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There seems to be a kind of struggle between
electronic text and print text--which is better, which will win out, but these two types
of text are not designed to and will not replace one another. Each medium text may assert
itself in adds something different to the text. Print and electronic texts both bring
their own qualities and options. The time we live in is the beginnings of the movement of electronic literature, and the comparison between print and electronic text must be made because literature has before only been realized in print or voice and this new form is threatening. Electronic text developed as an offshoot of print text, and therefore, is identified by its similarities and differences to print text. The comparison between the two needs to happen and be re-analyzed constantly to keep it current and straight. As I try to represent in this thesis, there is a continuing oscillation and dialogue between print and electronic text, so that, at this point, many works, print or electronic, can be understood in relation to works in the other medium. Experimental contemporary print poet and visual artist Susan Howe says about the reception of new forms, "I think that one reason there is so much ugly antipathy to writers who are breaking form in any way is because people know that language taps an unprecedented power source in all of us. It's not the same in the visual arts where there are many abstract or form-breaking artists who enjoy wide popularity, are embraced by a critical establishment, and sell their work for a tremendous amount of money. You will see their work in museums and books about the work on large glass coffee tables. Try the same thing with language, and you may find your writing lost. This is because words are used as buoys, and if they start to break up . . . everything goes because words connect us to life." ("An Interview With Susan Howe." The Difficulties. 1990. p. 35.) New media kinetic poetry is that in between. It is part new language form and part visual art. Where do we locate the power in it? Where do we anchor ourselves to it? Is it easier to accept than new print forms because of its visual art component? I don't believe it is. The medium is so kinetic and contradictory itself, a box, real, stable, and tangible, with access to more information than one could ever hope for and a view that is continuously kinetic and fleeting, that the power of it is overwhelming and intimidating. Yet the beauty and possibilities it offers up are inviting, almost irresistible. (Maybe, ultimately, computer screens will be substituted for coffee tables, and one will be able to read / watch new media kinetic poetry as she enjoys a cafe latte at her local Starbucks.) The last part of Howe's statement, that words are floating supports in the ocean of life, that they connect us to life, is something I feel is of major import to kinetic poetry. The connections, or links, this poetry explores are not just to other web sites or text boxes, but to humanity and the experience of living in our contemporary world. Just as there are many different types of print poems (sonnets, free verse, sestinas, etc), several distinct kinds of visual poetry can be identified: Remote (Control) Poetry (Eduardo Kac) |
