Notes App. Matt Brand. Qualitative Methods

Posted in writing on October 13th, 2021
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Matt Brand’s second book could not be more of a departure from his first. To embrace the value of incompletion and observing works in progress, the author has published his “Free Writing” note from the Notes app on his phone, where he would capture lines and fragments whenever they came to him between the dates of 9/4/18 and 12/08/20. Some entries are only 2 or 3 words, whereas others are entire poems and paragraphs of thought.

Most published books can only provide a reader with an obscured vantage of the text’s origin, after having taken it through countless rounds of edits and revisions prior to release. Notes App aims to eliminate these confounding factors and hauntological smudges by instead showcasing creative writing ideas and fragments in their original state. The book offers readers the linguistic equivalent of a fine artist’s sketchbook or a recording artist’s draft folder. Here entries may be just as likely to stimulate inspiration as they are to spur reflection on the nature and lifespan of creative ideas.

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Monet, Cocteau Twins, Natural Wine. Matt Brand. Qualitative Methods

Posted in poetry, writing on October 6th, 2021
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In his third book this year, Matt Brand explores themes of ephemerality and reflection, turning a book of poems into an exhibition space of impressionistic tableaus. As in the author’s prior collections, time and our relationship to it still take center stage here. However, in these poems, Brand paints with a palette of emotions untypical for his prior work—joy, epiphany, celebration, contentment. This book-sized art exhibition makes pitstops in a James Benning film, Walter Benjamin’s critical theory, a wine fair in France, a first date in Berlin, a Jane’s Addiction music video, a long-distance COVID film club, and a Bernie Sanders meme. The outcome is a text that highlights the richness of our finite passing moments and the gratitude that can be found therein.

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