Digital Poetry

Introduction
Digital Poetry is a form of electronic literature with a prominant use of computers. Christopher Funkhouser, a popular digital poet, defines digital poetry as "a new genre of literary, visual, and sonic art launched by poets who experimented with computers in the late 1950s." . It has now become available in many formats, such as CDs, DVDs, and occasionally digital videos. There are many types of digital poetry including hypertext, kinetic poetry, computer generated animation, interactive poetry, and cody poetry. Computers and new media have helped to create and improve digital poetry. Digital poetry is usually interactive, and can also be collaborative writing through online communitites (Jay). Since 1959, computers have eased the development of digital poetry,, allowing the genre to develop itself into a conglomerated form consisting of many genres within itself. From a cultural studies point of view, electronic or e-poetry is more than just an "object", a "genre" or a "medium". It is a cultural practice or a "cultural form" that is still an evolving process, employing various techniques. Digital poetry was formed well before the advent of the personal computer and continues to refine itself in today's World Wide Web (WWW) environment (Ben).

As previously stated, there are many types of art that constitute as digital poetry. This provides poets the ability to remediate their more "traditional" poems and shift to a more technologically-suited form. However, digital poetry also maintains characteristics similar to that of traditional poetry, although the format has been enriched with colors and art (Fan). Another interesting aspect of digital poetry is that it is experienced within “experimental time” rather than “real-time communication". This feature allows readers time to reflect and ponder the meaning of what they have just seen. The flows and rhythm of this genre can be said to resemble a dance, as all of the components present a lead to which a reader follows. Digital Poetry can be described in the eleven dimensions of E-poetry: communicative peers, intense attachment, time, instruments, ruin, recombinant flux, performative events, translation, place, recursion and looping, and mixed reality (Rex).

Group Members
Julianne Grothe

Benjamin Kim

Fan Jia

Jay Carlson

Rex Hsu

Faith (Jay Carlson)
Digital poetry creates a unique experience for the reader by combining media effects with words. These multi-media effects include sounds, images, video, movement, interactivity and others, which help keep the reader more engaged in this fast-moving world. Robert Kendall, an accomplished digital poet, created "Faith", a digital poem that uses media effects that may confuse the viewer at first, but in the end, creates a unique experience for the viewer.

"Faith" has media effects that consider it "digital poetry." It has sound, user interaction, and a video that pops up words at different times and different places that may confuse the reader at first, but in the end creates a poem. As soon as I see the title page, I notice that the title "Faith" is in a biblical-like font the makes me believe this poem may have a religious tone to it. After research, I find that the font "faith" is in is the same font older versions of the bible had.



From there, you either pick "with music" or "without music" to go on with the digital poem. I choose with music and watch the video. It starts with "Faith" at the top of the screen and the word "logic" floats down the screen and bounces with "faith." There is no music except a simple bounce sound when logic bounces off faith. After clicking "with music" It then forms the phrase, "logic can't bend this" at one word at a time. As opposed to normal poetry, digital poetry like this can be presented in more then one stage. This poem has five different stages to it which is not possible for a normal poem written on paper could have. A poem is read all at once when this digital poem can force you to read something, think about it, then read the next part. I think about this opening line and have an idea about what this poem will be about. I have heard the logic and faith argument many times. Logic claims that religion may not make sense but people have faith in their religion and choose not to follow logic.

After clicking "so..." words pop up next to other words and form the sentence "I edge logic out. Can't the mind press on around the bend to consummate this vision of the deep "or"?" This is definately a unique animation that a poet can not put on to paper. It makes me think about what is going to happen next and how they can continue this poem. Digital poetry and normal poetry are still similar. For this particular piece, I am still analyzing the sentences and thinking about that they mean. But for this digital poem, It is forming different sentences one click at a time. It makes you read one particular sentence and then is creating other sentences using the same words. This part of the poem makes me believe that the poet, Robert Kendall, believes faith holds a higher faculty then "logic." After clicking "Maybe. But..." the next stage had new words bounce and fade on to the screen and letters faded onto the end of other wors to make new words and new sentences. With each new slide the same idea was being enforced. The final slide wraps it all up saying "Just to sum up Faith" with all the words used beneath it on the bottom.

Although sometimes the wording was confusing, the idea of faith being higher then logic is enforced. This digital poem uses animation and sound to be interesting to the reader. The audio sounds sound like random keys on a church organ which again reinforces the point that the "faith" Kendall is relating his poem to is the "faith" that christians have in the Bible. Because of the animation, audio, and word choice of Kendall, the viewer is able to understand the idea of the poem, "Faith" being stronger than "logic." This digital poem exploits the potential of digital poetry because of all the technological advancements that can make a normal poem a lot more interesting for the reader especially in this day and age when a normal poem is often considered boring. I would much rather experience a digital poem then reading a normal old poem and I believe that the future of literature may very well be all electronic.

