03-23, 12:00–12:30 (America/Los_Angeles), Warehouse
in what ways is a poem a computer? how do the mechanics, the inner working of software, reflect the syntactic and beautiful nature of poetry? this talk dives into the rich history of programmers, poets, writers, and designers and how they've created new worlds with ideas, theories and examples.
As a poet and programmer, I'm interested in the syntax and rules of language, as well as the function that it provides. In code, the words themselves become a powerful force. There are keywords, unable to be rewritten over, specifically defined for utilities. This talk will be split into two parts. The first is a talk about programming, in which I will discuss folk software, projects, and other small tools that people use to define and create their own world and investigate their own histories. The second is a focus on poetry and programming languages. That is, how does syntax, spacing, and visual design contribute to the creation of worlds on a page. This talk will culminate in an investigation of both, of poems that are programs and programs that are poems, to understand how the speculative and definitive nature can imbue new meaning.
There are so many things that I want to cover but a handful are:
Programming Languages:
- Coem
- Cooklang
Organizations:
- [Oulipo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo#:~:text=Oulipo%20(French%20pronunciation%3A%20%5Bulipo,works%20using%20constrained%20writing%20techniques.)
- School for Poetic Computation
People:
- Allison Parrish
- Lillian Yvonne Bertram
- Jacques Roubaud
Projects:
- Oblique Strategies
- Blackout Poetry
- Telescopic Text
Poetry:
- Allison Parrish's Compass
- Concrete Poetry
Ivan Zhao (he/him) is a poet, game & type designer, and web artist interested in nonlinear narratives, forms, and mechanics that reckon with digital, diasporic, and queer identity. His work interrogates individual and viewer agency. Websites as alternative worlds and lives. Typefaces as diasporic families. Game making as self discovery. Attention as love.
In the past, he has directed two editions of Kernel Magazine, a literary magazine and community reimagining techno-optimism for a better collective future.