In Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995, C.T. Funkhouser remarks that the growing numbers of digital poets - and poetry readers - reflects a burgeoning interest in the expressive capabilities of computers, and the dynamic programs these computers utilize. For many visual and avant-garde poets, the expressive capabilities of computers and computer programs now play an integral role in the composition of poetry, and help to create a point of departure for new dimensions of textual creation and exploration that could not otherwise exist without these mechanized vessels. One of these points of departure, what I like to call algorithmic translations, employs graphic imaging software to help further add an element of dimensionality to a text by reconfiguring each page as a kind of non-Euclidean entity. Through a series of algorithmic calculations, the computer program extrudes a sequence of abstract images based upon the original topographical placement of the type on the space of the page. This algorithm transforms each letter, each mark of punctuation, into dendrites of signification that extrude off the shell of the page, like non-Euclidean stalagmites into a transcendent, dimensional continuum of textual space. Each image is inimitable; the image can never be recreated in the same way twice due to the program’s seemingly aleatory function during the algorithmic transliteration. Within the cyberspace continuum, these abstract images possess an array of Cartesian, geometric properties that allow for each textual entity to be viewed from all angles in a more volumetric space. The end result quite literally showcases a three-dimensional, computer-generated translation that physically upholds the lattice suggested by the text’s original structure, while semantically retaining the text’s abstract concepts. - Eric Zboya
TRANSLATIONS by eric zboya. visual poetry collection. avantacular press, 2012. 20 pages. $10.00, which includes shipping.
TRANSLATIONS by eric zboya. visual poetry collection. avantacular press, 2012. 20 pages. $10.00, which includes shipping.