Technopoetics '94: Present & Future Considerations of the Word <1.> note the homunculus? Maybe. between the ampersand & questionmark Footnotes: <1.> A continuation of a previous essay, "Takes a Lot of Voices to Sing a Millenial Song", _I Am a Child: Poetry After Bruce Andrews and Robert Duncan_ (Buffalo: Tailspin, 1994). The subtitle is a passage excerpted from a preliminary encounter with David Kushner on SonicNet. Prepared specifically for a panel on "Technologies of Language" at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association In The South and American Culture Association In The South, 23 October, 1994, Charlotte, NC. <2.> In the essay "Technology, Scholarship, and the Humanities: The Implications of Electronic Information", Vartan Gregorian discusses his concerns about the fragmentation of knowledge and how information technologies allow us to organize ourselves into too many separate, specialized communities: "What is being created is less like a village than an entity that reproduces the worst aspects of urban life: the ability to retreat into small communities of the like- minded, safe not only from unnecessary interactions with those whose ideas and attitudes are not like their own, but safe from having to relate our interests and results to other communities." (_Leonardo_, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 131, 1994). <3.> This event was hosted by SonicNet, a dial-up network service in NYC. Various people were involved with the proceedings over the course of the evening and are the voices in the CYBERSLAM. Names given by the authors: Spiro (NYC), Bob Holman (NYC), Moderator SonicNet (NYC), Lo-Ki (NYC), Cyberbabe (London, UK), Veronica (NYC), Regie (NYC), Chris Funkhouser (Albany, NY), David Kushner (NYC), Lori (LA), Robert Molochon (NYC), Blue Water (NYC), Harry Goldstein (NYC), Janis (El Paso, TX), Crow (Cambridge, MA), Skaska (NYC), Doug Cooper (NYC). Initials indicating which author wrote which lines has been removed from the text presented here, though the identifications do exist in other versions of this transcript. <4.> For readers unfamiliar with the concept of a poetry "slam", it is a recent incarnation of poetry founded in Chicago but popularized by the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe in Manhattan. The genre mainly thrives in nightclubs and rock'n'roll settings where authors read poems and are given scores by audience members. A poetry tournament might be another way to describe this type of event, were it not for the fact that typically audiences are generally quite interactive with the poets, often to the point of verbal aggression. <5.> "Congratulations. You Have Found/The Hidden Book.", _ALOUD: Voices From the Nuyrican Poets Cafe_, p. 1-2 (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1994). As textual fields expand to include cyberspace, there are various reasons why attention must be paid to what is written in the introduction to _Convivio: A Journal of Poetics [Number One]_: "Poetics is a labor and a threshold where we are working to make an actual thing...," which "is a continual reformation.... Above all it treats of inclusion,...poetics, 'in the plural,' as Robert Duncan says." As we continually face technology (television, automobiles and computers and digital intermedia), the work, our actions, must be pluralized in order to maximize the potentials of technology and not let its presence contribute to further social fragmentation.<2.> The text which follows was excerpted from an October 10, 1994 application of mutual composition technology, created through home computers and a dialup network. Regardless of its qualities as a piece of art, such a text is essentially something more than a piece of writing (though it was composed on keyboards), or a book (though it is preserved by computer disc). As literature begins to blend with other forms and other media, new forms and types of collaboration emerge: Live from NYC's Lower East Side NUYO RECORDS' GRAND SLAM - POETRY AS BLOODSPORT!!!! <3.> Join the national slam champions and host Bob Holman of the legendary Nuyorican Poets' Cafe for the galaxy's first CYBERSLAM.<4.> Press Any Key Before entering this conference room you should know a few things... 1: When you first enter your presence will be announced to everyone in the room. DO NOT TYPE ANYTHING when you enter the conference room, just wait and watch to see who is talking and what is being discussed. 2: Understand that what you type on your screen only appears to everyone else when you press Enter to `send' it. This means you can use backspace and delete to correct things, but it also means that people may be WAITING to see what you are typing. To avoid long waits, interruptions, and confusion, type like this: Type short bits... end in "dot dot dot" ... press "Enter" every few words... and when done... end with... your initials, like this. DN 3. Wait until the person before you has entered their initials before you hit "Enter". This will allow us to all .. to see & read each other.. Also the following commands may be useful: /q Quit - leave the conference room /w Who's online /s Send a private message see /help for details ANYTHING YOU TYPE WHICH IS NOT PREFACED WITH A FORWARD SLASH CHARACTER (/) WILL BE DISPLAYED TO ALL OTHER USERS IN CONFERENCE WITH