gaze

Description (in English)

The coronavirus has created a new lexicon, which shaped, modulated and mediated a global confinement experience. Due to the negationism of the pandemic by President Bolsonaro, in Brazil it gains particular features, while maintaining a dialogue with the global scope.

Words, terms, and places, like alcohol gel, mask, chloroquine, and Wuhan, have entered the everyday vocabulary. Neologisms in Portuguese, such as testing positive, and communavirus, and expressions such as lockdown, hand washing, and social isolation11 have taken on new meanings. Home Office, Zoom, Emergency Aid, YouTube Lives, and PPEs are other keywords of the moment.

Together, they indicate that the pandemic (another word which became recurrent) has created a whole spectrum of new languages and representations. Will they be quickly forgotten, deleted, and erased from memory, or will they remain?

It is too early to anticipate what will happen in the post-pandemic context. However, it is not premature to state that it has already dictated a few rules of the neoliberal grammar as social foundations like: naturalization of surveillance through cell phone monitoring, the brutality of the remote work regime, the condemnation of the elderly to a dysfunctional position, which consolidate the guidelines that “late capitalism of the ends of sleep,” a 24/7 world, has enunciated some time ago.

In this project, we gather the most striking words of the coronavirus cultural experience tracked by Google data, during the months of March and April, period that coincides with the beginning of the “quarantine” in Brazil. The most searched-for words by the audience of the Coronary website respond dynamically, changing color, according to a heat map that reflects the attention given.

Popularized by the thermosensors, widely used in Asia, heat maps are one of the aesthetics of surveillance that are embedded in COVID-19.

In this context, the Coronary functions not only as a glossary of the pandemic cultural and social experience, but it is also a “surveillance performance" exercise done in public. The colors of the words reveals the economy of attention and the politics of gaze that the Internet puts into play, translating the most visited words into warm colors, and the less visited, into cool colors.

(Source: Author's description on project site)

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Coronary heatmap screenshot Portuguese
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Coronary heatmap screenshot English
Contributors note

Team

Giselle BeiguelmanProject

João Henrique AmaranteTechnology

Alexandre GonçalvesConsulting

English version: Adriana Kauffmann

By Hannah Ackermans, 28 November, 2015
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Abstract (in English)

Whilst there may be aesthetic tropes within digital media, there is no universally accepted authority within contemporary culture nor is there an easy mutual acceptance of what is “right and proper” or indeed legitimate outside the now virtue of being popular and well followed. Indeed the now bodily distanced and disinhibited digital citizen frequently demonstrates a palpable distain for the elite and pretentious (1). Considering this, any community with Literature in its name may have an identity problem; literariness still pertains to an elevated quality of artistic or intellectual merit and is thus counter to popular cultural production. In addition, mainstream culture has successfully commoditized many counter-cultural communities (2). Electronic Literature has arguably not been through such commodification processes, and the question of interest is why not? To that extent this paper seeks to explore possible answers. Investigating the broader shifts towards increased visuality within modern culture (3) the paper will discuss and revisit the discourses on the power structures of the gaze, consider spectatorship’s dominance over readership and interaction and co-creation and the function of the image within contemporary narrative forms inside and outwith Electronic Literature (4). The paper will also consider the politics implied in the move to open access, the fluid distribution of often context-less “images”, how this relates to prior notions of literary publishing, and whether this manifests as an opportunity or a challenge to Electronic Literature’s dissemination. Lastly and toward a conclusion, the paper will propose that if we consider the tradition of literature as one that is driven by the expression of human experience, where in today’s context literary “traditions” are not longer built around specific commonalities of form (i.e. predominately verbal language) but rather subject matter, themes and worldviews then the questions of identity and of “literariness” can evaporate to make space for fuller participation in the ocular freedoms in contemporary culture.

(Source: ELO 2015 Conference Catalog)

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Description (in English)