A Fine View (Julianne Grothe)
Poetry of any form has the ability to create unique experiences for readers. It can serve as an outlet and escape of and for feelings and emotions. The author of a poem usually has a specific message and intended purpose, but different readers can construe this message in different ways, giving rise to innumerable possible interpretations. Digital poetry takes this a step further through the incorporation of technology. The use of additional resources, including the use of interactive graphics and links to other pages, further the experience for the reader and allow for even deeper meanings and interpretations.



A Fine View is a piece of electronic literature derived from the mind of David Knoebel of the digital poetry genre. Knoebel has created a webpage called Click Poetry: Words in Space containing various pieces of poetry, each with different images and graphics to both enhance and differentiate the reader’s experiences. When one clicks on the poem A Fine View, he or she is transported from the home page to a page containing a different image. In the center of the page, a black box with undistinguishable words jumbled together appears. Below this box, Knoebel instructs his readers to click on the image. With a single click, the words begin to separate and t he poem becomes clear to read. Hence, a “finer view” than before. Knoebel’s immediate use of graphics appears intentional in order to foreshadow and provide emphasis for the theme of his poem. The words, now clearer, move rapidly toward the top of the page and form a shape which looks like a roof. This image is appropriate to create a visual of what the poem itself describes with the first line “The view is fine from where the roofers take their break”. The words continue to the top of the black box and disappear like smoke, which also appears appropriate as Knoebel describes cigarettes and smoke in his poem as well. The poem continues with this format of words disappearing in the top of the black box, until the last line “the basement slab” is enlarged until only the “a” in basement is visible with a grey box forming around it. The “a” then disappears and the grey box remains with the black box outlining it, and the interactive poem ends.

This use of art in this work of digital poetry intrigues the reader, and creates a “dance-like” routine to which the reader follows. There is no clicking to stop the poem at any time as it is a constant flow of words. In this sense, this piece of digital poetry differs from others in that the reader does not have control over how he or she wants to look at or read the work. Knoebel has control over how one reads his work, unlike written poetry. However, that being said, Knoebel does not have control over how the reader interprets it. Knoebel uses electronic literature to his advantage, and exemplifies the many possibilities and potentials of electronic literature.

Pieces (Rex Hsu)


“Pieces” by Robert Kendall is a jigsaw puzzle that puts together a story with each piece selected. Each piece contains a single image that is seemingly insignificant but it is the essence of the story and holds more in meaning than just a picture of an inanimate object. Pieces fit together in several ways but only one pattern will allow you to correctly finish the puzzle. The story revolves around Allen Lasserman and his secret life and explored through his interaction with his family and coworker. The story is told in short segments from several different perspectives and therefore the plot is not relevant until you read two or three segments.

The motif of pieces and puzzle comes up frequently throughout the poem, shown through the connections of the characters and how they fit together. Also the story is left open ended, never really finished, with only a message about the puzzle not being complete. I feel that this is an ingenious way to incorporate the title and the interactive aspect into the poem, it subtly reminds the reader that the images on the pieces are pieces themselves and that they revolve around the puzzle, which is only another piece of a greater puzzle that encompasses much more.

I feel, in this particular piece, that the poetry is more within the movement and placing of the puzzles than in the actual words and story itself. The art of this piece is that the reader has the power to pick and choose which pieces to place so that the order of the story depends on what order the reader chooses to place the puzzle down. This way, the reader has to hold all the pieces of the puzzle in his head and fit the story together as he reads on.



This type of storytelling is only available through electronic literature, which allows the author to link each puzzle piece to a certain piece of the story and for the significance of the title and interface of the poem to be

expressed wholly. In this way, electronic literature is superior to what traditional literature can accomplish. It is a different art form entirely, whereas traditional literature is stationary and only flows in the sense of rhythm and tempo, this new age literature can visually flow and take the reader on an interactive adventure. Kendall himself says that he wants the reader to take “control over the large-scale organizational principles behind the work" . The piece certainly allows the reader to experience “experimental time” as explained in the introduction. Once a puzzle piece is placed down and the segment of the story read, the reader has all the time to reflect upon what was just read and to decide which piece to place next.

All in all, electronic literature is about your interaction with the piece and how you experience it in your own mind. This poem does that just brilliantly with the pieces of puzzles that you have to play with and the pieces of the story that you hold in your head as you get farther into the story.

