The Breaking of Genres and Waves

Ye Mimi”s “Was Being Moved?” is a very interesting piece of work that uses images, videos, written letters, and read/sung poems to bring forth emotion and ideas from viewers. This is a very unique piece of work as it bends the notion of genre that we have previously come to understand. In the piece “The Genre Function,” Anis Bawarshi states that “Genres are discursive sites that coordinate the acquisition and production of motives by maintaining specific relations between scene, act agent, agency, and purpose” (17). “Was Being Moved?” lies within multiple grand genres like film, poem, and letters, while still finding a way for those mediums to relate. She has, in a sense, created a new genre that allows poetry and film to be united for her cause. By erasing the boundaries between film/images and poetry, Ye Mimi has a chance to reach the viewer in a whole new way.

Genre’s are often used to help he viewer understand what they are getting into and how to view the world that the piece is set in. Bawarshi uses an example of an obituary; “  We recognize obituaries… as notices of a person’s death, usually accompanied by  a short biographical account. They serve to notify the general public, and so do not play a direct role as, say, the eulogy does in helping those who are grieving deal with their loss” (43). With “Was Being Moved” set in multiple genres, the viewer is going into the experience with a blank slate. Anything could happen and still be within the realm of possibility. Genre’s are human made institutions to define how/what the viewer should understand the text, but why can’t those be broken?  

Ye Mimi’s piece has been questioned as to whether or not it has reached sublimity. Longinus, wrote that “Sublimity is the eminence or excellence of discourse” (347).  Later he continues by defining his terms turgidity and puerility, the former meaning to go above sublime and make a piece too “fluffy”, the latter meaning the author aimed to hard to be perfect and ended up with a “frigid,” lifeless work. Ye Mimi’s work showed images, texts, and more depicting things being moved. The question was what was moving them; themselves, others, goals, issues? I believe “Was Being Moved?” is a sublime piece for various reasons. When I was watching the piece, I found myself sucked in. I was pulled in within the first few seconds, and spat back out into the same world 11 minutes later. The whole piece felt like waves in the ocean; one minute you would be pulled in, having to read a letter to Mr. Parade, then the next you would be pushed back out, seeing vague images of boats or of cloudy images of people dressed in all yellow. All of he images and text centered on the idea of movement so the text/images were never random, even if they felt like it. Ye Mimi dint go over the top with explanations, she let the work explain itself. She also didn’t try to over fluff, which we saw as some ideas were simply given to us while others we had to work for (again the wave motion).

Ye Mimi’s piece fond a way to break genre norms, create a new genre, and reach the ultimate form (sublimity) of the new genre all in one. “Was Being Moved?” is thought provoking while still being constructive and fascinating. Symmetry is often associated with sublime, but here the sublimity rests on the waves. It is interesting how a good portion of “Was Being Moved?” focuses on boats when the whole piece feels like waves…