Digital Poetry: Comparative Textual Performances in Trans-Medial Spaces

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: DIGITAL POETRY: COMPARATIVE TEXTUAL PERFORMANCES IN TRANS-MEDIAL SPACES Mirona Magearu, Ph.D., 2011 Directed By: Professor Regina Harrison, Comparative Literature Department Professor Silvia Carlorosi, Italian Department This study extends work on notions of space and performance developed by media and poetry theorists. I particularly analyze how contemporary technologies re-define the writing space of digital poetry making by investigating the configuration and the function of this space in the writing of the digital poem. Thus, I employ David Jay Bolter‘s concept of ―topographic‖ digital writing and propose the term ―trans-medial‖ space to describe the computer space in which the digital poem exists, emerges, and is experienced. With origins in Italian Futurism, the literary avant-garde of the first half of twentieth century, digital poetry extends the creative repertoire of this experimental poetry tradition using computers in the composition, generation, or presentation of texts. Because these poems convey a perception of space as changeable and multiple (made of computer screen and code spaces), this ―trans-medial‖ space is both self-transformative (forms itself as it self-transforms) and transforming (transforms what it contains). Media scholars such as Espen Aarseth and Stephanie Strickland often explain how computer programming makes such digital works become sites of encounter between agencies such as author, text, or readers. Conversely, I show that this ―trans-medial‖ space is also a mediating agent in the performance of the text along with its readers in the sense that it engages in and with the performance of text. I examine three forms of digital poetry: Gianni Toti‘s video-poetry, Caterina Davinio‘s net- JavaScript-based poetry. These Italian and United States poet-scholars are leading figures in digital poetry. As scholars, they articulate the theoretical frameworks of this genre in landmark anthologies. As poets, their digital works are similar in that they are indebted to Italian Futurism; and yet they represent distinct visions of and about poetry in new media spaces. I use their works to think through video-graphic spaces, networked spaces, and scripting spaces as expressions of trans-medial space. In this respect, my comparative analysis opens up new venues for the reading of digital poetry by re-fashioning the concept and the function of the writing space of our digitized world. DIGITAL POETRY: COMPARATIVE TEXTUAL PERFORMANCES IN TRANS-MEDIAL SPACES By Mirona Magearu Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 Advisory Committee: Professor Regina Harrison, Co-chair Professor Silvia Carlorosi, Co-chair Professor Matthew Kirschenbaum Professor Martha Nell Smith Professor Ruth Zambrana ©Copyright by Mirona Magearu 2011 Acknowledgements I owe gratitude to all my professors at the University of Maryland. First I would like to thank Prof. Orrin Wang, who was the first one to believe in me and accepted me in the Ph.D. program and Prof. Zita Nunes, who continuously motivated me throughout this intellectual journey. My sincere thanks also go to my co-chairs, Prof. Regina Harrison and Prof. Silvia Carlorosi, who provided careful close readings of my work and taught me how to cultivate my intellectual creativity. Their advice, mentorship, and encouragement contributed immensely to my scholarly growth. I would also like to acknowledge Prof. Matthew Kirschenbaum and Prof. Martha Nell Smith for offering insightful conversations about my work and for guiding me to find my own voice as a scholar. In addition, Prof. Ruth Zambrana‘s suggestions about methodology were instrumental to finalize this project. Most importantly, I would like to thank my dear and patient mother, Maticulicutili, who has constantly supported me and my decisions in the most challenging moments. Thanks to Isabella Moulton, Manju Suri, and to all my friends who have been available when needed. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………ii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………..iii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter I: Theorizing ―Trans-medial Space‖ in the Making of Digital Poetry…………..6 Chapter II: Historicizing Digital Poetry within a Comparative Framework…………….47 Chapter III: The Networked Spaces of Caterina Davinio‘s Net Performances………….87 Chapter IV: Performances in The Scripting Spaces of Loss Pequeño Glazier‘s ―Dynamic Texts‖…………………………………………………………...125 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………162 Appendices: Appendix I: ―Chat-poem‖………………………………………………………………165 Appendix II: ―Fragment-What Machine Itza Poesia‖ ………………………………….170 Appendix III: ―Reconstructed ‗Mouseover‘‖………………………………………….174 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...178 iii List of Figures The Dreamlife of Letters Fig. 1 First part from the print version and the entire index version of the poem……….20 Fig. 2 Series of three screenshots from the onscreen performance of the letter ―s.