These digital poems are taken from the sequence I wrote for my Creative Writing MA dissertation. I aimed to provide a counterexample to Umberto Eco, who says:
… there are technical innovations that do not change, such as the book. … Once perfection has been achieved, it cannot be improved.
Eco & Carrière, This is not the End of the Book (London: Vintage, 2012).
I argued that digital poetry can be used effectively to depict depression, and that there are advantages in using digital techniques over printed page poetry for this topic, and by extension for other topics.
For me, digital poetry is the presentation of words (and often other media) on a computer screen, controlled by code to achieve effects such as ephemerality, non-linearity, motion and display format transitions, reader interaction, and randomness. The digital poet imparts additional meaning to the words through a non-static display that has extra potential to surprise the reader. This has a significant effect on the reader, including a partial change in role. The reader is now not only the reader/user, but also to a greater or lesser extent the writer.
The distinction between book and computer has blurred, as has the distinction between producer and consumer of content. (Josie Barnard)
Barnard, The Multimodal Writer (London: Red Globe Press, 2019)
I find the possibilities of digital poetry endlessly exciting – almost making the 20 years I worked with computers worthwhile! Thus far I’ve experimented with text-only digital poetry, and I haven’t got anywhere near the limits of that form. And I also want to look at adding multimedia elements in a way that the resulting work is still “poetry”, however that’s defined…
Below I’ve given brief descriptions of each poem next to a video of me performing that poem (I suggest you watch the videos full-screen so you’re able to read the text).
Please do follow the links below the descriptions to “read” the poems yourself – often a very different experience to watching my performance. NB these are designed to work on a full-sized PC/laptop screen, so won’t work well on mobile phones.
Matryoshka
Exploring the masking that is often found in depressed people (and autistic people) – hiding aspects of yourself from others, and even from yourself.
Depression Inventory
A re-imagining of a standard depression assessment questionnaire in poetic form.
I am [not] an information trap
Nearly eleven thousand million million million million poems for the price of one…
Teenage Poetry
Originally titled “Awful Teenage Poetry”, this was the first digital poem I wrote that uses movement of text on the screen.
Many Worlds
A poem exploring the theory that for every possible outcome of any decision/event a new world is created.
Whac-a-Thought
Gamification of the intrusive thoughts that often plague people with depression.
Conversations with a Psychiatrist
Some psychiatrists don’t seem to listen to what a depressed person is trying to tell them…