me me me

<i>i</i>

New at The Continental Review

From Nicholas Manning's The Newer Metaphysicals:

What is situated between reflection and reproduction? It is something like the space between sonority, visuality, textuality: a place of movement and transition, and specifically, that point of transition where difference stops being visible, and we move almost imperceptibly into the plane(s) of resemblance. Two heads cross, becoming one, or two birds' beaks cross, becoming leaves: language participates too in this continual, Ovidian metamorphosis, and thus gives the lie to Horace's taxonomy of stable parts.

This is by far, for me, one of the most coherent and also beautiful projects we've had the chance to feature at The Continental Review to date, a piece which achieves a stunning coherency between visuality, sonority and textuality, interweaving them into an integrated, if not thankfully seamless, fabric.

Not surprising either that this effort should come from Mark Young. The video features poems from Mark's Series Magrittes, read by Miia Toivio, with animation by Marko Niemi. As you'll see from that link just above, Mark's Series Magrittes, in its current state, is available from Moria as a fully downloadable e-book, which is a pretty excellent gratos Christmas gift.

So, do check out this extraordinary piece which announces the possibilities of a poetic medium for the new century.

From Mark Young's gamma ways :

When I posted some time back an announcement by Nicholas Manning that he had started an online journal, The Continental Review, devoted to poetry videos, I noted that I hoped it wouldn’t become a repository just for talking heads (“don’t forget the shoulders,” added Nicholas in the comments boxes).

Since then, amongst the poets who have appeared are a number associated with Otoliths; verbal — Tom Beckett, Jordan Stempleman, Eileen Tabios, Jill Jones — & visual — Spencer Selby, Nico Vassilakis. But I felt I should do something about my original statement & practice what I preach, as it were.

So finally, thanks to the informal Networks sans Frontières that create community in our (electronic) world, & especially thanks to the creative genius of Marko Niemi, substance has replaced pontifical stance. A video, working title "Three from Series Magritte", has just gone up at The Continental Review.

The poems included are:
The Flavour of Tears
Not to be Reproduced
The Art of Conversation
all from from Series Magritte, published by Moria Books.

The readings by Miia Toivio first appeared on Toisen äänellä – In Another´s Voice on the Nokturno.org website.

The design concept & the animated flash file are by Marko Niemi without whom this project would never have been realized.

Check it out at The Continental Review.

Think about contributing.

Issue seven of Otoliths

Issue seven of Otoliths has just gone live. It's as eclectic as ever, but that means there's something there for everybody. Lined up in this issue are Sheila E. Murphy, Nico Vassilakis, Anny Ballardini, Vernon Frazer, Matina L. Stamatakis, Geof Huth, Matt Hetherington, derek beaulieu, Andrew Taylor, Nigel Long, Marko Niemi, Michael Steven, Anne Heide, Mark Prejsnar, Márton Koppány, Jim Leftwich, Catherine Daly, Bill Drennan, Julian Jason Haladyn, Alexander Jorgensen, Jeff Harrison, Paul Siegell, Robert Gauldie, Martin Edmond, Raymond Farr, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Friends, Andrew Topel & John M. Bennett, Andrew Topel, Mark Cunningham, Jeff Crouch, Randall Brock, Eileen R. Tabios, Jordan Stempleman, Daniel f. Bradley, Lars Palm, harry k stammer, Karri Kokko, Katrinka Moore, Tom Hibbard, dan raphael & David-Baptiste Chirot. It's what Hieronymous Bosch dreamt about, a Garden of Earthly Delights.

The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader

From Lori Emerson:

Dear friends, I'm so happy to announce the publication of The
Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader, edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson (Coach House Press 2007). Please forward this announcement far and wide!

yours, Lori Emerson
----------------------------
The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader
Coach House Press
CAD $21.95
ISBN: 1552451879
http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/index.php?ISBN=1552451879

bpNichol was one of Canada's most innovative, eclectic, entertaining, and, yes, enigmatic poets, making startling interventions in the development of poetry and profoundly influencing both his own and subsequent generations of writers.

