COM 369
Digital Poetry
C.T. Funkhouser
funkhous@njit.edu
NJIT Fall 2013

In this course students will study, discuss, and also make digital poems. Technology has changed the writing, reading, and analysis of poetry. Through explorations in digital poetry—a craft featuring literary, visual, and sonic attributes—students will be introduced to the wide-range of approaches used by artists who integrate language and programmable media. Students will deliberate on the creative potential of this new modality of writing, where poems including algorithmic programming, graphical artistry, videography, hypermedia, and sonic design elements have become commonplace. Applying theoretical knowledge to multimedia composition, each student will create a poetic artifact and evaluate its literary construction, design, and audio-visual strategies.

Required texts

Links and materials contained on syllabus

Course resources

New Directions in Digital Poetry (Funkhouser) [.pdf available on moodle]

Prehistoric Digital Poetry (Funkhouser) [.pdf available on moodle]

Ed Sanders: "Creativity and the Fully Developed Bard" [on moodle .pdf]

Course work:

Participation (20 Points):

For each work linked on the syllabus, students will write (& prepare for discussion) an informal summary of the experience of encountering the material. These writings: (1) should succinctly describe any insights you have, any special processes or strategies used to interact with it, and how the content and experience affected you; (2) should be direct (i.e., concise), and (most importantly!) include specific details from the material(s) under review; (3) should make historical and aesthetic connections between works and other expressive forms whenever possible. At the end of the semester, students will compile and edit their responses as a type of report, an overview summarizing the overall experience of these encounters.

Assignments (50 points):

Completion of 7 assignments, each worth 5-10 points (listed below) is required. Many of these exercises are designed to help you prepare for your Project.

Project (30 points): During the final weeks of the course each student will prepare a creative or critical project. I encourage using the WWW (including social networking sites) for project. Projects could include (but are not limited to) making hypertext narratives, animations, videos, or other types of coded works (PowerPoint projects will not be accepted). Proposals are due 10/25 (or before).

S C H E D U L E

Week of September 3 Course material & student introduction(s); in class screenings; intro to IBM Poetry

READING: "IBM POETRY: Exploring Restriction in Computer Poems" (http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous/2008/machine); download and read the lecture--follow along with the slides on the website. Optional: You can also hear me deliver this lecture online via http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Funkhouser-IBM-Poetry.html. A PDF of Emmet Williams' introduction to IBM will be distributed; read it.

ASSIGNMENT 1 (5 points): Use the IBM Poem template and make two different IBM poems using the process. Bring them, along with a summary discussing your impressions of the exercise to class next week.

Week of September 10 Visual / image / photo poetry; VISPO Anthology;Photoshop tutorial

ASSIGNMENT 2 (5 points): (A) Make several photo-hashtag poems that combine an image you take with a phone camera (or other digital camera) and a #word or #briefphrase (B) bring a printout of your two favorites, along with a summary discussing your impressions of the exercise to class next week.

Week of September 17 Alan Sondheim: Tao; Dawn; Charles O. Hartman, PyProse (download program here) & Montfort GENERATORS

READING: Chris Funkhouser / "Digital Poetry: A Look at Generative, Visual, and Interconnected Possibilities in its First Four Decades" (read through "Introductory Overview of Forms" section);

ASSIGNMENT 3 (5 points): (A) Make a serial poem, one line or a few lines per day, using output from PyProse or other interactive generator*; (B) craft generated compositions using any strategy--bring your favorite one, along with a summary discussing your impressions of these exercise(s) to class next week. (*=you may conduct your own independent research here and use any generator as long as it permits you to alter the words in its vocabulary)

Week of September 24 Nick Montfort: Taroko Gorge; Scott Rettberg: Tokyo Garage; launched today: Chercher le Texte (Finding the Text): online poetry gallery

READING: Chris Funkhouser: "Digital Poetry: A Look at Generative, Visual, and Interconnected Possibilities in its First Four Decades" (finish); see, also "Authoring Software - Poetry Generators"

ASSIGNMENT 4 (10 points): Use Taroko Gorge (or another "open source" title) as a model for your own online generated poem. Extra credit (5 points), for those who know Python: see J.R. Carpenter: Story Generation(s) and use Carpenter's Python code (or other adapted Python code) to make your own story (due 10/8)

Week of October 1 in-class work on Assignment 4 & 5

begin to conceptualize (build ideas) and work on Assignment 5

Week of October 8 mIEKAL aND: Mesostics for Dick Higgins; Mez, ID_Xor-cism; Kerry Lawrynovicz, Girl's Day Out; Maria Mencia, Birds Singing Other Birds' Songs; Jason Nelson: Wittenoom; Angela Ferraiolo, Map of a Future War;

in-class, after discussion, work on assignment 5

ASSIGNMENT 5 (5 points): Using any software (& your own instincts), create a series of visual poems (submit 2-3, minimum); post to Web (due 10/15)

Week of October 15 in-class assignment reviews (http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous/2013/369/gorge-remixes.html) & Visual Poems; Ernesto Mele e Castro Roda Lume screening

Review: Strickland/Jaramillo/Ryan, slippingglimpse; J.R. Carpenter, The Cape; Jhave Johnston: Preoccupied, Serious, futurELOgy, Extinction Elegies; B. K. Stefans, the dreamlife of letters;

Work on ASSIGNMENT 6 (10 points): Create a small interactive poem of any type (animation, hypertext, &c.); post to Web (due 10/29)

Week of October 22 Discuss Project; Dreamweaver / wix / Flash tutorials as necessary

ReviewJason Nelson, i made this. you play this. we are enemies; Motionpoems; The Continental Review; Dan Waber, Strings

Project Proposals due

Week of October 29 Strickland: The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot; Strickland and Montfort: Sea and Spar Between; Robert Kendall, Candles for a Street Corner;

future: ASSIGNMENT 7 (10 points): Create short video poem (2-3 minutes); post to YouTube

November 6 - December 11 (NO CLASS ON NOVEMBER 26)

Complete Assignments & Course Project

ALL COURSE WORK IS DUE on DECEMBER 12 AT NOON

 

Further course info

My office hours are Tuesday 2-5 p.m., Cullimore 425 (& by appointment)

Note: the NJIT Honor Code will be upheld in this course, and any violations will be brought to the immediate attention of the Dean of Students.