Avry Week 6 Kinetic and Interactive Poetry
Chapter 5 of our text talks about digital poetry more specifically kinetic and interactive poetry. These forms of poetry explore the specific media capacities of the contemporary computer. It does this by creating a poetic environment for both the composition and reception. Digital forms reconfigure text as a moving image in space and time - working with registers of signification more familiar to visual and performance art. Interactive poetry further considers the relationship between the reader and text.
Kinetic poetry specifically incorporates motion by having words or letters move across the screen changing in response to user input. Interactive poetry requires the reader to engage with the poem which influences its structure or sequence through actions like clicking or dragging.
After looking at all the links posted on our canvas, the one that was easiest for me to understand was "ii -in the white darkness" by Reiner Strasser. Starting off from just the title I could tell this piece was going to be interesting. the entirety of the title is written in lowercase, which I don't think you find often. It also has an ironic title because it uses two things that completely contrast - that being white and darkness. The site takes you to a quote at the beginning, and allows you to click through a string of circles.... each circle containing a picture of a landscape or water. The picture will fade in and out in an interesting way. The statement about the piece is: This IP is about memory. The work assimilates and reflects the experience with patients fallen ill with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, showing the fragility and fluidity of memory from a subjective POV.
After reading this, the work makes more sense to me. You are able to experience the remembering and loss of memory while it can be re-created as the images or works reappear/disappear. I think it is a beautiful piece that shows immense respect for those tragically affected by the horrible diseases.
ii -in the white darkness is one of my favorites and a great example of the ability of a medium to convey an experience like this to create empathy.
ReplyDeleteI think that's my favorite use of any medium- to try to recreate a feeling or experience that only some people feel so that others can understand it
DeleteI completely agree. It's interesting as a reader to get very invested and feel everything how the author intends.
DeleteWhat an impressive post! I love how you point out that the title is a contradiction in itself, since white and darkness don't traditionally go together. This can help the user begin to understand the tone of this piece, and I agree that it does a great job catering to and being respectful of those who have conditions where they're losing their memory. Your interpretation of the piece was quite beautiful, I am surely going to be thinking about the notion that you can experience loosing your memory (so sad!), while some parts of memory can be re-created in the brain even if the subject doesn't really know where they're coming from. I find your thoughts about this to be impactful.
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