The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader amasses key texts from the very broad spectrum of Nichol's work, including both classic favourites and more obscure treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and the life-long poem The Martyrology to the heartbreaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, The Alphabet Game traces the trajector of this wildly imaginative and prolific poet.

This Nichol anthology is an ideal introduction for readers encountering Nichol for the first time, and a much-needed compendium for Nichol fans seeking access to works not readily available.

'His wit, along with the seriousness, was there to keep the language free and untethered, to keep the poem aware of its roots, like a tuxedo worn with bare feet in a muddy river … No other writer of our time and place was so diverse, attempted so much, and never lost sight of his intent.' – Michael Ondaatje

The Alphabet Game: Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
The Complete Works (1969) 11

CONCRETE AND VISUAL POETRY
Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (1967/1973)
NOT WHAT THE SIREN SANG BUT WHAT THE FRAG MEANT 14
Poem for Kenneth Patchen 15
Blues 16
Easter Pome 17
Early Morning: June 23 18
Dada Lama: to the memory of Hugo Ball (1968) 19
The Cosmic Chef: An Evening of Concrete (1970)
untitled [nnnnnn] 25
Still Water (1970)
excerpts 26
ABC: the aleph beth book (1971)
manifesto 34
excerpts 35
Aleph Unit (1973)
Aleph Unit Closed 42
Aleph Unit Opened 43
Aleph Unit Surface 44
Aleph Unit Observed 45
Aleph Unit Not 46
Afterword 47
Alphhabet Ilphabet (1978)
H (an alphhabet) 48

FROM THE MARTYROLOGY (1972–1987)
Book 1 50
Book 2 55
Book 3 58
Book 4 78
Book 5 91
Book 6 Books 111

SHORTER POEMS AND SEQUENCES
Journeying & the Returns (1967)
Part 1: Blues on Green 130
Part 3: Ancient Maps of the Real World 133
Statement 142
The Other Side of the Room (1971)
circus days 143
stasis 145
Translating Translating Apollinaire: a preliminary report from a book
of research (1979)
TTA 4: original version 146
TTA 7: re-arranging letters alphabetically 147
TTA 13: sound translation 148
TTA 17: acrostic translation 149
from TTA 18: 10 views: view 1 (walking east … ) 153
TTA 30: poem as a machine for generating line drawings 154
TTA 53: typewriter translation after the style of Earle Birney 155
Extreme Positions (1981)
Extreme Positions 4 158

PROSE AND PROSE POETRY
Two Novels (1971)
Andy 170
For Jesus Lunatick 180
Craft Dinner: stories & texts, 1966–1976 (1978)
Gorg: a detective story 186
The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid 187
The Long Weekend of Louis Riel 191
Two Heroes 195
Journal (1978)
1 200
3 217
Two Words: A Wedding (1978) 219
Still (1982) 220
Selected Organs: Parts of an Autobiography (1988)
The Vagina 226
The Mouth 228
The Tonsils 230
The Lungs: A Draft 231
Sum of the Parts 234

LOVE ZYGAL ART FACTS
love: a book of remembrances (1974)
Frames 238
Trans-Continental 243
Allegories 272
zygal: a book of mysteries and translations (1985)
song for saint ein 280
Self-contradiction 281
probable systems 8 282
Pastoral 284
love song 285
love song 3 286
three small songs for gladys hindmarch 287
probable systems 289
probable systems 15: division of the signified 290
art facts: a book of contexts (1990)
The Frog Variations 291
Three Months in New York City: The Actual Life of Language 1 293
Sixteen Lilypads 307
untitled [asea/ease] 308
Catching Frogs 309
untitled [fr/pond/glop] 310
Water Poem 5 311
probable systems 24: physical contexts of human words 312

EPIPROLOGUE
Before Closure 313

afterword
Editorial Statement 316
Notes on the Poems 318
Select Bibliography 322
Permissions 326
Index of Poem and Book Titles 328
Acknowledgements 331
Biography 332

three new sound poems

by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl @ nokturno.

updates

Visual poems by derek beaulieu, and Kaksi plus kaksi, a new marquee poem by Karri Kokko @ nokturno.

