Object-oriented writing is a literary and visual art practice developed by the American writer

Travis Jeppesen Travis Jeppesen is an American novelist, poet, artist, and art critic. He is known, among other works, for his novel ''The Suiciders''; a non-fiction novel about North Korea, ''See You Again in Pyongyang''; and for his object-oriented writing work, ...

Overview

The genesis of object-oriented writing was Jeppesen's desire to fuse the creative and critical aspects of literary work into a single hybrid form. In October 2011, Jeppesen published a text on his website describing object-oriented writing, a new form of writing he invented in response to these feelings of frustration over the stylistic limitations of contemporary art criticism. Over the next few years, Jeppesen worked on the development of object-oriented writing as a hybrid creative-critical practice. At its root, object-oriented writing attempts to re-create pre-existing works of art in the medium of language. The resulting texts often resemble

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

, though Jeppesen has also brought more traditional modes of narrative, as well as dramatic monologue, into the mix. In later essays, Jeppesen would characterize object-oriented writing as a "bad writing" or "wild writing" practice, in which failure was meant to not only be confronted, but incorporated into the final results, in line with what he has characterized as the innate impossibilities of writing to effectively convey meaning. In its proposition of a metaphysics of art writing, object-oriented writing has often been compared to parallel developing movements in contemporary philosophy such as

object-oriented ontology In metaphysics, object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a 21st-century Heidegger-influenced school of thought that rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects.. This is in contrast to what it calls the "anthropocent ...

and

speculative realism Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of p ...

. In addition, the Swiss curator

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

has drawn connections between object-oriented writing and

Timothy Morton Timothy Bloxam Morton (born 19 June 1968) is a professor and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. A member of the object-oriented philosophy movement, Morton's work explores the intersection of object-oriented thought and ecolog ...

's notion of the hyperobject. Jeppesen himself has acknowledged these connections, yet claims that when he first coined the term object-oriented writing, he was unaware of these philosophical currents. It locates itself within the work of art, rather than outside, and attempts to infest the inanimate art object with human agency via the act of writing. Object-oriented writing has further been compared to nature poets' attempt to inhabit nature through language. Others have argued that "object-oriented writing is concerned with the distance between the writer and the object, a distance it tries to disavow." As an avant-garde literary practice, object-oriented writing has also been compared to the nouveau roman and the

antinovel An antinovel is any experimental novel, experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel, and instead establishes its own conventions. Origin of the term The term ("anti-roman" in French) was brought into modern lit ...

. It has also been described as a cross-breed between "the

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

of Tender Buttons, the

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

Mythologies Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

''16 Sculptures''

While he had published several texts of object-oriented writing previously on his website and in selected art and literary publications, '' 16 Sculptures'' is considered to be Jeppesen's first major work in the genre. '' 16 Sculptures'' was originally commissioned by curator Stuart Comer for the 2014

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

. '' 16 Sculptures'' manifested in the form of a book published by Publication Studio, but also an audio installation, in which visitors to the gallery sat in chairs and put on black glasses that blocked out their vision and listened to audio recordings—or "evocations"—of the texts on headphones. Jeppesen selected sixteen sculptures from throughout the history of art to re-create in the medium of language. The style of the resulting texts ranges considerably, including monologues, dialogues, rants, songs, poems, and epiphanies, among other, more hybrid or inventive forms, all of them evasive of the tropes of traditional art criticism. For example, in his re-creation of the

Venus of Willendorf The Venus of Willendorf is an Venus figurine estimated to have been made around 25,000-30,000 years ago. It was found on August 7, 1908, by a workman named Johann Veran or Josef Veram during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szomba ...

, Jeppesen adapts the dramatic monologue format, allowing the sculpture to speak. After its debut in the

, '' 16 Sculptures'' was the subject of a critically acclaimed solo exhibition at Wilkinson Gallery in London. ''16 Sculptures'' has also been translated into Mandarin and was featured in a group exhibition in Beijing at the now-defunct Minority Space in 2017. Reviewing Jeppesen's solo exhibition in

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

, critic William J. Simmons characterized '' 16 Sculptures'' as "bitingly humorous, but nevertheless intensely critical," concluding "Jeppesen leaves us wondering who speaks for artworks and, perhaps more important, how they speak." Writing about the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the

Bibliographical Society of America The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is the oldest learned society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects. Established in 1904, the society promotes bibliographical research and issues bibliograp ...

noted, "Jeppesen dematerialized the sculptures and brought them back into the realm of ideas."

Other Projects

Jeppesen has been working on an ongoing project, ''U'', in which he applies object-oriented writing principles to cinema. Excerpts from ''U'' have appeared in

Flash Art ''Flash Art'' is a contemporary art magazine, and an Italian and international publishing house. Originally published bilingually, both in Italian and in English, since 1978 is published in two separate editions, Flash Art Italia (Italian) and Fl ...

and ''Mousse''. In addition, Jeppesen has discussed a project in which he approaches natural phenomena, namely glaciers, through object-oriented writing.

References

{{Reflist Experimental literature 21st-century literature