#InteractivePoetry

[laramzp]

Cyberdelirium (2024)

Cyberdelirium is a digital poetry collection that reflects on a nostalgic vision of the 90s internet—an era defined by hope, freedom, and personal expression. This was an internet of people, not things, where users could shape their own corners of the web with a sense of individuality and creativity. The collection explores how different web aesthetics from that time influenced our perception of digital spaces and identities.

Presented on two iMac G3s within a staged artificial environment, the interactive poems invite viewers to explore the nostalgic allure of the early web while engaging with its history. Each poem is a fragment that probes the tension between human connection, expression, and the increasing corporatization of digital spaces.

Cyberdelirium asks viewers to consider how our relationship with the internet has changed over time—what we once worshiped as a tool of freedom and expression has, in many ways, become a space of identity loss and control.

Cyberdelirium underscores that the early internet was a fragmented and multifaceted space—one where individuality flourished, even as the seeds of the current, more centralized internet were being sown. The design choices are not merely decorative but serve as a commentary on how web architecture and layout shape our perception of the internet and our place within it.

The poems engage with themes of identity, connection, and memory within the digital space. The work asks viewers to consider the ways in which design shapes our online experiences and to reflect on what has been lost as the internet has evolved.

Cyberdelirium is a digital poetry collection that critically examines the evolution of the internet, exploring the complex relationships humans have with this ever-shifting space. Through themes of nostalgia, worship, and disillusionment, the poems reflect on the way the web has changed—from its early days full of promise and personal freedom to the more commodified digital environments we navigate today.

Cyberdelirium transports viewers into a digital realm that feels as though it’s flickering between past and present.

As users navigate the interactive poems, they encounter a tension between the content and the form. The retro design, with its purposeful imperfections, reflects the fractured sense of time and space within the poems, where meaning is always slipping, always just out of reach. Cyberdelirium invites users to wander through a digital landscape of memory and loss, where the act of interaction itself mirrors the experience of trying to grasp something that is already fading away.

By embracing the limitations and quirks of early web aesthetics, Cyberdelirium captures the tension between form and content, where meaning is shaped by the very structure that presents it.

each click unravels another layer of this digital world, blurring the lines between poetry and interface, between content and design.

Cyberdelirium opens up a space where users can interpret the meaning of their digital journey, navigating a landscape that is as much about the aesthetic experience as it is about the words themselves.

Cyberdelirium is a return to the chaotic abyss of digital subjectivity.

These poems, fragments of a past that was never fully real, stand in deliberate contrast to the sleek, algorithmically driven surfaces of today. They are echoes from the collapse of a collective hallucination—the remnants of an internet that once promised liberation, only to spiral into corporate-managed enclosure.

inviting viewers to wander through the ruins of the digital age. Each click is a step deeper into this disintegration—a lost future that can’t be recovered. In this space, nostalgia and estrangement intertwine, as every fragment of the past dissolves into the digital mist.

Exhibited at LEGAL Club, Munich in October 2024

[andreablythe]

Last night was one of those in which I struggled to sleep, my pulse was racing and I couldn’t calm down my brain. I was looking through my phone for something else to focus on and decided to try out THE COLLAGE ATLAS, a game I decided to download from #AppleArcade because the art looked pretty. It turned out to need last night. THE COLLAGE ATLAS, written and developed solely by @johnwilliamevelyn, can best be described as interactive art and poetry. As you play the game, you journey through a gorgeous and richly detailed black and white dream world, with text and phrases assembling along the way and integrating as part of the landscape. These are also collected within a book that you can open and flip through to see them all in context of each other. The soothing music and soft sound effects of pages fluttering and wind rustling are beautiful. Along the way, the words are simple, straightforward, telling me things I needed in that moment. Sometimes just seeing, “It’s okay,” written out for you is just what you need. I did have two small gripes with this game, both of which I can attribute to playing on mobile. The first is that sometimes the touchscreen controls bothered me. Most of the time it was fine, but at a couple of key points where I needed the movement to be slightly more precise (but I find this to be the case with mobile games in general). The second is that whenever a cinematic came on screen, my phone had a habit of timing out and cutting to black, because I wasn’t interacting at that moment. I finally figured out that I had to keep tapping the screen to avoid it. Anyway, this was a lovely game, one that was just what I needed at the right time. I played for about an hour late into the night and then I fell into a deep, relaxed sleep. #games #gaming #gamereview #indiegame #indiegamedev #thecollageatlas #mobilegame #interactiveart #interactivepoetry #gamer #gamergirl #sleepless https://www.instagram.com/p/CKE_oW6l86L/?igshid=1s2gtwvz3pjun

[christopherodom]

I made a JavaScript interactive poetry remix of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise." It works best in a Chrome browser on your desktop 💻. Turn on your speakers 🔊. Look below and above the surface for hidden messages. #BlackLivesMatter http://bit.ly/still-i-rise-remix 

[chesterhopewell]

The drawchange5k Poem

Back on Halloween, I participated in the drawchange 5k — not as a runner, but as an artist. The morning race is the annual fundraiser for drawchange, which empowers impoverished children through art, and encourages artists of all stripes to create along the 5k route in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. I created a board with magnetic strips and corresponding blank tiles. Set up near the registration table before the start of the race, I asked the 5k participants to write a word on the tiles. Using those words, I created a poem during the race. A fun challenge for a great cause. Check out drawchange and learn how to get involved.

Racing for a poem, Drawing for change

Play love and peace, run to dream of magic bliss—where dynamic insight blooms into sunshine. Inspire truth & hope, pretty green butterfly. Respect ambiguity & inspire flamboyant fun. Morning shivers give way to adventure and enchantment. Love love love! Grateful dedication to strength, spirit & faith—grow equality for future light. Living a fantasy of humble hope, lovingly innovate passion & joy for amazing imagination. Pagan Halloween haunted by a dinosaur in the grass pursued by a lovely cat. Awesome puppy love epiphany—cheer the conjunction of bliss & grace. Enjoy strength for life, persistence makes happy music. Sunshine in the fall & peace in the winter create passion for growth. Grateful inspiration even when "swink" muscles become weak, kindness, joy & hope nurture a clever enigma until passion, peace & joy come alive. Pura vida!