!!

digital poetry saturday

Digital Poetry Saturday, 8th September, 2 to 4 pm, Vuosaari House (near the Vuosaari metro station), Helsinki, with Teemu Ikonen, Eino Santanen, Tytti Heikkinen, J.P. Sipilä, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen & Jim Leftwich, Marko Niemi, Karri Kokko, Outi-Illuusia Parviainen, and Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. Event is organized by Helsinki Cultural Office & Nokturno.

katalog for ny poesi

The forthcoming Audiatur - Katalog for ny poesi 2007, edited by Paal Bjelke Andersen & Audun Lindholm, with its 832 pages, seems quite a massive collection of Scandinavian and international contemporary poetry. Audiatur is also a festival and a bookstore.

sound poetry reading

Audio recordings from the sound poetry reading that took place on 22nd August 2007, in Kirjasto 10 library, Helsinki, as a part of the exhibition of experimental poetry, with Cia Rinne, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, Outi-Illuusia Parviainen, Martin Glaz Serup, me as Martin's assistant, and Miia Toivio as the presenter.

five vispo pieces

by Marco Giovenale @ nokturno.

mean

My namesake from Italy, Marco Giovenale, sent this little vispo piece, which he made through a run of my "Written in the stars" piece @ minimalist concrete poetry.

bokstavtepper - visuell poesi

From Galleri Briskeby, Oslo, Norway:



www.galleribriskeby.no

Otoliths issue six is now online

From Mark Young:

Issue six of Otoliths has just gone live. It contains work by Adam Fieled, David-Baptiste Chirot, Bill Drennan, Joel Chace, Julian Jason Haladyn, Spencer Selby, Kristine Ong Muslim, Juliet Cook, Reed Altemus, Michael Steven, Jeff Harrison, J. D. Nelson, Alex Carnevale, Mary Ellen Derwis, Alexander Jorgensen, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, dan raphael, Raymond Farr, Márton Koppány, Javant Biarujia, Philip Byron Oakes, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Rochelle Ratner, Sheila E. Murphy, Arpine Konyalian Grenier, Jordan Stempleman, Ray Craig, Iain Britton, Paul Siegell, Andrew Topel, Ernesto Priego, Mark DeCarteret, Matthew Medina, Joe Balaz, Brian Foley, Luke Daly, Martin Edmond, Tom Beckett, Karri Kokko & ek rzepka & has a cover by Geof Huth.

A reminder that print editions of the previous issues are available at The Otoliths Shopfront along with an ever-growing number of books.

Cheers
Mark Young

aphorism generator

Pöllö (Owl), by Paavo Toivanen @ nokturno.

writings from the ground

Kirjoituksia maasta (Writings From The Ground) exhibition by Heikki Saure
July 10 through July 18, 2007
Galleria Happihuone, Töölönlahti, Helsinki

Kirjoituksia maasta is based on writings Saure found lying on the ground. For over ten years, he collected pieces of paper that contained some hand-written text or drawing.

Excerpts from the work has appeared in Tuli&Savu magazine, and the entire collection is available online, at Tuli&Savu Net and Nokturno.

Galleria Happihuone

how to fax in the mailroom honey

not much of anything

From Dan Waber:

The minimalist concrete poetry site at:

http://www.logolalia.com/minimalistconcretepoetry/

has been updated with 13 pieces by Marko Niemi.

Though we might quibble over semantics, I think we can all agree that it is desirable to live in a world where more poems have the ability to move.

Come, see, enjoy, live, love, learn.

Regards,
Dan

conceptual poems

by Márton Koppány @ nokturno.

slam pearls

Jouko Saksio, the Finnish champion of Poetry Slam 2006, reads his poems @ nokturno.

20 poems of love

and a song of despair, by Pablo Neruda (1924), translated into Finnish by Jusu Annala @ nokturno.

audio recording

Sirpa Kyyrönen & Mikael Brygger read their poems @ Nynny-klubi, Helsinki, June 13.

yearning

in time & space (you imagine the music).

visual poems / altered book pages

by Tiina Ollila @ nokturno.

digital poetry from iceland

Goggi, a digital poem by Jón Örn Loðmfjörð @ nokturno.

digital poems

by Dan Waber, translated into Finnish @ nokturno (a selection of Cantoos, a as in dog, Hs for bpNichol).

videopoem

Fairy Distortions / Vääristymien oikeutuksia by J.P. Sipilä @ nokturno.

something small, with Hs

From Dan Waber:

The first time I read that bpNichol had a favorite letter of the alphabet I was sufficiently steeped in his work that I wasn't really surprised, but, it did strike me. I ran quickly through the alphabet in my head and tried to decide if I had one. I didn't, but, I couldn't rule out the possibility that I could have a favorite.

