Intro
Lisa Tao originally hails from Sunnyvale, California. After receiving her B.A in English from San Francisco State she went on to acquire a Masters in English at Northern Arizona University. Lisa now lives in Studio City, California. Despite going to two different creative writing programs she has finally figured out what to put on paper.
Lisa can be reached at:
leekochani at yahoo dot com
Lisa can be reached at:
leekochani at yahoo dot com
Interview
1. who are your influences?
My influences have been particular pieces or projects rather than certain artists. Nabokov's “Lolita”, for example, has always impressed me—not so much the novel's content but more so the style and structure. This book can be read on so many levels. I think it is one of the finest forms of memoir, plus it displays a great critique of 1950's American culture and middle class values. Lastly, the book can be viewed as a great “road” novel on par with Kerouac's “On the Road”. Christo's pieces have also influenced me. His large wrapped objects such as the Reichstag building in Germany and the Florida Key islands dressed in the pink skirt suggests a different type of visual aesthetic. I'm fascinated with how this artist takes very specific places and buildings and reduces them to an ideal, universal concept. By covering the Reichstag you are forced to confront the shape and form thereby reducing this structure into an almost platonic ideal of a building.
2. What is your larger concept for this work and the series?
Like the samples cited previously, I'm interested in guiding the reader to view my fiction on several levels. I want the reader to enjoy my stories but I also would like him or her to consider the context of my fiction and let him or her view my pieces in various lights. Is the narrator trying to answer the questionnaire as truthfully as possible ? Is the whole questionnaire/standardized form simply a joke—a useless tool that can never provide useful answers? What is the narrator's agenda? I also am trying to invert Christo's aesthetic stance by taking a generic form of information gathering—questionnaire,application,standardized test question etc... and giving it a very specific spin; The universal transformed into something highly personal
3. what is the source of tension between a standardized form for response and the structures of fiction?
Without the questionnaire/standardized form framing the actual story, the narrative would simply be viewed as a humorous anecdote. The questionnaire format provides a psychological undertow. This context does not simply create an unreliable narrator—it creates a suspicious narrator. What is narrator's agenda? Why in the world would this narrator divulge something so painfully personal? Is the narrator trying to make his reader uncomfortable or is there something else?
4. what semiotic reading of the form as standardized and with a specific sense of pragmatic context and functionality interests you?
I see the story as a conflict between public and private spaces. On one hand the questions posed to the narrator suggest generalization, an erasement of individuality, group, etc. Like public space, the questionnaire format becomes a sort of safety zone where a man or woman can simply hide in anonymity. On the flip side—the narrator's response reads as a very personal place. Unique. A zone that reflects that person's psychological landscape only. It suggests something cramped and crowded like a bedroom or bathroom. Yet does this make personal space more attractive? Does a relative stranger (reader) really want to witness someone's particular crises or trauma? Perhaps there is a reason why public space/ anonymity exists.
5. what do you see in the future permutations of this type of work with text and visual expectation and betrayal of standarized resonse as fiction ties to visual?
The internet may provide endless possibilities. Already there are already certain trends popping up on sites such as Friendster or My Space where members are creating false profiles. Instead of a photo of a young woman you might see a photo of a stuffed teddy bear complete with a tragic biography of how a Mr bear divorced his wife after eight years.
6. what other types of forms interest as you as calling for a recontextualization as fused with fiction?
The recent popularity of creative non fiction has sparked some ideas for me. It seems like the memoir and personal essay make large demands upon the reader. There is an implicit contract between author and reader. The author needs the reader's complete trust due to the fact that the author is writing about actual events,people and places. In return, the reader wants to be “educated and delighted” in the exact way fiction does. I am drawn to that gray area. How far can I push a reader's suspension of disbelief? If I create a fake memoir will it have the same poignancy and resonance that a true memoir evokes?
7. What other ways do you see text and image works being pushed forward with tools of new media?
I have always been interested in how ordinary, mundane materials can be reinvented into novel objects, and recently, I've turned my attention towards what I call “white noise” paper based ephemera : fliers, brochures, catalogs. What if we treated such paper based modes of communication like the internet? There are people who have tried to sell their souls via ebay. What if a similar tactic was taken towards a catalog?
8. What other visual spaces do you see as ripe for this sort of recontextualization by being fused with narrative?
It seems that every available space has been taken up by marketing and advertisements. It makes me want to see more blank space or at least see more space that is not attached to some sort of marketing agenda. It would feel refreshing to see something like the works of Cindy Sherman on a large scale like a billboard. Give an audience an image and let them fill out the narrative.
9. what about text and form most interests you?
