User:Alessia/Thesis outline

Intro

My thesis will be a collection of projects. I will explore poetry not only as a literary form but as a way of thinking, creating and publishing across various media. Indeed, making Poetry public.

The research will be structured into four main chapters, all united by the question:
  How can poetry exist and persist within the contemporary artistic and technological landscape?

Each chapter will get into a distinct medium or space and it will be connected to a project.
Through these projects, and thesis, I want to demonstrate how poetic thinking can be applied across disciplines, broadening our understanding of what poetry can be and do in today’s interconnected creative world.

Chapters + projects overview

1. Algorithmic verses, the AI poetic machine
✮ AI love poems generator

2. Playing, interactive poetic experiences
✮ Game poems and open source tools

3. The poetic of DIY experimental publishing
✮ How to make an holder zine + kit

4. Muses, listening to the Poets
✮ Digital archive of interviews with poets, and poetic voices

𖦹 Algorithmic verses, the AI poetic machine

Key points
✮ What is poetry?
✮ Fighting and loving the AI
✮ Randomisation and generative art production

This chapter will explore the intersection between artificial intelligence and poetic creation. I’ll investigate how machine learning can act as a collaborator and destroyer of art practices, focusing always on poetry making.
What does it really mean to be creative, to have authorship in this fast paced world? What does it mean to be poetic?
As humans we will have to face a world that will be soaked into generative AI medias, so how to keep human authorship and experience intact in this chaos?
How does AI writes poetry?

The AI love poems generator

Inspired by the arduino lessons in our previous xpub year I’ll create a device able to print out AI generated love poems. By offering randomised machine-made love poems I will playfully critique both generative AI art and the commercialised sentimentality of Valentine’s day and its sublime gifts’ market. The device serves as a reminder of how love, like poetry, can sometimes feel both automated and absurd.


Important links, people, inspirations:

• Poem booth, interactive poetic installation, VOUW. [online] VOUW. Available at: https://www.vouw.com/poem-booth
• Ailiteraryreview.co.uk. (2024). Available at: https://ailiteraryreview.co.uk/
• Fernandes, K. Poetry and A.I. & spoken word city Rotterdam. [online] Available at: https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/news/art/15-23_Poetry-and-A-I-spoken-word-city-Rotterdam

𖦹 Playing, interactive poetic experiences

Key points
✮ The concept of Play, obsession for interactivity
✮ Narrative structured and mechanics
✮ Little games, little tools, game poems

In this chapter I will study the intersection of poetry and videogames. By examining gaming mechanics, narrative structures, looking at how the digital world can become a space for poetic experiences. How to make a poem interactive? How to translate the poetic language into something that can be explored digitally, even played?

Game poems and open source tools

I’ll develop a series of interactive game poems, inspired by the blooming niche world of game poetry and the indie industry, exploring open source tools to make your own games.

Important links, people, inspirations:

• Magnuson, J. (2023). Game Poems. Amherst College Press.
• Pipkin, E. (2016). A Long History of Generated Poetics: cutups from Dickinson to Melitzah. [online] Medium. Available at: https://everestpipkin.medium.com/a-long-history-of-generated-poetics-cutups-from-dickinson-to-melitzah-fce498083233 [Accessed 19 Nov. 2024].
• Bourriaud, N. (2020). Relational Aesthetics. Les presses du réel.
• itch.io. (2024). I dreamed. [online] Available at: https://aleevadh.itch.io/i-dreamed
• User:Alessia/poetry and games - XPUB & Lens-Based wiki. [online] Available at: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Alessia/poetry_and_games

𖦹 The poetic of DIY experimental publishing

Key points
✮ The paper, the making
✮ Narrative structured and mechanics
✮ All Indi(experimental), exploring indie spaces and ideas

Here I’ll dig into the more physical side of poetry publishing through zines, handmade books, and independent marketplaces. This chapter will focus on the accessibility of DIY publishing, celebrating the independent production of poetry. By engaging in zine making and attending events and zinefest I’ll explore how poetry can exist as tangible, handmade, shared jewel outside the mainstream flow of publishing.

Zine holder kit + zine

I’ll make a kit for those that would like to attend events and don’t have access to luxurious zine holders. I’ll explore reusable materials, like cardboards, making handmade zine fests tools-companions.

Important links, people, inspirations:

• Gersande zine holder for Making things bubblic public graduation moment
• All events I’ll attend and that I attended in the independent art scene, examples: zinecamp, INC, Mani di lucertola (December), Worm, Brutus…

𖦹 Muses, listening to the Poets

Key point
✮ Reaching out, listening, recording, interviewing, writing, archiving

This is listed as a chapter here, but it might indeed be embedded and fragmented around all my research, as my intention is to interview multiple artists and poets with different backgrounds and practices, that might enrich some parts of my research more than others.

Digital archive of poetic interviews

During my time in the Netherlands, I’ve connected with countless poets, like Victoria Chang, Samira Negrouche, Isabella Leardini and her students, and many others whose work sparks themes of social justice, pain, love, resilience. I plan to create a digital archive from these interviews, showcasing a vibrant contemporary poetic world through the voices I know and might know these months.


Important links, people, inspirations:

• Countless poets and artists I would like to interview
• The Poetry International environment I would like to be part of (I’m waiting for a response for a possible internship there)
• Poetry slams of any kind I was part and will be part of (Open mic Rotterdam, Out loud at Wdka, Tent open mic…) and poetry events and gatherings (Reading Rhythms, Worm events, Varia events, Spraakuhloos…)
• My fellow classmates and tutors

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

References:

• Pacholik, D. (2015). We Went to a Death Metal Poetry Reading. [online] VICE. Available at: https://www.vice.com/sv/article/we-went-to-a-death-metal-poetry-reading/
• Hughes, M. (2022). Meet Soul Glo: Hardcore Poets Confronting Trauma, White Supremacy and ‘Hard Conversations’. [online] Revolver. Available at: https://www.revolvermag.com/music/meet-soul-glo-hardcore-poets-confronting-trauma-white-supremacy-and-hard-conversations/
• The Hindu. (2014). Poetry helped me heal, says former Naxalite. [online] Available at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/poetry-helped-me-heal-says-former-naxalite/article5856060.ece
• Bedford, E. (2024). Interview: Dan Power // AI Literary Review : The Indiependent. [online] The Indiependent. Available at: https://www.indiependent.co.uk/interview-dan-power-ai-literary-review/ [Accessed 19 Nov. 2024]
• Bedford, E. (2024). Poetry Review: AI Literary Review : The Indiependent. [online] The Indiependent. Available at: https://www.indiependent.co.uk/poetry-review-ai-literary-review/
• User:Alessia/liminal - XPUB & Lens-Based wiki. [online] Available at: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Alessia/liminal
• Amanita-design.net. (2024). Litte Buddy Move. [online] Available at: https://littlebuddymove.amanita-design.net/
• Floex Zorya album by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT-nqKwq3eo
• Dvořák, T. Floex - Zorya (Full Album / Álbum Completo). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT-nqKwq3eo
• Triennale.org. (2024). Game Collection Vol. 1. [online] Available at: https://triennale.org/en/events/game-collection-1