The idea of a favorite letter struck me more than the fact of the specific letter--though there is much to be said for H as a favorite (his own stated reasons included some very strong and early connections).

Over time, in no planned or constant fashion, I've taken advantage of a few opportunities to connect back with H, some more notable than others. One example (from many):

On a trip to New York City we found ourselves in a street fair, one of the vendors was selling baseball caps. Off to the side, tucked back in a corner, away from the official teams was a series of caps that just had individual letters of the alphabet on them, and H was right at my eye level as we walked by. How could I pass that up? So I bought the hat, and would wear it from time to time. Sometimes people would ask
me "What does the H stand for?" And I'd reply variously with Hello, Hi, Howyadoin, Heythere, Happy, Hotdamn, or Hoodoggy. More often than not, this became a conversation starter and I'd get the chance to tell the real story and end up in a talk about bpNichol and his work and how it affected me and my work.

I've been camera-in-hand for a couple of months now because of an unrelated project, and I've taken advantage of that by hunting for Hs in the wild, and taking pictures of them.

So I had this accumulated group of Hs, and even without any intentional plans to continue adding to the group (which I do have), it became clear that it was time to give these Hs a proper home. I'd put some up on flickr.com for a while, but have lately become disenchanted with them as a service, ever since they were bought out by Yahoo! and made some changes to the way they operate that rub me the wrong way.

After a frustrating day of hunting for a canned solution that met all or most of my needs, I decided it was time to call in the experts. I contacted Marko Niemi, described to him what I wanted (a grid in the shape of an H that would randomly cycle through all of the images in a directory on a webserver that I could just upload images into), and asked him if that was something simple or difficult--it's a minor and obscure project, and I didn't want to waste his time on it if it was one of those things that's really easy to describe and really difficult to implement. Within hours with only a couple of back and forths, it was completely finished.

Reason #378 why I love collaborating with Marko Niemi: only AFTER everything was completely finished and ready to launch did Marko ask me, "Btw, is there a particular reason for the obsession with the letter H?" Create first, ask questions later.

I am pleased to offer for your ongoing use, "Hs for bpNichol", a piece that will continue to grow and shift and change as Hs drift in, through, and out of my life.

http://www.logolalia.com/H/

Enjoy,
Dan

sommaren är här yeah yeah

No Relief (after Dan Waber)

penypomes

Ruomenoja pennin kappale (i.e. Pomes Penyeach) by James Joyce, translated into Finnish by Jusu Annala @ nokturno.

a as in dog

From Dan Waber:

Ever have one of those ideas that takes years and years to finally come to full fruition? You wrote it down, and then waited for the timing, circumstances, and/or right collaborator to come along. And you were patient that whole time, eager but patient, never forgetting the idea. Me too!

Have you ever seen Bembo's Zoo? (http://www.bemboszoo.com/) if you haven't--you really should, regardless of whether you want to go any further into this announcement, that's a work well worth your time. And it's the perfect set-up to the rest; though, if you're Flash challenged, it's definitely not required.

So ends the preamble. Now, on to the meat of the announcement.

After years of waiting for the perfect collaborator to come along, I am filled to overflowing with joy to announce:

a as in dog, by Dan Waber & Marko Niemi
a as in dog, by Marko Niemi & Dan Waber

part hommage, part parody, all ultra-minimalist all the time (or, anything they can do minimal, we can do less)

http://www.logolalia.com/a-as-in-dog/

a full introduction is here:
http://www.logolalia.com/a-as-in-dog/intro.html

Short version for anyone who hasn't already clicked through: a lady was spelling her name to me over a bad phone connection and she accidentally said, "a as in dog" instead of "a as in apple" or "a as in alpha". It made me laugh, it made her laugh, and it got me thinking. First I figured out a way to make an "a" look like a dog. Then, I figured out how to make every other letter of the alphabet into an animal whose name didn't start with that letter (without repeating start-of-name letters). I lacked the deft touch necessary to bring these ideas to life until I connected with Marko Niemi. He built them all better than I ever could have by, in most cases, making them less than I'd've dared.

