{"id":53688,"date":"2025-06-18T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T19:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=53688"},"modified":"2025-06-18T15:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T19:47:58","slug":"buell-experimental-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/buell-experimental-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Experimental Art Is More Important Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">When we focus on making our work marketable, it\u2019s no longer the creative endeavor that our society so desperately needs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cornell-red-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4f66d45612aaf80d2d77724f720f26a9\"><em>\u201cChime In\u201d comprises brief first-person essays by Cornellians. Do you have a topic in mind? Email us at <a href=\"&#x6d;ai&#x6c;t&#111;&#x3a;&#99;&#x6f;r&#x6e;&#101;llia&#x6e;s&#x40;corn&#x65;&#x6c;&#x6c;&#46;&#x65;&#100;&#x75;\">co&#114;ne&#108;l&#x69;&#97;&#x6e;&#x73;&#x40;&#99;o&#x72;&#x6e;&#x65;&#108;&#108;&#x2e;&#x65;&#100;&#x75;<\/a>! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By <strong>Jesi Bender Buell \u201907<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">As an artist, one thing I\u2019ve learned over the years is that people, in general, hate the word \u201cexperimental.\u201d They think it\u2019s pretentious, lazy, or just weird for the sake of being weird. Most tell me that it doesn\u2019t <em>mean <\/em>anything. The common rejoinder: \u201cIsn\u2019t <em>all<\/em> art experimental?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, no, I don\u2019t think so. All art isn\u2019t experimental, especially in the world of writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any person who has taken a creative writing class will tell you that students are given a formula\u2014it can look like a triangle or like Mad Libs, but it gives you what your story needs to be \u201cgood\u201d (which really means \u201cmarketable\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-825x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Jesi Bender Buell\" class=\"wp-image-53683 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-825x1024.jpg 825w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-242x300.jpg 242w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-768x953.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-1238x1536.jpg 1238w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-140x175.jpg 140w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-70x87.jpg 70w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-100x125.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-1264x1569.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-632x784.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-316x392.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-400x496.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A-200x248.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Bender-head-shot-A.jpg 1269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow this trajectory; add in these elements. Writers are told that readers expect these things, and you must fulfill those expectations if you want engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an English major, I was inspired by Cornell authors like Thomas Pynchon \u201959, Toni Morrison, MA \u201955, Kurt Vonnegut \u201944, and professors Molly Hite and Vladimir Nabokov\u2014all of whom challenged the literary status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>As an English major, I was inspired by Cornell authors like Thomas Pynchon \u201959, Toni Morrison, MA \u201955, Kurt Vonnegut \u201944\u2014all of whom challenged the literary status quo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I had the good fortune to take several creative writing courses as an undergraduate, including an advanced course with <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/english.cornell.edu\/helena-maria-viramontes\">Helena Mar\u00eda Viramontes<\/a>. My Cornell experience was informed by teaching that encouraged generative and exploratory writing, rather than the strict adherence to a set of rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That freedom\u2014to explore, to experiment, to be wrong or boring or just <em>bad\u2014<\/em>was enormously valuable, and instilled in me the belief that when we rely so heavily on these rules, writing no longer exists as an art form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"929\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-1024x929.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of a man depicted in usual, bright colors\" class=\"wp-image-53687\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-1024x929.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-300x272.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-768x696.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-1536x1393.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-1264x1146.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-632x573.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-316x287.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-400x363.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-200x181.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A-100x91.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/smog-A.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">One of the author&#8217;s artworks, titled <em>Smog<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(And Cornell continues to inspire new literary art\u2014not only through its MFA programs in writing and poetry, but through offerings like the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning\u2019s <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aap.cornell.edu\/academics\/art\/master-fine-arts-image-text\">Master of Fine Arts in Image Text<\/a>, which both teaches and brings avant-garde artists to Ithaca.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we challenge convention\u2014whether or not the result is ultimately successful\u2014we are thinking. And with our expressions, we are contributing to public thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The artist asks people to meet them at some new kind of understanding. If you bind that to a formula or paradigm, you\u2019ll produce a public that is unable to derive meaning from anything outside their experience\u2014one that is unable to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When we challenge convention\u2014whether or not the result is ultimately successful\u2014we are thinking. And with our expressions, we are contributing to public thought.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>But experimental literature is all around us, and it is a thriving, vital, and abundant community\u2014existing not just for its own sake, but to express precise thoughts or experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my latest novel, <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/whiskeytit.com\/product\/child-of-light\/\"><em>Child of Light<\/em><\/a>, for example, I was interested in how to tell stories in ways that felt new and more organic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of &quot;Child of Light&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-53685 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A-269x395.jpg 269w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A-341x500.jpg 341w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A-171x250.jpg 171w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/childoflightfrontcover-A-85x125.jpg 85w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>For me, this often manifests in playing with the literary form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Child of Light<\/em> is experimental historical fiction set in 1890s Utica that tells the story of a young girl as she tries to understand her world through the interests of her parents: Spiritualism for Mama, electrical engineering for Papa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the reader encounters the story of how the mother and father came together, I start the text as two columns telling two separate stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As they meet, the columns alternate line by line and start to \u201cbraid\u201d together until they form one passage.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a world where so much art is produced through established IP, it is critical that we don\u2019t lose newness\u2014because that is where we learn and grow. Even if we don\u2019t like an artist\u2019s expression, at the very least I hope we can appreciate their attempt to say something original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in a world increasingly controlled by \u201cgroupthink,\u201d it is ever more important that we foster new ways of knowing, and embrace our living tongues to birth new language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jesibender.com\/\"><strong><em>Jesi Bender Buell \u201907<\/em><\/strong><\/a><em> is an artist and author from Upstate New York who currently works at the Cornell University Library. In addition to the upcoming novel <\/em>Child of Light<em>, her publications include the poetry collection <\/em>Dangerous Women<em> and the experimental play <\/em>Kinderkrankenhaus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Published June 18, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we focus on making our work marketable, it\u2019s no longer the creative endeavor that our society so desperately needs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":53744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[639],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-53688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Experimental Art Is More Important Than Ever - 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