The Dreamlife of Letters (Fan Jia)










What makes poetry interesting is its ability to morph into different forms and how it still allows the audiences to craft a story based on their experiences. Poetry is a form of art and each individual has its own unique interpretations. The significance of Brian Kim Stefans’s digital poetry “The Dreamlife of Letters” is its use of modern and traditional literature characteristics to depict meaning. This poetry also consists of digital aspects because it includes visual aids and its form operates digitally on an electronic device. However, this poetry also has poetic qualities because it carries a meaningful form through the text. . Moreover, the uniqueness of this poem lies in the fact that it interacts with audiences. For instance, this digital poetry interacts with audiences because this entire poem is animation based and audiences can click anywhere they desire. One aspect of this interactive feature is the table of contents which enable audiences to search through specific topics efficiently. The identifiable theme that keeps reoccurring in this digital poetry is how the words are based off an individual’s dream. For example, the words do not make sense alone because they are all fragmented, but it gives audiences an opportunity to explore and formulate their own meaning. An illustration of this is the text’s ability to swirl and float to form words which is related to the message of the dream. However, different individuals will have their own perspective of this poem because everyone has different experiences. Moreover, this poem represents digital poetry because is it related to the format of a computer poem which uses software to animate the texts of the poem. . The text’s animation creates new opportunities for audiences to experience another way of interpreting the poem, and this is a feature that traditional poems do not offer. Therefore, audiences must ponder how the words relate to the dream’s message and this interpretation is based on the individual’s perception. However, even though this poem has been digitalized, it still carries some aspects of a traditional poem because that is the foundation for digital poetry and every poem needs to have a standard structure. For instance, the scattered texts used in this poem are derived from words that were once based on a traditional poem format, but Stefans tends to alter “The Dreamlife of Letters” by equipping it with digital aspects such as the interaction feature. . One interprets art in regards to their perception. The structure of this poem is related to art because it shares the similar features such as allowing audiences to freely express its message through their interpretations. Furthermore, the animation of the text also makes this poem a unique artwork, and we can never fully decrypt the message because there are so many interpretations. No doubt art shares the same feature as “The Dreamlife of Letters” because the purpose of art is to leave us pondering about the message that it beholds. Accordingly, this poem also serves the same purpose as art because it lets the audience reflect on their own thoughts. The concept of art in general is related to poetry because there is no specific meaning and this is especially true in “The Dreamlife of Letters.” In other words, the unique animation of texts that Brian Kim Stefans uses in “The Dreamlife of Letters” is to infuse different meanings of dreams in the minds of audiences. Furthermore, through the use of animation, it shows that the possibility of ideas for this digital poem is infinite.

Sydney's Siberia (Ben Kim)
Sydney’s Siberia is an interactive digital poem by Jason Nelson, infinitely zooming/clicking mosaic comprised of 121 poetic image tiles, that combine and recombine as you click and move and click. The work is thematically attached to Newcastle, Australia, a small industrial town struggling to find a future beyond its mundane coal and steel. Each tile of this addictively clickable digital poem is a small ficto-history or poetic retelling, signs of the difference between what is there and what they hope (or hoped) for it to become. And as each new mosaic is formed, the reader must search for what they haven’t seen and find new connections to what continually re-arrives.



There is no quick way of experiencing Sydney’s Siberia. There is no short summary of the story and there are no bullet points to make. Sydney’s Siberia is entirely interactive, which demands exploration and ‘play.’ The user constantly clicks on the mosaics of photos formed in each scene. It is up to the users to decide where further to explore and which connections to make.

It is still possible to provide such an experience through a book in a form of a collection of the photos and the respective poems written over the photos, however, such experience leaves little room for exploration. Nelson encourages his readers to be engaged in the scene by leaving the decision of where and when to explore further through his infinitely zooming mosaic of pictures which resembles that of The Body by Shelley Jackson. Experience such engagement through actual print would require the readers to manually browse through chapters, discontinuing the engaging experience as it may diminish the mood going through the hassle. A click of a button is required helping the readers experience the scenes of Newcastle at lightning speed. Such form of interaction is unique to the genre of digital poetry. Rather having the readers use their imagination and think freely, the creator suggests a direction of how to imagine the scenes of Newcastle and directly share the creator’s thoughts and ideas of that particular moment. Nelson’s particular piece of electronic poetry would not be effective if the purpose was to open the reader’s minds through infinite imagination, due to the hypermediation which occurs within each scene of a poem. The hypermediacy occurs as each poem is accompanied by a photo. Nelson, instead of leaving room for infinite imagination to the readers, gives the users the option of infinite exploration through its never-ending mosaics.



However, the experience itself is not what makes the digital form of poetry attractive for both readers and creators. The scale of audience which digital media can attract is what makes the digital form more beneficial to both readers and creators. In the simplest terms Digital Poems are born from the combination of technology and poetry, with writers using all multi-media elements as critical texts. Sounds, images, movement, video, interface/interactivity and words are combined to create new poetic forms and experiences. When a piece like Sydney’s Siberia attracts millions of readers, successful print poets might attract a hundred. The use of the World Wide Web can offer a bright future to poetry. Readers can play within the possibilities of the electronic poem, to inspire and frighten, to allure and repel.