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1. Incarnation: Heart of the Maze

   This lyrically powerful hypertext poem is inspired and informed by a large number of sources, primarily on mythology (mostly Greek) and labyrinths (mandala shaped ones). Centered upon the Minotaur myth, the labyrinth Daedalus and Icarus built to contain it, Ariadne and the Minotaur himself, the poem gives a voice to some of these characters, representing them visually with an image of a portion of the mandala-shaped stone maze, and a body part (in the name given to the node. The hypertext is structured like a mandala, allowing readers to take direct paths in towards a center space with its own nodes. The interface also allows for lateral or circular movement across voices, placing them in conversation with one another and allowing readers to spiral in towards the center. (Source: Leonardo Flores, I ♥ E-Poetry)

   Carolyn Guertin - 20.06.2012 - 22:42

2. Broken

   This poem is constructed around an erotic scenario between two recurring characters in Sondheim’s writing: Nikuko “a Russian ballet dancer” and Dr. Leopold Konninger. From the loading frame in this Flash piece, we are provided a point of view as if we’re the computer and are about to enter Sondheim’s imagination, and the audio doesn’t set this up as a comforting prospect. The poem seems to be designed to disturb as images of fragmented, objectified human beings gaze at one from positions of powerlessness and empowerment. Nikuko herself is portrayed as a kind of geisha dominatrix, particularly when juxtaposed with Dr. Konninger’s post-coital supine body. Subsequent images of a pile of heads and body parts and phrases like “carnage and extasy” create an unsettling mix of death and “la petit mort.”

   (Source: Leonardo Flores)

   Helene Helgeland - 12.11.2012 - 14:39

3. Nomad Lingo

   From April 1, 2000 to April 1 2001, David Jhave Johnston launched his career as a digital poet with a year of poetry experiments using Flash. Titled “Nomad Lingo,” he published several e-poems every month— producing a treasure trove of works that attest to his raw talent, whimsical style, and the ability to create a lyrical voice through lines that are both sensuous and theoretically engaging.

   Some aspects he experiments with is how kinetic language and pacing can evoke different meanings and shape tone. For example, the flame-like words in “Watching Fire” is so much more relaxing than the frantic “Me Critters.” Similarly, the lines in “Ceaseless,” while fast-paced, are readable and put reader’s at ease, while “Flood” overwhelms the reader with its accelerating pace and movement. He also works with minimalist interactivity in “Irreconciliable” and “Tsunami” by making the letters and lines respond to mouseovers to reveal other texts.

   (Source: Leonardo Flores)

   Helene Helgeland - 12.11.2012 - 15:01

4. Days of JavaMoon

   This hypertext work interconnects the moon with women, sexuality, Tantric texts, ancient folk medicine, and JavaScript. Yes. JavaScript. And it works because it aligns computer scripting codes with ancient algorithms: in this case, recipes and potions for psychological and sexual male enhancement. The scripting language displayed in some of the lexia is readable for those with some code literacy, and can be followed along by most, since it contains abundant natural language. Gender politics feature prominently in this work, touching on themes of sexual abuse, homosexuality, sexual enhancement, ancient recipes for gaining power over women, penis enlargement, modern ways in which women have low self-esteem, religion, and more. The audio component is in Realplayer format, a plugin that can be annoyingly commercial, but the experience is certainly enhanced by the light touches of music and sound in this piece. This piece has some random and interactive elements, and is therefore worth exploring several times to get a sense for the whole. (Source: Leonardo Flores, I ♥ E-Poetry)

   Hannelen Leirvåg - 02.02.2013 - 12:38

5. Death Valley

   This short poem uses a backdrop of stars flickering and occasionally shooting in the background as lines of text flow up the screen accompanied by images that emphasize some aspects of the text. This is not a romanticized cool night sky with distant stars: its imagery emphasizes the heat of blazing suns. The speaker isn’t a Romantic poet gazing longingly at the unreachable: she describes us as “dangerous” burning as hotly as the stars themselves, but with hellish desire.

   The desire to touch the stars is emphasized by the textual responsiveness as each line and stanza moves from the bottom to the top of the screen. Touch the lines with the pointer, and a hissing, loud, whisper of a voice reads the lines out loud, once for each contact, perhaps a reminder of how loud the burning of stars must sound, if sound could carry across such vast, empty, distances.

   If we shift our focus from the macroscopic scale of the universe to the microscopic scale of electrical impulses, are those untouchable pixels flickering on the screen equally distant?

   (Source: Leonardo Flores, I ♥ E-Poetry)

   Hannelen Leirvåg - 10.02.2013 - 14:33

6. The murmur of i n t e r s t i c e s

   This is a collaboration across centuries between the 13th century Persian mystic and poet known as Rumi, whose silky lines of poetry appear beneath Zahra Safavian’s 3 by 3 grid of tiles with short looping videos and words— an interface for meditation on this poem’s idea. Rumi is credited with inventing the meditative poetic practice of “the turn” by dancing to the rhythm of the hammering of the goldsmiths. Rumi’s poems are usually organized into couplets, not necessarily rhyming, clustered into variable stanzas, and tend to establish a conversation between self and other, self and the world. Each tile can be clicked to reveal another word and video, representing perhaps some of the dualities expressed in the concept of the “turn,” though we are not dealing with binary opposites— the associations are more diverse than that. The three lines that appear after interacting with the short videos on the grid reinforce that idea, separating awareness of the head and the feet, each turning on its own, uncaring what the other does, as with a baby nursing.

   Hannelen Leirvåg - 28.02.2013 - 20:28