“It's hard to be understood when addressing many people at once. How can you ever know if you're being understood? So, I've just started being intelligently provocative. And people take the bait.” PeopleIfsKnowsHardUnderstoodProvocativeBait Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“We're living in a time when the sheer amount of language has exponentially increased. As writers, if we wish to be contemporary, I think we need to acknowledge that the very nature of the materials that we're working with - the landscape of language - is very different than it was a few decades ago.” IfsThinkingNeedsDifferentLanguageWishMaterialsAmountDecadesContemporaryLandscapeAcknowledgeSheer Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“All of our media is made of language: our films, our music, our images, and of course our words. How different this is from analog production, where, if you were somehow able to peel back the emulsion from, say, a photograph, you wouldn't find a speck of language lurking below the surface.” IfsMadeDifferentAbleFilmCoursesLanguageMediaPhotographProductionsSurfaceOur WordsLurkingSpecksAnalogBelow The Surface Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“My favorite method of encryption is chunking revolutionary documents inside a mess of JPEG or MP3 code and emailing it off as an "image" or a "song." But besides functionality, code also possesses literary value. If we frame that code and read it through the lens of literary criticism, we will find that the past hundred years of modernist and postmodernist writing have demonstrated the artistic value of similar seemingly arbitrary arrangements of letters.” IfsWritingYearsPastValuesSongHundredCriticismLettersMethodMy FavoriteMessArtisticCodeRevolutionaryDocumentsArrangementsLensesArbitraryLiterary CriticismEncryptionFunctionalityMp3 Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“If you don't want something to exist - and there are many reasons to want to keep things private - keep it off the web. But if you put it in digital form, expect it to be bootlegged, remixed, manipulated, and endlessly commented upon.” IfsWantReasonFormDigitalWant Something Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“I think that the special thing about radio is the off switch. If something's not pleasing you, turn it off.” IfsThinkingTurnsSpecialRadioSpecial Things Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
“If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” IfsLittlesEndsBitsLittle BitMassive Author:Kenneth Goldsmith