YOU! For this reason, TYPE CAREFULLY! Enjoy the conference... Angel! I aimest at the site of love, a crown of born, a shift to lift. Ala the boom! boomalay boo m'lay BOOM is a young poets deity defining the words of sound to mouth to ear to cyberspace Bloodsport is an excellent adjectivery on an anti-columbus day No, there is a world of living world of living in the livingroom Stereo? what sound rocket a racket finger chickkle chickle Airy aereo. Ticket the pocket of sound. Who's winning? Files are denial walk a mile to a truckstop subway bluyes tune tella Bit Jack and Mega Bit jill Glub glub the view from down here is blue telephoney congress on capital hill telea promt start me make a simple man beg.. tella phone send me for a cup o' tea (tela com heare me with a pot of ... Da stars the sun work stations reaching for the.... Duckegg Peking? never, never... Bejing Duckeggs in the womb of my mother board the third is a world that disturbs me Come back dear heart of thread Oh yes it is none to heither for me either. Oh my breaking heart (o the melodrama) A tangerine scene bakes the loaf :::Asks same question::: A lemon steals the show Gone to Haiti, Matey a t & t steals the show,... Drain my teeth of hell upon a branch of C like a thief at a morrocan market Holy Jupiter indian lit room heart has been severed and munch up into chunks of liver for the cats Like a poet with a dictionary for a toothpick I can't keep the space between my teeth tastier joining in... like a dead duck down the drink delicious, delicious proverbs in progress the madder magazine If your parents.. could send messages back to themselves | Made you wear plaid... They never truly ... what's happening with yr video? Loved you :) ducks on the panelling fortitude fibrulation put your kilt back on, cracked shell mauve plangent longly distance blade runners I've heard of a few. The spineless kind? a spire? single frame buzz dump Con-Spire In spire implosion diesel pram perambulating miss placed frogs that hop in the snow I stick is there any way i can send what i write back to myself as it fits in real time with the conversation? the blockhead men in the Ocean of know HEY EVERYONE... | TRY TO HAVE SOME ORDER. jagged and figged stone faced and frigged huddled up bunched up broken and twisted!!!!! NO ONE TALK... LET'S SEE IF THIS WORKS... OKAY... REG IS UP... goregiegoregiegoregiego ARE YOU READY... GET SET... | EVERYONE ELSE... SHAD UP... REGIE... YOU'RE ON. REGIE? HMM... love cycles: elevating the human experience in poetry is a pick-up device But when I get the guy I want I always get new material huh? 7.6 4? who's judge? .02! too short. want more. who's the jury? love always gets a +. aFFECTED UPON ME LIKE A SUN SPLASH DAY tHE WORD IS ELUSIVE Feels like I should REACH UP And choke the sky Put the words back in my throat but I realise HEY, HOW BOUT SOME MEANING WITH THE FEELING is that it?!! while the storm dies You can't scream without a voice and even I think that's the pot calling the kettle Blackman, SOMEONE HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF MY KEYBOARD If you could Ma bell baby bell edipousrex teleos Anarcey spitting out text Tella prompt start me tellaport send Me tella bit tell me Telephone will me tella man fear me TeleCom HEAR ME!!!! Video one way Who would listen? yeah! AWWW... SCORES? a 9.2 in my ahem new book 3 100,000,000+ on the "john lily scale" || 9.2 Tell it to the porpoise, noise man WHO'S NEXT? OKAY, AN 8.5 um who's keepin score? I AM howzabout a pome o TAKIN' NAMES Ohhhhh nope I'm at Jupiter CHICKEN NAMES sink to the floor thank you ohhhh, so it is that dogs sing in the bull pen dog dog dog rf-rf-rf you no way! Tellen you two way tellen you my way Tella Bit Jack and Mega bit Jill Tella phoney congerss on capital hill Tellla BYTE!!!! Tella fangs of trust press against americas Neck the rivers of anticipation suckle my inner bum-rumpus nice last line blue. 8.456 rf-rf-rf That was really doggy style. I dug the dog. 8.8 me too I dug the hole i dug the sink Tella lack of vision What is this all mean rrfrrf Tella Joysticks for tv Tella lemings to the Sea I have to go all my lungs re reversed, green is mean. love handles on TV's, right next to the volume nob Tella KidJunkies cant get free nothing mean, promise, not at all... Tella Gentic Chrildern caught in a Dead static RAIN>>>>>> I supersoniced from base control. (how do you do pvt messages??) Next poem? anybody? TYPE /S, THEN THE LINE NUMBER, A SPACE, AND A MESSAGE ANY QUESTIONS? TYPE /H FOR HELP. One Way of Looking at a Blackbird That is no bird Runs in to the wall and bounces back That is a window And a Tiny little brick. reportage from the grim front "the Heart the Heart REMBEMBER the Dead Don't Share" what about the avuncular driver's seat? cuz we like like it loud here ooooooo wants to hear water gurgle FOR YOU... NO ANSWERS ARE LIKE NO REVIEWS... AND YOUR POEMS... are like fish naughty IN A MOMENT OF EXQUISITE TENSION Caught, smoked, and hooked LIFE MAY LEAVE A STAIN On the phone. sorry! ON THE MOMENT... NO EXCUSES... WE'RE WAITING... ARE YOU READY? On the phone, be back in a minute. carry one. AWW... or two TO BUSY?... THIS LITTLE POET GOT SOLD!.. HOW ABOUT YOU LO KI? THIS LITTLE POET THINKS HE'S A ROCKSTAR!..... WHILE THAT POET OVER DERE this short slug's gotten a bad rap runs in the room and