Stepping Into the River: Experiencing John Cayley's riverIsland

 In this paper I investigate the emergence of new writing and reading practices under the impact of digital media. Examining Cayley's poetic work riverIsland , I focus on what the poet himself calls “literal morphing.” These transformations of letters constitute, I argue, an important shift in poetic writing whose importance for literary analysis must be acknowledged. I conclude that poetic works in programmable media lead to a rethinking of concepts of surface and depth in relation to writing.