Published on the Web (online journal)

Robopoem@s consist of five insect-like robots whose legs and bodies are engraved with the seven parts of a poem@ (“poema” in Spanish) written from the robot’s point of view in bilingual format (my original Spanish with English translations by Kristin Dykstra). Voice activation, micro-mp3 players, and response to sensors (reactive to obstacles) allow these quadrupeds to interact with humans and with each other, emphasizing the existential issues addressed in the poem. The final segment of the poem, number VII, re-phrases the biblical pronouncement on the creation of humans, as perceived by the robot: “According to your likeness / my Image.” With this statement, the notion of creation is reformulated and bent by the power of electronics, ultimately questioning its binary foundations.

These variable couplets are composed of language collected from multiple ship’s logs recording a storm in the North Atlantic 6 February 1870. The logs were consulted at the National Meteorological Library and Archive at the Met Office in Exeter, UK.

“Monde instable” is French for “unstable world.”

This is an African e-poem expressed in French and inspired by thecurrent Covid-19 pandemic and the politicians’ responses.

A lot of politicians are turning themselves into scientists.

They proffer political sentiment as an egress to this nightmare that’ssweeping millions of souls to the next world, instead of relying onthe established scientific facts to fight the disease.

Moreover, these world leaders are not humble enough to allowscientists and academics to give us lasting solutions through the helpof the Heavens and the intelligentsia.

Another pandemic is climatophosis (i.e climate change, a word I coinedthis year in my digital poetry).

This is worse than the Covid-19 pandemic, though many don’t believethis. It is real! Climatophosis has brought humans and wild animals toshare the same niches.

Notably, in the northeastern Nigeria (Adamawa and Borno), since theearly 2000s, we’ve had elephants invading our backyard orchards andgardens which led to the loss of valuable forest and cash crops.

Leaders don’t still believe these changes in the ecosystem.

When I read a scientific article on Covid-19 earlier this year, Idiscovered parallels between my tribal people’s mythology andscientific explanations of the spread of the pandemic. It is believedamong my tribe, the Margi, that there is a a black bird with curvedbeak and long legs called a shimdu. Shimdu possess a deadly coughcalled kekika, probably a sickness like the coronavirus pandemic. Ifthe bird is killed and roasted, it spreads kekika to the environmentvia air.

English translation: Unstable world

     This world is full of trouble!      It’s made indeed for the humble.I see it, I humble myself but mumble.Thinking that it’s just a grumble.Covid-19 & climatophosis killMore souls in the night than ever.Their terrors lead the world into errors.Cos heads want powers in their corridors.    Only stable minds conquer terrors        Cos they are mind conquerors.

-->

(Source: Author's note in source code of the poem)

A western con with your choice of ending.

(Source: https://webyarns.com/the-shootout-2016/)

Alan Bigelow's "The Shootout" is a wonderfully fun and interactive western tale with poetic language, immersive sound, and a surprisingly modern ending that you won't see coming. It seems, no matter where technology goes, we cannot help but love stories and puzzles. We just find new packages for them.

(Source: https://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/17Fall/editor.html)

Commissioned by Peterborough’s Platform8 / Jumped Up Theatre and devised by One to One Development Trust / Dreaming Methods, The Dreamcatcher gathered people’s aspirations and dreams about the city of Peterborough in the UK, through audio, film, creative interventions and social media. This was woven into a projected interactive digital art installation and Virtual Reality experience primarily for the Oculus Rift. Artists from Jumped Up Theatre gathered dreams from local school children, festival goers and shoppers.

(Source: https://diary.dreamingmethods.com/dreamcatcher/)

"The Dreamcatcher" is an interactive piece of digital art which explores the dreams and aspirations of people living in Peterborough, in the UK, through lush landscapes and snippets of text. It really does seem to capture the liminal feeling of dream-space.

(Source: https://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/17Fall/editor.html)

The Human Touch started out as an augmented reality project where Zellen took images of graffiti and animated them with her signature line-drawing style. Most of the images focus on human figures, faces, or birds and move from static to animated in varying levels of frantic. Viewing them all together leaves you with a feeling like there might be something you missed. This is a feeling we hope will remain with you. Slow down and notice the possibilities in all the static images that surround you.

(Source: https://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/18Spring/editor.html)

The authors' collaboration on this piece was prompted by a Letraset visual poem by Beaulieu, “Self-Quarantine.” While thinking of the crowded space of arrows in that poem, they worked to engage with Unicode (and in particular, the four arrows U-2196–U-2199) in ways inspired by Beaulieu’s engagement with Letraset. The resulting poem is more sparse visually at any particular moment, but quite constrained and tense. The boundary will fill in in unanticipated ways if one simply waits. Those who are very patient will see that the process slows down as more and more arrow-shadows stick to the “walls.” The constantly-moving arrow leaves a trace wherever it bounces, but, as a glyph, it has a different substance than the edge of the browser, and cannot encounter its own residue. For those who crave an interactive experience, the poem can be interactive: Resizing the browser is an intervention.

Shadow Trees compiles and animates images of urban nature. Focusing on shadows cast by trees onto walls, buildings, pavement, and the trunks of other trees, Jody Zellen is able to investigate places where natural and built environments overlap and touch.

The short video disrupts audience expectations of nature films and photography, which are often framed to limit or erase the presence of humans, so that trees are shown to exist in forests, not in city blocks. In so doing, such photographic conventions comfort us by removing our role in the precariosness of their existence, particularly in large metropolitan places like Los Angeles where carbon emissions choke human and nonhuman life alike.

(Source: http://thenewriver.us/shadow-trees/)