You Are Invited to Perform: Process‚ Mutation and Participation in Allen Fisher’s Blood Bone Brain

Abstract

Virtanen conducts a comprehensive exploration of Allen Fisher’s Blood Bone Brain, a multimedia performance project developed in parallel with the poet’s early tour de force Place. Focusing on Fisher’s microfiche archive of the project and new interviews with the poet himself, the chapter offers a detailed outline of Blood Bone Brain’s multiple genealogies, which pays close attention to the project’s close relationship with Fisher’s processual poetics. In addition, Virtanen provides a thorough examination of a 1974 performance of the piece, which considers the numerous ways in which elements of Place and Blood Bone Brain extend and redevelop one another. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how Fisher’s emphasis on collaboration and audience participation complicates the concept of performing the poet’s authorship.