wacks you with a huge sausage! WACK! GOT OLD AND SICK AND POOR this is just as exclusive THE DRAFT UPWIND CAN ONLY LEAVE IN IT'S WAKE Sad roman a clef, s-man. Clues? THE SHAFT Shaesh Ezra Pound? so i scream what of it oh, gefilte fish on corn bread shinfat shinfat hi x x toads trade children by the pond side like greasy villians from some low grade how about a poem? Their it is ok buttered soy corners THE END ahem is just the beginning where's the guy from the Real World? "The Dead Don't share through they reach toward us from the grave.. (and I Swear they Do!) They do not hand Us their Hearts they Hand Us their Heads the Part that Stairs. Infinity Plus - topical, erratic, and genius! Ras binky shot hisself in da foot feet of pork meat with a shape lumpy whitefish sandwich kosher, pleeeez OKAY, EVERYONE... LET'S HAVE SOME QUIET... This poem is called ART IN ARCHITECTURE HE'S READY, I THINK... <<<<<<<<<<<<@--triangular tumor +OP Dart sneckle dart sneckle im bis Could Frank Lloyd Wright create better structure what lies | between my lover and I is where the similar transcends the seven wonders of the world Twin Towers in white sheets how his slopes against my teeth- a mini skyscraper reating on muscle body rocks a |ted body rocks a cultivated landscape falling like babel --69 six or nine I wish it was longer. I decided to keep it short and sweet! Sometimes you've got to work with what you've got it's like watching textual tv. I just download Ripterm and installed and and i get a error about i actually am gently fascinated by Why do you want a Poem??? our fond feathered friends of less means than ordinary fowl you on the wrong planet because we're slammin tell me how to fix that index thing... and i will get you a cool poem.. but we'll settle for a screenplay I like this medieval barter system: poetry for online tech support pardon us whilst we resolve technical difficultures so do anybody use Ripterm? i like this medieval feudal system does ! or is that Marxian dialectic? Of course. ducal dynasty dashes down alliterative alluvial anality a poem Ucz(SvI-{] /./_CH-,= &v1X/NJ\uNLxf> lYG= o]H`Z,[Nzp":)cGDBqXDp0"pV,UYC`x~_4{7r5|[p`4 consonative cacaphonous coddywaddle the wire i sense terrible confusion dissonant dastardly digital diddling in your tea leaves hi mr minor majestic misfit or anomaly? nekkid nacreous narcosis scintillating psychotic cyborg snarkle sniffer sneezes skank down toilet loping leprachaun leaps litigious lollipop oh, snuffer shall we speak of a live skull? or a giant sand? m? A giant sand... I am ageless. be back as the kite flies, then... from the grain dirty rags piled candles burnin' in the corner, i don't know if i can breathe tomorrow can make it to tuesday the sound always depends on the instrument blown sibilance over radio hiss that radio love that radio simian ducks shave invert the lines whoever you ares... to be a "real" * * * * In the Invocation to the recent anthology ALOUD: Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe <5.>, co-editor Bob Holman writes, "This book dares to state the obvious--RAP IS POETRY--and its spoken essence is central to the popularization of poetry...Now all technology bows to the poem itself, the singular voice rising above the pablum noise of a society filled with blandspeak, the political blahblah, commercial absurdwords..." A Rap style of poetry, which moves towards making language sound with its rhymes its flashy know-it-all attitude, clearly predominates our Cyberslam transcript. Much of this type of poetry deals with mutual and uncommon aspects of americana, what is happening in domesticated as well as street lives. As with any text, varying measures of gratification are possible as a result of the Cyberslam, depending on one's poetics predisposition. Critically, one might read this piece as falling into the large pool of an already available casual cheap-joke type of poetry which so much "successful" alternative verse has moved towards in recent years. The stylistic homogeneity of the Cyberslam is almost a surprise given that there were at least a dozen authors stretching across six thousand miles of hemisphere attending to the composition. However, looking closely at the preceedings we can see elements such as concrete poetry emerging, anarchic enjambment and blatant interruption (poetic terrorism?), dada, improvisatory call and response and other derivative forms (such as humor) beneath the surface of a popular lyric form. These blends give something particular to the text, in addition to the fact that it is the first known occasion where poetry has been presented and composed by numerous authors spanning the globe in real time. Still, given the lack of a structural hierarchy and precedent, and its relative homogeneity, this writing remains unaffected by the technological apparatus, embodying more or less the same liguistic territory as the american english which pervades much of popular culture. Though there are certain points where conversation or randomness offer new dimensions, where two "poems" blend into one expanded, there remains a narrative of individuation where the scope and possibility of the poem remain contained by its simplified language and topical narrowness. As poetic purpose and usage of these mechanisms begin to take shape, future writings in this domain could