As part of our new summer US project States of Independence we've invited our favourite 30 American curators, magazines, creatives and institutions to takeover Dazed for a day.
Kenneth Goldsmith is taking over. The Museum of Modern Art's first Poet Laureate and founder of Ubuweb is on a mission to tell us why we should care about poetry at all – from his stirring call to arms (or QWERTY keyboards), to exclusive poetry designed to challenge your poetic preconceptions: Microsoft Word poems, found poems and Mira Gonzalez's diet poems.
From graduate showcases to gallery big-hitters, the concept of "found objects" in the art world is one with which we are all on familiar terms. Not so "found poetry" – and yet, as Kenneth Goldsmith demonstrates in these anecdotal finds, poetry can be sourced in the most unusual – or, to an equal or even more fascinating degree, mundane – surroundings. As Goldsmith tells it, the mysterious cards began appearing in a Citibank community bulletin board on New York's Lower East Side in the mid-80s. "About 20 of them were posted over the course of six months and then abruptly stopped." The street artist has remained anonymous; you can take a peek at some of Goldsmith's favourite examples, below.