If you enjoy viewing these pieces even one 26th as much as we enjoyed making them you'll be grinning for days.

Come, look, enjoy.

Regards,
Dan & Marko

we can't even think of a word that rhymes

School's been blown to pieces

concrete poetry from norway

Ottar Ormstad @ nokturno.

giacomo

Giacomo Joyce, a short work by James Joyce translated into Finnish by Jusu Annala @ nokturno.

english for the new illiterati

From Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl:

Dearest english mostly as a second language speaking friends and poets.

I write these words from sunny Helsinki to let you know that I've started blogging about poetry in illiterary english at http://illiteration.blogspot.com/.

That is all.

My best,

Eiríkur

white tulips

White Tulips / Valge tulp / Белый тюльпан

White Tulips movement was started by 20 young Estonians with Estonian and Russian origin, who had the vision that all nationalities should live friendly within our communities. As the relocation of the II World War monument in Tallinn to its new home in the soldier’s graveyard resulted in tensions between Estonian Russians and Estonians, the White Tulips -movement started to spread their peaceful message of not hating anyone and that even the Estonians and Estonian Russians may have different pasts, they have common future.

All Estonians and Estonian Russians have been called to place white flowers (if possible white tulips) to sites and events of importance for both Russians and Estonians as a sign of respect, dignity and peace. You can read comments and see pictures of White Tulip -movement from whitetulips2007.blogspot.com which is constantly being added by new pictures of white flowers in important places.

The idea has received many followers in Estonia, got attention from both national and international media and could potentially become a wider European movement against hatred within our communities. White Tulips -movement is not part of any political or commercial campaign.

White Tulips / Valge tulp / Белый тюльпан

bye bye tony

Boys Will Be Boys (you imagine the music)

ntamo is born

From Leevi Lehto's site:

May 9, 2007 9:39 PM In the morning, I founded my new publishing house, ntamo. In the evening, it agreed to put out my new book in Finnish (my collected poems 1991-2004), Toinen runous.

Congratulations!

http://stores.lulu.com/ntamo

cybertext yearbook database

The cutting edge even the print heads can't avoid...

The Cybertext Yearbook Series (edited by Markku Eskelinen & Raine Koskimaa), started in 2000, quickly earned its reputation as one of "the best cutting-edge reads for the literary digerati" (American Book Review). In 2007 it will finally make the obvious non-trivial move and transform itself into the Cybertext Database, a FREE online publication. As uncompromising and unpredictable as ever, it will continue to be organized as separate issues.

http://cybertext.hum.jyu.fi/

digital poetry from turkey

Three digital pieces by Özcan Türkmen @ nokturno, one in Finnish, two in English. One of the pieces, Entropic Poetry, also includes an essay on the concept (in Finnish).

Below is "Totenklage" by Hugo Ball translated into the language of Entropic Poetry.

we should be together

Truly Yours (you imagine the music)

updates

Puhun hänestä joka puhuu olen yksin, a collection of poems by J.P. Sipilä as a downloadable pdf & poetic desktop wallpapers by J.P. and Spencer Selby.

another nine sound poems

by Sami Vainikka.

desktop wallpapers

Vispoetic desktop wallpapers by Jim Andrews, Jennifer Hill-Kaucher & Nico Vassilakis plus two dynamic wallpapers by Ted Warnell & Marko Niemi available @ nokturno.

spam poetry

All Data Will Be Destroyed, a book of spam poetry by Juri Nummelin @ nokturno.

six sound poems

by Sami Vainikka @ nokturno.

jigsaw puzzle poem

Create your own poem using words from a poem by Heidi Rundgren.

