Prehistoric digital poetry : an archaeology of forms, 1959-1995

376 Pages·2007·3.05 MB·English

by  Christopher Thompson Funkhouser & Sandy Baldwin

Prehistoric Digital Poetry
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS
Series Editors
Charles Bernstein
Hank Lazer
Series Advisory Board
Maria Damon
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Alan Golding
Susan Howe
Nathaniel Mackey
Jerome McGann
Harryette Mullen
Aldon Nielsen
Marjorie Perloff
Joan Retallack
Ron Silliman
Lorenzo Thomas
Jerry Ward
Prehistoric Digital Poetry
An Archaeology of Forms, 1959–1995
C. T. FUNKHOUSER
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2007
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeface: Minion
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Funkhouser, Chris.
Prehistoric digital poetry : an archaeology of forms, 1959–1995 / C. T. Funkhouser.
p. cm. — (Modern and contemporary poetics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-1562-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8173-1562-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-5422-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8173-5422-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Computer poetry—History and criticism. 2. Computer poetry—Technique.
3. Interactive multimedia. 4. Hypertext systems. I. Title.
PN1059.C6F86 2007
808.10285—dc22
2006037512
Portions of I-VI by John Cage have been reprinted by permission of Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 1, 2, 5, 103, 435. Copyright © 1990 by the President and
Fellows of Harvard College.
To my comrades in the present and to cybernetic
literary paleontologists of the mythic future

“The poem is a machine,” said that famous man, and so I’m building one.
Or at least I’m having it built, because I want something big and impressive and
automatic.
You see, people will stand in front of it and insert money, dimes or quarters,
depending upon the poem’s locus.
Yes the whole thing will clank and hum and light up and issue a string of words
on colored ticker-tape.
Or maybe the customers will wear ear-phones and turn small knobs so the
experience will be more audile-tactile than old fashioned visual.
In any case they will only get one line at a time,
This being the most important feature of my design which is based on the
principle that,
In poetry, “one perception must immediately and directly lead to a further
perception,”
And therefore the audience will be compelled to feed in coin after coin.
Now I admit that the prototype model that you see on display is something of a
compromise, as it has a live poet concealed inside.
But I assure you that this crudity will eventually be eliminated
Because each machine, I mean each poem, is to be fully computerized
And so able to stand on its own feet.
—Lionel Kearns, “Kinetic Poem” (1968)

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Foreword xv
A Chronology of Works in Digital Poetry, 1959–1995 xix
Introduction: Evolving Circuits of Digital Poetry 1
1. Origination: Text Generation 31
2. Visual and Kinetic Digital Poems 85
3. Hypertext and Hypermedia 150
4. Alternative Arrangements for Digital Poetry 199
5. Techniques Enabled:
(Pro)Fusions after Poetry Computerized 221
Appendix A: Codeworks 257
Appendix B: Holography 265
Acknowledgments 271
Notes 275
Bibliography 325
Index 341