‖…22-23 Fig. 3 Letter ―s‖ from the print version…………………………………………………..23 Tupac Amauta Fig. 4 The evolution of the initial series of knotted cords……………………………….82 Fig. 5 The image of a room in which Toti overlaps the images of Jesus‘ and Amaru‘s Crucifixion…………………………………………………………….................83 ―Global Poetry‖ Fig. 6 Franco Spena mixing poetry and art with a shovel, Giuseppina Riggi installing poems and images in an art gallery in Caltanissetta, Italy……………………...104 Fig. 7 Brice Bowman‘s board installation with poems and images from e-mails. Nicola Frangione‘s ―partitura ‗Participiopassato‘ 1989-1991‖ and Mirella Bentivoglio‘s image of an open book……………………………...............105-106 Fig. 8 Coco Gordon holding the pile of printed e-mails among which is Maurizio Osti‘s visual poem………………………………………………………………109 Fig. 9 Miguel Alba‘s visual poem submitted in Spanish is on the tram wall in Russia ………………………………………………………………………..110 ―Virtual Mercury House‖ Fig. 10 Denis Belley‘s poetry reading………………………………………….............117 ―Bromeliads‖ Fig. 11 Lines from the source code, screen line from digital ―Bromeliads,‖ and line from ―Bromeliads‖ in print……………………………………………127 Fig. 12 The photographs which preface its first two stanzas…………………………...137 Fig. 13 Two random literary variants from the first and second stanzas……………….138 ―Mouseover‖ Fig. 14 The first ―native‖ / ―pre-mouse‖ reading of each section……………………....149 iv Introduction Digital poetry as a genre emerged, developed, and continually diversified from its beginnings in the 1960s as an algorithm-based text, then becoming a graphical / kinetic text, appearing as a hypertext in the 1980s and emerging as a networked media text in the 1990s. Although conceptually such poetry draws on the creative repertoire of experimental twentieth century poetry, technically it reflects the diverse technologies that emerge in innovative digital processes. Digital poetry is an expression of contemporary technologies of writing, and the making of these digital poetries calls attention to how such technologies foster diverse forms of poetry writing. Significantly, poetry has always engaged with the technologies of its making. It is a characteristic seen in the roots of the word itself. Etymologically, the word ―poetry‖ stems from the Greek ―poiesis,‖ which means ―to create,‖ ―to make.‖ Originally used as a verb implying an action, the word has now the meaning of a noun which references ―creation‖ or ―making.‖ That is to say poetry entails both the act of making and the object created. The transition from oral to print and then to new media culture testifies how diverse forms of poetry emerge in and with diverse writing spaces. Thus, in oral culture, poetry is created in an oral space that is the space in which the word is uttered and transmitted. Because the oral poet ―writes‖ directly to the minds of the audience, the space of poetry writing becomes the space between the poet and his audience. In this way, the writing space of the poem is an oral space of memory as well. Also, because in an oral culture the word exists only in sound as spoken language, the poem exists essentially in the act of speaking and hearing. Hence, oral poetry is ephemeral, and calls for a ―here and now‖ experience. Later on, with print culture, poetry 1 is tied to page as a writing space. This space draws attention to the visual qualities of the word. Significantly, this writing space reveals itself as a space of memory which records the spoken words on the page in the form of script that becomes a poem only when readers encounter it. Thus, the print poem comes into existence in the act of reading. In new media culture, poetry relies on the use of various computer media in the composition, generation, or presentation of the text. As a result, in digital poetry, ―poiesis‖ becomes ―p0es1s‖ in that its making integrates the zeros and the ones of the digital writing space.1 As I will demonstrate, the writing space in which the digital poem is made manifest fosters a particular perception vis-à-vis the act of writing and the poem as a product. The correlation between digital poetry and the ways in which contemporary technologies re-define the writing space is significantly timely. In 1991 new media theorist David Jay Bolter traces the changing technologies of writing and associates the emergence of hypertext with the ―topographic‖ quality of

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