This sort of goes back to the first question---I'm most attracted to pieces that contain certain layers. I'm always impressed by how certain narratives contain certain meanings or forms simultaneously. Can a story be a piece of journalism, an allegory , be a manifesto at the same time?
My influences have been particular pieces or projects rather than certain artists. Nabokov's “Lolita”, for example, has always impressed me—not so much the novel's content but more so the style and structure. This book can be read on so many levels. I think it is one of the finest forms of memoir, plus it displays a great critique of 1950's American culture and middle class values. Lastly, the book can be viewed as a great “road” novel on par with Kerouac's “On the Road”. Christo's pieces have also influenced me. His large wrapped objects such as the Reichstag building in Germany and the Florida Key islands dressed in the pink skirt suggests a different type of visual aesthetic. I'm fascinated with how this artist takes very specific places and buildings and reduces them to an ideal, universal concept. By covering the Reichstag you are forced to confront the shape and form thereby reducing this structure into an almost platonic ideal of a building.
2. What is your larger concept for this work and the series?
Like the samples cited previously, I'm interested in guiding the reader to view my fiction on several levels. I want the reader to enjoy my stories but I also would like him or her to consider the context of my fiction and let him or her view my pieces in various lights. Is the narrator trying to answer the questionnaire as truthfully as possible ? Is the whole questionnaire/standardized form simply a joke—a useless tool that can never provide useful answers? What is the narrator's agenda? I also am trying to invert Christo's aesthetic stance by taking a generic form of information gathering—questionnaire,application,standardized test question etc... and giving it a very specific spin; The universal transformed into something highly personal
3. what is the source of tension between a standardized form for response and the structures of fiction?
Without the questionnaire/standardized form framing the actual story, the narrative would simply be viewed as a humorous anecdote. The questionnaire format provides a psychological undertow. This context does not simply create an unreliable narrator—it creates a suspicious narrator. What is narrator's agenda? Why in the world would this narrator divulge something so painfully personal? Is the narrator trying to make his reader uncomfortable or is there something else?
4. what semiotic reading of the form as standardized and with a specific sense of pragmatic context and functionality interests you?
I see the story as a conflict between public and private spaces. On one hand the questions posed to the narrator suggest generalization, an erasement of individuality, group, etc. Like public space, the questionnaire format becomes a sort of safety zone where a man or woman can simply hide in anonymity. On the flip side—the narrator's response reads as a very personal place. Unique. A zone that reflects that person's psychological landscape only. It suggests something cramped and crowded like a bedroom or bathroom. Yet does this make personal space more attractive? Does a relative stranger (reader) really want to witness someone's particular crises or trauma? Perhaps there is a reason why public space/ anonymity exists.
5. what do you see in the future permutations of this type of work with text and visual expectation and betrayal of standarized resonse as fiction ties to visual?
The internet may provide endless possibilities. Already there are already certain trends popping up on sites such as Friendster or My Space where members are creating false profiles. Instead of a photo of a young woman you might see a photo of a stuffed teddy bear complete with a tragic biography of how a Mr bear divorced his wife after eight years.
6. what other types of forms interest as you as calling for a recontextualization as fused with fiction?
The recent popularity of creative non fiction has sparked some ideas for me. It seems like the memoir and personal essay make large demands upon the reader. There is an implicit contract between author and reader. The author needs the reader's complete trust due to the fact that the author is writing about actual events,people and places. In return, the reader wants to be “educated and delighted” in the exact way fiction does. I am drawn to that gray area. How far can I push a reader's suspension of disbelief? If I create a fake memoir will it have the same poignancy and resonance that a true memoir evokes?
7. What other ways do you see text and image works being pushed forward with tools of new media?
I have always been interested in how ordinary, mundane materials can be reinvented into novel objects, and recently, I've turned my attention towards what I call “white noise” paper based ephemera : fliers, brochures, catalogs. What if we treated such paper based modes of communication like the internet? There are people who have tried to sell their souls via ebay. What if a similar tactic was taken towards a catalog?
8. What other visual spaces do you see as ripe for this sort of recontextualization by being fused with narrative?
It seems that every available space has been taken up by marketing and advertisements. It makes me want to see more blank space or at least see more space that is not attached to some sort of marketing agenda. It would feel refreshing to see something like the works of Cindy Sherman on a large scale like a billboard. Give an audience an image and let them fill out the narrative.
9. what about text and form most interests you?
This sort of goes back to the first question---I'm most attracted to pieces that contain certain layers. I'm always impressed by how certain narratives contain certain meanings or forms simultaneously. Can a story be a piece of journalism, an allegory , be a manifesto at the same time?
Project
