Lindsay Week 6

In chapter 5 of "Electronic Literature" Rettberg discusses kinetic and interactive poetry. He states that, "Kinetic poetry by definition deals in time-based poetics: its main distinctive characteristic is that texts change through animation, and that animation itself conducts meaning" (118). Not only is the text important, but the performance of the text and the way it is displayed is equally as vital. Concrete poetry or the "awareness of and interest in the material nature of language, its shapes and forms, and the aesthetic and semantic effects made possible by manipulating language as a material" consists of three forms: optic, phonetic, and kinetic. These types of concrete poetry are used often in digital and interactive poetry, usually interchangeably. I found this chapter very interesting since I love writing poetry and it was cool to see the various elements of poetry explained in a digital way. 

I decided to explore "The Dreamlife of Letters" by Brain Kim Stefans. It was very straight forward. As far as I can tell you click anywhere on the opening page and it describes what the piece is about and allows you to click on a link to a poem. The poem is long and overall, very confusing. Rettberg states that, "Stefans produced the poem by processing an essay written by poet and feminist literary theorist Rachel Blau DuPlessis. Stefans first alphabetized DuPlessis’ text and then reconstructed that word list into a series of concrete poems" (139). So while the piece may seem simple, there is a deeper meaning behind it.