A cool Code-based poetry group from Stanford!

http://stanford.edu/~mkagen/codepoetryslam/#1.0_wu

The quote the website's self-description:

"Stanford's first Code Poetry Slam, sponsored by the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL), was held on November 20th, 2013 in Building 160 (Wallenberg Hall). Following an open call for works from September 20th to November 6th, we selected 8 finalists. At the Slam, finalists presented work ranging from human language poems incorporating concepts and gestures from programming, to poems written entirely in compilable code. They were invited to present their poems in whatever way they saw fit, and performed with various techniques, including poems composed and compiled in an IDE, multimedia audio/visual presentations, and straight readings from a notebook.

A semi-moderated discussion followed the presentations. Finalists talked in depth about their poems and fielded questions from the audience. One theme that came up repeatedly was how code can express things that words can't and how programming makes you think differently about language.

An interdisciplinary group of judges awarded Leslie Wu, Stanford Computer Science PhDc, first place for her poem "Say 23."  "


Wow. What a cool re-appropriation of code-based language! Although the meanings of these poems are somewhat obscure to a code-illiterate, some of these works are genuinely funny and fascinating! The way Leslie Wu, in her work "Say 23" uses not only locations and colourcode, but direct references to common experiences and projects first-time coders get started and "hooked" on. It's really is a magnificent adaptation of a new linguistic technology and custom to the poetic virtues!

5-Poet research paper


George Szirtes:
George Szirtes is a british poet, born in 1948, who’s first published work “The Slant Door” came out in 1979. Szirtes’ “Reel” won a TS Elliot award in 2004, and now, when the mood strikes him, He writes poetry on Twitter. In an interview with Charlotte Cripps, who writes for The Independent, Szirtes was quoted as saying “I write in Twitter because I am interested to see what a form as short and as evanescent as Twitter can do: in effect, it does anecdote and shorten forms of poetry quite well, which is why I have written some 20,000 as an experiment.” When reading through Szirtes’ tweets, one is quick to notice that, amongst the stand-alone verse, Szirtes has managed to link his tweets up so as to weave a much larger narrative, all within the 140 character limit of the twitter format.

Faheem Najm:
Faheem Najm is an American rapper and winner of two Grammy Awards, and who is famous for popularizing Auto-Tune in the American rap community. His first single, “I’m Fucked up”, featured heavy use of auto-tune, and got him signed to the Konvict Muzik label. In 2009 he conceived of, and funded, the animated film “Freaknik: The Musical”, which was later published and broadcasted on MTV. Although Najm was not the first rap artist to use the auto-tune technology, he was the most successful, and so brought more attention to the method, and although auto-tune is a relatively simple system of pitch-shifting, innovations in the medium, such as wave-collision, came after increased scrutiny brought on by the attention produced by Najm.

Gary Snyder:
A poet of the original “Beat Gernation”, Gary Snyder was born in San Francisco, and has a distinguished resume including numerous ancient Chinese and Japanese translations, and employment at the University of California at Davis. Gary, as well as many other Beat Poets, used chemically synthisised LSD as a creative medium, and has admittedly used it during the formation of many of his poems, including “A Place in Space” and “Passage Through India”. Snyder’s use of LSD can be seen as a use of modern synthesis technology to experiment, and ultimately expand his consciousness, which would invariably influence his work, as the lasting physiological changes from psychedelic use would inform his choice in words, and perhaps even drive him to explore avenues which he might not have normally considered.

Don Pettit:
Don Pettit is an American chemical engineer and astronaut, who was aboard the International Space Station from 2002 to 2003. During his stay, Petti wrote several poems, which he read aloud on his series “Saturday Morning Science”. Although Pettit was not a professional or trained poet, the rare opportunity afforded to him should at least be taken into consideration when reading his work. I would argue that anyone writing a poem about the planet, would take a completely different angle on it, when actually being OFF the planet. In that regard, I would say that Pettit made use of his position aboard the ISS (being an advanced piece of technology itself) to inform and influence his minor poetic works.

Infinite poems!

Youse guyses like abstract poems?

Check out this neat tool by Keith Enevoldsen.

http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/PoemGen/PoemGen.htm



I like to think of it as a nice little commentary on the value of abstract poetry in general, especially the emotive varieties. If value can be found by the observer, does it matter if value was intended by the writer? Is it even required to HAVE a writer?

It also brings to mind cool little thoughts about the human ability to recognize patterns, and if, truly, it is the basis of all human intellect.

I think, really, the website ITSELF is a work of poetry, and a highly technical one at that.
The idea of crating poetic code that itself creates MORE poetic code, and so propogates in it's own way, is super, super neat.

Check this guy out fo' realm though.

http://dandeacon.tumblr.com/
I'd rather not say anything. Either you'll love tha' ,an or hate him.
Won't know 'till ya' try it though.

Dan deacon's use of old, mostly abandoned tele-technologies to enhance his spoken words an experimental works
 can be seen as a cutting-edge advancement into both the realms of obscurest poetry, and a creative use of such base
technologies as voice-filtration and distortion.

Deacon even uses his talents to produce more commercial work, such as his famous "Pink Batman" which has enjoyed
critical acclaim on such digital distribution methods as iTunes, Amazon Music, and the Rasphody Music streaming
service. This, too, can be seen as a way Deacon is leveraging modern production and distribution technologies to
enhance and market his work.

Yo, check 'These poems out on 'dis blog and whatnaht.

Incoming link dump.
Links locked and load.
Links away!

http://technopoetree.blogspot.ca/
Blank! Viviane's blog.
It's really refreshing to see all these new, young, aspiring poets using new blog technologies to share, comment, and discuss ideas that they really care about!
Heart-warming really.
Some good stuff up in there.

Also check these dudes out. They're all well-known and junk.
http://www.thethepoetry.com/
http://www.blogmetrics.org/Poetry
http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.ca/
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.ca/
http://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/
(That last one's reall good. It's got an archive and everything. Ya'll can read other poets's work, visit their site. S'good stuff

And here's an article I enjoyed readin'. Maybe youse guyses'd like ta' read it too, ya know.
Gabagool.
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides

Also watch this movie. It's really good. Nothing to do with poetry at all, but it's "Artsy", so your kinda' people would probably enjoy it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/