See also Heidi's blog.

another flash poem

Herkkusuu by Tytti Heikkinen.

ten vispo pieces

by Spencer Selby @ nokturno.

all wrongs reserved

It's the 21st century but you still believe in copyright, right? If so, then you definitely want to watch the short film ©rime by Lauri Wuolio (graphics), Kalle Hakkarainen (animation) & Harry Salmenniemi (text). (It's highly recommended for all you copyleft / anti-copyright folks too.)

flash poem

Rakkaus on by Tytti Heikkinen @ nokturno.

audio recording

Rita Dahl reads an excerpt from her new book Aforismien aika.

score for sound poetry

Kerro (partituuri) by Jouni Tossavainen now available as a downloadable pdf @ nokturno. You can also order a copy of the book from Lulu.

arth

aka David Mimran @ nokturno. Many thanks to Jani who introduced David to nokturno.

searching for google vispo

Lost & Found Words, a first sketch for a Google vispo engine. Suggestions & comments warmly welcome. (So far best viewed with Firefox.)

rap & rolling

Leevi Lehto reads & sings two poems by Eino Leino.

audio recordings

Mikael Brygger and Miia Toivio read their poems @ nokturno.

more another voice

Miia Toivio reads six poems from Series Magritte by Mark Young.

in another's voice

Miia Toivio reads somewhere i have never travelled by e. e. cummings.

ankkuri books

Three books published by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's Ankkuri publishing house (Ilmaisin asiani by Karri Kokko, karkea ekonomi by Jukka-Pekka & nurousoppi by me) now available as downloadable pdfs @ nokturno.

'scuse me while i kiss the spy

here we go round the alphabet bush

From Dan Waber:

As we wave goodbye to the z of the Anaclastic alphabet by Amira Hanafi, it's time to wave hello to the a of Marko Niemi's Pietist Compositions.

New series begins today at:

http://www.logolalia.com/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz/

Regards,
Dan

Submissions of artworks based around the complete sequence of the roman alphabet which can be presented a letter at a time over the course of 26 days are invited.

digipo classics

I'm very pleased to announce this: First Screening, a collection of computer poems from the 1980s by Canadian poet bpNichol, originally written in BASIC programming language for Apple II computers, is now available online @ Jim Andrews' vispo.com site (with essays by Jim, Geof Huth, Lionel Kearns and Dan Waber) & Nokturno (a somewhat smaller selection of poems in Finnish).

* * *

FIRST SCREENING (1984)
Computer Poems
by bpNichol
http://vispo.com/bp

In 1983 and 1984, bpNichol used an Apple IIe computer and the Apple BASIC programming language to create First Screening, a suite of a dozen programmed, kinetic poems. He distributed First Screening through Underwhich, an imprint he started in 1979 with a small group of poets. The Underwhich edition of First Screening consisted of 100 numbered and signed copies distributed on 5.25" floppies along with printed matter.

However, the Apple IIe soon became obsolete and the poems became essentially inaccessible. But in 1992, four years after the death of bpNichol, J. B. Hohm, a student at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, began creating a HyperCard version of First Screening with the approval of Ellie Nichol, bp’s widow, and with assistance from Dennis Johnson and Fred Wah. In 1993, Red Deer College Press published this version on a 3.5" floppy disk for the Macintosh computer.

This HyperCard version of First Screening was a careful re-creation and recoding of the original, and it extended the life of the poems of First Screening a few more years. Still, HyperCard eventually died, leaving the poems unavailable to all but the few who owned a functioning old Mac or an even older Apple IIe and a readable diskette (unlikely, since the usual lifetime of a diskette is approximately five years). In 2004, Apple stopped selling HyperCard, and OSX’s Classic mode was the last Mac operating system on which it was possible to view HyperCard works.

So we are very happy to present to you four different versions of First Screening.

1. The original DSK file of the Underwhich edition with a freely downloadable Apple IIe emulator (available for PCs and (maybe) Macs), along with scanned images of the printed matter distributed with the Underwhich edition. This version is closest to the original.
2. An online JavaScript version of First Screening created by Marko Niemi and Jim Andrews.
3. A streaming Quicktime movie of the emulated version.
4. The original HyperCard version, which may, perhaps, become easier to view in the future via a HyperCard Player emulator or some other means. We’ve also posted scans of the printed matter of this version.