“La Belle” is a kinetic poem created by Philippe Bootz in 1989. Published in the review alire 2, it was later transferred into the anthology Le salon de lecture électronique in 1994. The poem itself is a brief program that is presented in several parts. That is to say, the poem seems to be cut into strophes: a preliminary strophe that introduces the poem, a sequence of lines that appear and disappear quickly in the center of the screen that make up the second part of the poem, and the third strophe that is presented just after the first and second strophes. Yet, the third strophe changes a bit after the second strophe. Only the last line of the poem, “froid jusqu’au coeur,” is seen. This means of presenting the poem complicates the comprehension of its sense and thus creates a sentiment of distance from the poem. Moreover, the rapidity of the program is accentuated by the transfer software for technological reasons. Therefore, the feeling of isolation from the poem is augmented inadvertently by the software program. Despite all that, a meaning can be drawn from the poem so long as one knows how to slow down the program to be able to soak it in. By hitting the pause and enter key rapidly and in succession, the poem becomes decipherable. Once the poem is paused for long enough, it becomes discernable and its sense becomes easier to comprehend. However, cropping up rapidly and erratically behind the text of the second part of the poem is a mass of visual glitches that appear as pixelated and polychromatic cubes. These visual deformations make reading the poem almost impossible, especially at its original speed, which adds another element of detachment to the program. The meaning of this visual effect in the poem brings to mind the frigidness of the heart evoked in the line “froid jusqu’au Coeur”. These pixelated cubes are similar to ice crystalizing on glass. This image juxtaposed with the image of beauty in the rest of the poem suggests a sort of irony, perhaps. As for the theme of the poem, sexual and feminine imagery are evoked by a sense of criticized vanity. For example, the line “mes jambes affleurent l’air” suggests a sexual image of the female body. In this line, one can argue that it’s a woman (or the woman who is the subject of the poem) who speaks and comments on her sexualized body. She states, “mes jambes”, thus reinforcing the idea that she is criticizing her own image. But, it’s the line “comme ces lèvres ne savent que/ tourner la tête” that underlines the vain aspect of a beautiful woman’s image. Feminine beauty seems to come from the act of looking at, and perhaps even coveting, her body. Yet, the poem seems to criticize this vanity as well by ending the poem with the line “froid jusqu’au coeur”. This line elicits perhaps the inanity of the sexualization of a woman’s body, particularly by men. This indication of chauvinism is supported by the fact that the structure of the poem seems to symbolize the act of “checking out” a beautiful woman. One begins by looking at the legs and then raising one’s gaze to the “two fruits”, a symbol for a woman’s breasts. Finally, the gaze fixes on the head and the lips. Therefore, it’s a foot to head presentation of the female body, imitating the masculine habit of looking at a beautiful woman or of an observer who analyzes a statue that is “smooth/ of marble”. – written by Dakota Fidram

Description (in original language)

« La belle » est un poème cinétique créé par Philippe Bootz en 1989. Publié dans la revue alire 2, il a été plus tard porté dans l’anthologie Le salon de lecture électronique en 1994. Le poème lui-même est un programme bref qui est présenté en quelques parties. C’est-à-dire, le poème semble être coupé en strophes : une strophe préliminaire qui introduit le poème, une séquence de vers qui s’apparaissent et disparaissent rapidement au centre de l’écran qui constituent la deuxième partie et une troisième strophe qui est présentée juste après la première et deuxième strophe. Pourtant, la troisième strophe se modifie un peu après la deuxième strophe. On ne voit que le dernier vers, « froid jusqu’au cœur ». Ce moyen de présenter le poème rend la compréhension de son sens difficile et donc crée un sentiment de déprise. En outre, la rapidité du programme est accentuée sur le portage à cause de raisons technologiques. Donc, le sentiment de déprise est augmenté par mégarde sur le portage. Malgré cela, on peut tirer un sens du poème, à condition que l’on sache comment ralentir le programme. Il faut taper sur les touches pause et entrée rapidement et à brefs intervalles pour que l’on puisse même voir les vers du poème. Une fois que le poème est mis sur pause, on peut commencer à lire le poème pour saisir son sens. Cependant, il existe dans le poème, derrière le texte dans le fond du poème, des déformations visuelles, qui prennent forme de cubes pixellisés et polychromes. Ces déformations rendent la lecture du poème presque impossible, ce qui ajoute un autre élément de déprise au programme. Le sens de cet effet visuel dans le poème fait penser de la froideur du cœur évoqué au vers « froid jusqu’à cœur ». Ces cubes pixélisés sont semblables au givre qui cristallise sur le verre. Cette image juxtaposée avec l’image de la beauté dans le reste du poème suggère une sorte d’ironie peut-être. Quant au thème du poème, une imagerie sexuelle et féminine évoque un sens de vanité critiquée. Par exemple, le vers « mes jambes affleurent l’air » suggère une image sexuelle du corps féminin. Dans ce vers on peut constater que c’est une femme (ou la femme qui est le sujet du poème) qui parle et fait un commentaire sur son corps sexualisé. Elle dit « mes jambes », donc renforçant l’idée qu’elle critique sa propre image. Mais, c’est le vers « comme ces lèvres ne savent que/ tourner la tête » qui souligne l’aspect vaniteux de l’image d’une belle femme. La beauté féminine semble venir de l’acte de regarder, et peut-être convoiter aussi, son corps. Pourtant, le poème semble critiquer cette vanité aussi en mettant fin au poème avec le vers « froid jusqu’au cœur ». Ce vers suscite peut-être la fadeur de la sexualisation du corps féminin, en particulier par les hommes. Cette indication du machisme est renforcée par le fait que la structure du poème parait symboliser l’acte de « mater » une belle femme. On commence par regarder les jambes et ensuite remonter le regard vers les « deux fruits », symboles des seins. Finalement, le regard se fixe sur la tête et les lèvres. Donc, c’est une présentation des pieds à la tête du corps féminin, imitant l’habitude masculine de regarder une belle femme ou d’un observateur qui analyse une statue « lisse/ en marbre ». – écrit par Dakota Fidram

Description in original language
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