Kimchi Poetry Machine
The Kimchi Poetry Machine is powered by open-source tangible computing. When the jar is opened, poetry audibly flows from it, and readers and listeners are immersed in the meditative experience of poetry. Small “kimchi twitter” paper poems are housed inside the jar, with each poem is printed an invitation to tweet a poem to the machine handle. Eight original feminist “kimchi twitter” poems were written for the machine by invited women and transgender poets. The Kimchi Poetry Machine prototype was created through my 2014 summer fellowship from the CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) Invention Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. As a response to “bookless” libraries, The Kimchi Poetry Machine reimagines how tangible computing can be utilized for a feminist participatory engagement with poetry. (Source: ELC 3)
This installation work exists at the intersection of poetry, food, and machines. The fermentation process used to create and store kimchi in the jar becomes a metaphor for the creative and computational processes that produce the work. Opening a jar to activate the work creates parallels with the opening of a book or executing a file for a reader to consume.
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