New Directions in Digital Poetry

Description

As poets continue to use digital media technology, functionalities of computing extend aesthetic possibilities in documents focusing attention on crafting verbal content. Utility of these machines and tools enables multiple types of compounded articulation (combinations of verbal, visual, animated, and interactive elements). Building larger public awareness of the mechanics of digital poetry, New Directions in Digital Poetry aspires to influence the formation of writing with media in literary society of the future, specifically as a record of a particular technological era. Emerging from these studies is that digital poetry as a WWW-based, networked form happens 'in stages', 'on stages'. Few works require singular responses from viewers - both composition of works and viewing them are processes involving multiple steps and visual scenarios. For anyone interested in the interplay of poetry and technology, this book provides an informed look at digital poetry in its contemporary state. In the process of performing "close readings," Funkhouser makes suggestions and provides methods for viewing works, for audiences perhaps unfamiliar with mechanical and semiotic conventions being used.

C.T. Funkhouser is an Associate Professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the author of Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995.

"Once again, Funkhouser is way ahead of the rest. No one else pays such close attention to digital poetry, and no one else attends to the payoff: a deep understanding of the viewing and reading experience, backed by detailed and illuminating research into the technical and compositional process. The future of poetry never looked so bright." --Sandy Baldwin, the Center for Literary Computing, West Virginia University The greatest strength of Chris Funkhouser's New Directions in Digital Poetry is that the author is willing to engage with diverse forms and modalities of digital poetry on their own terms. Funkhouser is neither bending these text-machines into a predetermined theoretical paradigm nor falling into the trap of reading them simply as devices. While taking into account their computational properties and networked context, Funkhouser never strays from a focused and intelligent reading of the works he surveys as poems. This is a greater accomplishment than one might assume: many of the works he encounters here are combinatory multimedia hybrids that challenge readers to interpret different signals and poetic structures than they might be accustomed to. And yet, as Funkhouser's readings so aptly attest, even among cognitive dissonance, meaning can found here, and wonder, and nearly infinite possibility. I look forward to using this book in electronic literature courses I teach. Not only does New Directions in Digital Poetry offer an exemplary heuristic model of how to read digital poetry, it is also an excellent companion to the two volumes of the Electronic Literature Collection where many of the works Funkhouser engages can be found online and freely accessible. --Scott Rettberg, University of Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group His role as a guide/agent (in the interface sense) is the role every reader takes to a certain extent in exploring a literature where each reader path may be different. Indeed, the book would be useful in teaching students different ways of exploring digital poetry -- Judy Malloy * Authoring Software * By emphasizing the pleasures and moment-to-moment experiences of digital poems more than theory and poetics, Funkhouser has succeeded in both making these poems exciting and making a convincing case for their poetic and aesthetic value. I have yet to encounter any critical work that does as good a job at orienting a newcomer to this new literary world... Explorations of digital poetry's uncertain and ever-changing terrain are invaluable for poets, scholars, and readers. What C. T. Funkhouser has given us is in New Directions in Digital Poetry is a detailed and thoughtfully drawn map of this terrain and a guidebook for all who seek the strange pleasures of this digital art form. * Triquarterly.org *