Porto

Creative Work
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1977
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According to Funkhouser’s reading of Barbosa’s poem “Porto” (1977), “Porto, a city built on steep granite cliffs on the coast of Portugal, is the inspiration for the language presented and rearranged by the author for poetic effect. The output appears as a block of text of capitalized letters, and as such it has a strong visual quality. Barbosa’s program, while certainly cyclical (…) enables 40,320 permutations. (…) The addition of prepositions adds three times as many configurations and prevents the poem from reflecting a slot apparatus.” (2007: 40). “(…) the overall effect that is achieved by Barbosa’s program is that endless different phrases are built that transmit different dimensions of the same sentiment.” (41) Funkhouser considers that there is a “sense of the passage of time (…) [and] other cultural aspects of the city and its people may be read into the lines, some of which nearly defy interpretation.” (41)

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Screen shots: 
"Porto" (Literatura Cibernética 1, 1977), scanned by Rui Torres/PO.EX
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Scott Rettberg