Digital Poetics and Hypertext

[Unspar]

Does anybody know the best place to find digital and hypertext poems? I had a class a few years ago where we read a few (the only one I remember was called "Pax"), but now I have no idea where they are.

And to bring it to a more intellectual discussion (though perhaps we need links to some examples before we can get into it), what do you think of the idea of digital poetics? Does it count as poetry, or is it a new genre or medium entirely? Can we study it the same way as paper poetry? Can we even understand it in the same way?

[blp]

You'll probably find some stuff on http://www.ubuweb.com.

Charles Bernstein, one of the Language Poets, has his own site devoted to electronic poetry I think. A search for his name should get you there, or there might be a link to it on ubuweb.

Can you say a bit more about how digital poetry functions and define it a bit more clearly?

[Unspar]

It's times like these I wish I had examples....

I've seen a few different varieties of digital poetics. One of the earliest kinds used the link as its primary way of poetic construction; these are the hypertexts. They have a short stanza or something on the screen, then offer several links to advance to a new section or stanza. The poem can be circular, it can offer bridges over itself, and it can end but doesn't always. It's almost a "choose your own adventure," as the reader inevitably constructs his or own meaning from the choices he or she makes.

Another kind I've seen I can't define as well, and this is what "Pax" falls into. It's an even more interactive poem than the hypertext, often animating the poetic elements. In "Pax" human figures float up and down the screen as time passes, and you have the choice to click on any of them or let them pass. Each person you click then reads a new line of the poem. The poem adapts to your choices as well, so if you click on a few people more than others, they'll appear more often. Even if you don't click people, lines occasionally appear on their own.

Then there's a third that I don't like, and it's much different, but it's valid in its own right. The most well-known example is Mez (for whom I found a link: http://www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker/). There's a specific term for her style, but I forget what it's called. She parses her words and phrases a lot and uses a lot of eletronic or html code to obscure or multiply meanings. It's not as interactive or open as the other forms of digital poetics; it's more poetry in its own right. But it's considered digital because it's so close to code.

Hopefully this helps clear things up.

[blp]

Makes me think I may have once written a bit of electronic poetry myself, though I'm afraid it's a lame bit of sub Brett Easton Ellisism, redeemed only slightly by an estate agency joke:

http://www.geocities.com/needlesstext/housepicp.html

but yeah, try ubuweb. I'm sure you'll find something there.

[stevenl]

Sorry -- didn't want to revive a dead thread (not so dead) but just wanted to provide a link to Bernstein's Penn Sound.

Not hypertextual stuff, but great resources similar to Kenneth Goldsmith's UbuWeb.

Here's the link (http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/)

Cheers!