RE: [-empyre-] Welcome Jim Andrews re: Electronic Poetry

[Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>]

Thanks, Christina, Melinda, and Michael.

I know that the soft skinned space contains many who are very knowlegeable about 'Electronic
Poetry' and perhaps also many who have only a passing acquaintance with it, and are instead
familiar more with other aspects of digital art.

What I would like to explore is digital art that bridges the gap between what comes to mind with
the term 'Electronic Poetry' and other forms of digital art. I admired the work of several
'polyartists' early on in my path of folly. My work is toward synthesis of arts, media, and
programming. With stress on language. And sometimes strain. Poetry suffers as never before.

I've been thinking about the role of programming in digital art recently and also, more
specifically, about the role of programming in digital poetry. What I'd like to do is share my
thoughts on these two related subjects. I've been writing something on this matter, started it
before you asked me to be featured in the soft skinned space. It's in process, not hard coded as
yet, so feedback on it will also be formative in the essay and perhaps the feedback itself will
form something interesting.

What I'll do is post what I have so far, in readable sizes, over the course of several posts
over several days, and will be writing and revising as I go, based in part on the feedback from
the list. The idea is to explore the roles of programming in digital art and in poetry.

Much 'Electronic Poetry' does not involve much programming by the artist. And discussion of the
roles of programming therein is correspondingly attenuated. It isn't quite so reverbical
concerning discussion of the synthesis of media and arts in e-poetry. What I've tried to do in
what I've written is to put the matter in context of the phenomenology (or characteristics) of
computers, in the first post I'll post, and then examine the new relations between language and
mathematics/Computer Science. I feel that the 'stress on language' in our time is profoundly
related to the new relations between language and math, and want to explore the impact and
nature of this in digital art and e-po. Part of the edge of language is where the stress is.
Part of the stress on language arises out of quite a different 'person vs machine' dynamic
present in the language itself, often, in po-e.

For those who would like to check out some of my work, you'll find it at http://vispo.com . Here
is some recent stuff:

ARTEROIDS
http://vispo.com/arteroids
A literary shoot em up. Poetry suffers as never before. Available in English and Portuguese;
Portuguese translation by Regina Célia Pinto.

NIO
http://turbulence.org/Works/Nio
Sound and visual poetry meet music and lettristic animation. Be sure to visit both verse 1 and
verse 2.

BLUE HYACINTH
http://vispo.com/StirFryTexts/bluehyacinth3.html
A collaboration with Pauline Masurel. She did the writing; I made the form. Requires IE 4+ for
the PC.

PARIS CONNECTION
http://vispo.com/thefrenchartists
A project in critical media focussing on the work of six Parisian artists: Jean-Jacques Birgé,
Nicolas Clauss, Frédéric Durieu, Jean Luc Lamarque, Antoine Schmitt, and servovalve. This
project is presented in Portuguese, French, Spanish, and English.

ENIGMA N^2
http://vispo.com/animisms/enigman2
A conceptual experiential piece in interactive audio.

MORE INTERACTIVE AUDIO
http://vispo.com/vismu
My Shockwave audio work.

SOFTWARE
http://vispo.com/software
Downloadable games and tools.

Thanks again!

ja