Born Digital Literature Gallery

In creating this generative poem, author J.R. Carpenter wanted to give readers the experience of an ever-changing poetic text that follows a formula or algorithm. Each visit presents a different text to read. Mousing over the screen will reveal some hidden lines, but the poem itself flows on as incessantly as waves on the beach. This is an adaptation of a Javascript program originated by Nick Montfort.

Created by a US/Korean couple calling themselves Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries, this narrative challenges the reader to keep pace with flickering, high-speed text synchronized to a jazz track. This piece contains several similar versions. Each version shifts perspective and pronouns to create a powerful and unsettling effect. YHC originally worked in Adobe Flash but now create text "movies." The strobe-like experience draws our attention to the strain of reading and the need to keep focus.

The writer of this "story generator" envisioned a carnival-like story that could run infinite variations. There is a "mad lib" quality to each variation. The player is only required to select "new story." Each new story plays out familiar roles, but the narrative twists may become sad, amusing, or strange. How many story genres or other verbal exchanges are built on an underlying formula or grammar?

This digital poet explores the manipulation of letter forms and words in his graphic intensive works. Many of his pieces are created using custom software he has programmed for the purpose. "Love" can be explored by using the mouse and arrow keys to change perspective (or read with VR goggles). Here words become a spatial environment that readers can inhabit. Like other born-digital poets, David Johnson creates work that can only be experienced in a digital environment while also drawing on the centuries-long print tradition of concrete and visual poetry.