This project has taken us almost three years. We’ve learned much about bpNichol’s First Screening and how the destiny of digital writing usually remains the responsibility of the digital writers themselves. As a group and individually. This project illustrates that work can indeed survive the obsolescence of technologies if others are still interested in the work and the artist has provided what is required to implement the work using later technologies. bpNichol originally created 100 copies of First Screening and distributed them widely, which was important to the propagation of the bitstream. Fortunately, the source code was relatively easy to extract and fairly simple to understand. First Screening is some of the earliest programmed, kinetic poetry. This historical significance, together with the
quality of the work itself and bpNichol’s literary stature (he was awarded Canada’s highest literary honour in 1970), have also motivated us to complete this project.

The recovery started in 2004 when Lionel Kearns showed Jim Andrews the HyperCard version on an old Mac. Lionel also had three 5.25" floppy disks bpNichol had given him. Jim took those floppies to Information Services at the University of Victoria, Canada, where Jeff Rivett, a data analyst, recovered the data using his own functioning Apple IIe at home.

That version of First Screening turned out to be incomplete; Barrie Nichol must have given Lionel these disks while still writing the piece. Geof recognized that the disk was missing some of the poems in the published version and that Lionel’s disk presented the remaining poems in a different order. In an attempt to preserve these poems, Geof had stored his 5.25" floppy of the Underwhich edition carefully, made a silent videotape of the poems as they played on the Apple IIe, and printed out the source code. He could no longer view his floppy, since he no longer had an Apple II series computer, but the printout and the video indicated that three poems were missing from Lionel’s draft copy: “Reverie,” “Any of Your Lip,” and “Off-Screen Romance,” along with some initial and final bibliographic matter.

Following unsuccessful efforts by the University of Albany to recover the data from Geof’s 5.25" floppy of the Underwhich edition, Geof shipped the floppy from New York to Dan Waber and Jason Pimble in Pennsylvania. Dan and Jason were able to recover the full version from Geof’s 22-year-old floppy using a functioning Apple IIe computer and a range of open source software.

O ye digital poets: the past of the art is in your hands and it is you who must recover and maintain it. Although the history of digital archiving is more than two decades old, most professional archivists have little interest or training in the process of preserving and ensuring functional access to digital materials. For instance, although bpNichol’s work is archived at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, no one there had or could copy the data from the Underwhich edition floppy to contemporary media. They were not uninterested, however, and many thanks to Tony Power for trying.

The secret to this project has been a combination of passion and knowledge. None of us understood the entirety of the situation facing us at the outset. Each of us brought a different set of skills to the task, and all of us brought our love of Nichol’s work and our desire to make sure that others could once again see these early digital poems. We hope our efforts prove worth it for those who visit http://vispo.com/bp now and into the future.

Jim Andrews
Geof Huth
Lionel Kearns
Marko Niemi
Dan Waber

four portraits

of the most remarkable person in the world.

new vispo by tim willette

@ nokturno

runoharmooni - poetry harmonium (performance)

Two videos of Runoharmooni performance that took place in Helsinki, on March 3, 2007.

citrakavya in motion

Posted a few old Flash pieces to vispoets gallery.

iwltsgdom

icelandic sound poetry

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl @ UbuWeb Sound (via Rita Dahl)

[edit: now also @ nokturno]

visual poets

> From: Dan Waber

It's alive.

http://www.vispoets.com/

If it seems a little quiet in there, that's because you're not saying anything, yet. Consider this your invitation to do so.

It's a gallery, it's a directory, it's a group of forums, it's an aggregator. It's able to grow organically as needs develop.

Please spread the word as far and wide as you're willing and able.

Features too numerous to list. Short version for those of you who haven't already clicked and started poking around on your own:

--online gallery space for visual poets

free, easy, automagical in many ways (teachers, looking for a good place to find a wide range of visual poetry?)

--web-based discussion forums that support attachments

Any special visual poetry interest not being served by their own forum can have one made for them very easily. Low-fi version available for those on dial-up who just really want the text and nothing else.

--calendar of visual poetry events

Currently one general calendar, but it's a trivial matter to add other calendars as needed. What do you want/need?

--social networking bells and whistles

Friends, mutual friends, private messaging, alerts when threads you're in are updated, you name it. Did you know yesterday was David-Baptiste Chirot's birthday?

