claire Dunsmore, Ed Falco, Roy Ascott, Neil Greenberg, Len Hatfield, Deena Larsen, Jennifer Ley, Talan Memmott, David H. Rosen, Christopher Shultis, Alan Sondheim, Gregory Ulmer.
Inside the Skull-House was begun at The University of New Mexico's Center for Southwest Research, and continued at Portland State University's Center for Excellence in Writing. It is presently archived at Virginia Polytechnic Institute's Center for Digital Discourse and Culture.
Sections have been published in the following journals:
RHIZOMES: http://www.rhizomes.net/Issue1/toc.html (Publication discontinued)
BEE-HIVE: http://beehive.temporalimage.com/bee_core/index.html (Archive)
RIDING THE MERIDIAN: www.heelstone.com/meridian (Vol 2. #2)
NEW RIVER: www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver (Issue 8)Exhibitions:
"2nd Interpoetry Exhibition--Hypertext Poetics," MacKenzie University, São Paulo, Brazil, 8-11 October 2001.
"Aldeburgh Poetry Festival," Aldeburgh, England, 1-3 November 2002.
Home: http://web.pdx.edu/~pdx00282
Email: weishaus@pdx.edu