be heightened by meaning and focus (following one course of aesthetic), or at least become more broadly informed by a span of conscientious poets and thinkers. Obviously, due to the newness of the technology and the numbers and varieties of people not yet hooked up with digital/computer or network resources, there is still a great deal of progress to be made in coming to terms with the potentials of the machinery. As a poetry "slam", it is difficult to imagine such competitions going over well in cyberspace until interactive audio and video terminals are available to all participants. In a face-to-face atmosphere, the speaker's voice is generally continuous in spite of jeers, though is generally not interrupted as song. On distanced screens we are unable to avoid disruption by textual terrorists able to inject to the conference language as an agency of chaos, without regard to the protocols of writing which flash on the screen before you enter the conference room. Such disruption is appropriate, perhaps, in many cases, but were it ever to be conceived of as an organized event, programmers would need to find way for the poet to instantly transport blocks of text from computer to network conferences. A few practice sessions for perspective writers might also help sharpen the dialog. Of course, at the start we are told to "enjoy" the conference. Perhaps that is what we are left with: a poetry of momentary enjoyment. It is evident that we are now just starting to feel our way through the early stages of this process distantly clicking fingertips drumming typing the future. Without imposing penalty on disruptive participants (which I wouldn't suggest as an option, needless to say), the genre as we read it today will most benefit poetry's thrill and pleasure seekers and others who have the interest to indulge. The for(u)m, as is, allows for too much physically and visually unstimulating "down" time on and, for the writer/reader in front of the screen. It possesses value as curiosity and underdeveloped experiment. Despite one writer's comment during the event about it nature as "textual tv", there are many strides to be made before poetry accesses itself to the mainstream from computer to computer. We definitely miss the "spoken essence" Holman refers to in conjuntion with _ALOUD_, as well as the buzz of the Cafe. It is evident that there are many limitations due to the software and underdeveloped audio/video network interfacing. For instance, in future writings which utilize this methodolgy, when there are two channels in such a setting, one for composition and one for subtextual dialog (discussions/speculations on the work), both reader and writer may be able to follow the cybernetic narrative without conversational disruption. Among the important elements contained in this conception of "writing" that could effect paradigms of literary texts in the future are the rules under which patrons are encouraged to write. These restructure or censure the patterns of writing, keeping it short as the attention "span" (instant). Most writing in the Cyberslam follow this premise, which conceivably works well in a sound-bite world. Still, there is not enough visual stimulation to snare the average attention at this stage. When graphics and sound dimensions become available, artists who are prepared can begin to create and experience mutual situations as a group despite physical seperations. While it is almost certain that nothing replaces the intimacy and warmth of localized inter/action and gathering, in a less than ideal world we are often driven elsewhere for contact and communion. There are scholars who believe that writing in electronic space, divulged from interpersonal contact, invites a more democratic and equilateral writing space than previously available. There are more options, varieties and interpretations of "space" and "writing" using methods accessible in the current historical and creative moments. Which brings us to the question of whether or not there are political possibilities for the medium. It is likely we might begin to see the "Moderator" play an interesting roll during a projected ongoing poetic scroll or a people's history. At what point would we find our Moderators--looking in at every conversation--beginning to police content? When inventive and intellectual people begin to gather and compose in large numbers and discuss actions toward the creation of social justice and cultural equality through a knit of energy and vision, in cyberspace and elsewhere, what authorities might our Big Brother inform then? It is probably safe to say that while we may be invited to "Press Any Key", pressing what might be considered an improper combination of keys would most certainly lead to trouble for the author(s). Consequently, it may be discovered that there is no potential for social activism through this medium. We are children in the technojungle beginning to weave floral vines within the poetics tree. There is an overt awareness of the evils of the media. With the Cyberslam there is only a mechanical move towards bridging the gap between poetry and technology. A question yet remains: what are we to do with the machines which are able to interactively process language, sound and visual aspects of expression? --Chris Funkhouser cf2785@csc.albany.edu