--RSS aggregation w/ community commenting

Through the magic of modern technology, the board updates as RSS-enabled visual poetry related blogs are updated. If you think the visitors to vispoets.com would be interested in your RSS feed, say the word and we'll get it added.

Yes, you have to register to make posts (but not to read them).
Yes, the forums are moderated.

Thank you to all the alpha and beta testers who've been bumping into things and trying to break things.

Extra special thank you to Karl Kempton for impetus, Klaus Peter Dencker for guidance, and Marko Niemi for letting me sucker him into assisting with the admin responsibilities.

Enjoy,
Dan

jopa loihe laulamahan

wanton for a day, fool for a lifetime (.mp3). (Wanton Loverboy = Lemminkäinen, a hero from Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.)

new vispo suite

Antakaa hatun käyttäytyä by Sami Vainikka @ nokturno. See also Sami's new blog Sukellusvene Notlibro.

new vispo

collaborations by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen & Marko Niemi

long sound

poem Minuun on tunkeuduttu by Jonimatti Joutsijärvi @ nokturno.

wonderful interview

with Karri Kokko by Tom Beckett @ E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S

sjound poesi

Jag är ledsen när jag sjunger (.mp3) ("I am sad when I sing").

visual

poems by Nico Vassilakis @ nokturno.

however far away

i will always

introducing

the book (via poetics list)

rt kn

for kk

interactive

visual/sound poems by Maria Mencia @ nokturno.

tårta på tårta

Tanke, se, hur fågeln svingar
Under molnet lätt och fri;
Äfven du har dina vingar
Och din rymd att flyga i.

Jag kysser dig och ledsnar ej,
Och skall jag nånsin ledsna? Nej!
Nu, goda flicka, svara mig,
Hvad sällhet kyssen skänker dig!

*

To celebrate the 203rd birthday of our national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (besides, of course, eating en Runebergstårta), I added his poem "Fågeln" to Nokturno's jigsaw puzzle poem. I didn't bother to use any Finnish translations here because, as everybody knows, svenska är toppen!

a couple of visual poems

by Nihat Özdal @ nokturno.

me yin

you yang?

oooh baby baby

(click to enlarge it)

virtual ride

© City of Toronto

visual poems

by kris rzepka @ nokturno.

portrait

of poet Teemu Manninen by Timo Salo.

what would we hear if syntaxes could talk

Lauseita yksinäisyyden laidalta by Paavo Toivanen @ nokturno.

mirror mirror

on the wall

unlikely

The Cross-Media Issue of Unlikely 2.0, guest-edited by Dan Waber, has gone live & contains work by mIEKAL aND & Lyx Ish, Jim Andrews, The Be Blank Consort, Tantra Bensko, Christian Bök, Mairéad Byrne, Holly Crawford, Barbara DeCesare, Martha L. Deed, Dulabomber, Paul Dutton, Amanda Earl, endwar, Vernon Frazer, Michael Harold, Sharon Harris, Pete Hindle, Geof Huth, Adeena Karasick, Karl Kempton, Márton Koppány, Donna Kuhn, Janan Leikazu, Kaz Maslanka, Sean McCluskey, Gil McElroy, Marko Niemi, Rupert Owen and Snuffbox Films, W. Bradford Paley, Alan Semerdjian, Spiel, Nico Vassilakis, Ted Warnell, and Derek White.

notkurno updates

New video poem unelmattomia by J.P. Sipilä & new concrete poems by Tim Willette @ nokturno.

papa's got brand new dancing shoes

This one's for you, Rahul. Please use the keyboard to dance.

You can listen to any music you like while dancing, or to silence if that's your thing, but the real soundtrack for the dancing Papa is, of course, this song.

wherever you may be

please let me know about you

do androids dream

of human touch

maryshelley

or the post-modern pygmalion

(If you'd like to try this with your own text material, please drop me a line.)

genesis

type your own universe

frisco days over & over

or brandon's obsession

'twas a grillig and the blithy knoves

Pekoraalikone (i.e. Jabberwocky Engine) by Neil Hennessy in sort of Phinnish at Nokturno.