crawl____space

Theo in Bits Theo Holds Taut
Theo Ellin Ballew

Artist note:
THEO IN BITS THEO HOLDS TAUT is three modular poems written in what I consider a classic computational poetic form. The point of this work is not the poetic form itself -- which has been used in many other projects, imposes as little content as a sonnet or sestina, and uses very old tech -- but the poems themselves. The form: I write a basic prose frame that remains fixed but has blanks, like a MadLib; I also write lists of words or phrases corresponding to each of those blanks; when the user scrolls, the browser fills each blank with a word or phrase chosen "randomly" from those lists. The form has enough precedent that I can push its bounds, be reckless inside it. It’s also simple enough, and gives little enough agency to the computer, that I feel full authorship over all iterations (even though I will never see them all); I hold them taut, choreograph them harshly. [NOTE: I have full respect for artificial intelligence; it's just not present here.] These texts were written through a sad time, and maybe I used the randomization to cut off sentimentality mid-sentence, disrespect it, refuse to let my pain speak clearly. The shuffling gif borders melo-dramatize the shuffling in the poems and reference an earlier internet era: here too is nostalgia, emotion -- abstracted, interrupted, cut-up. Beyond itself, this project also proposes that computational poetic forms can and should be reused (and stretched/damaged/transformed w reuse) as so many non-computational poetic forms have been.... But, again, the point is the poems.

Artist bio:

Theo Ellin Ballew (deepest known matronym Srebrna or Silver) writes poetry and/or code. Their computational poetry has been or will soon be shown/published with The New River journal; External Pages; The Wrong Biennale; Tagvverk; Casa Equis; Electric Literature Organization; Bandini Espacio Cultural; screen_; El Quinto Piso; IK-Projects; Yeah Maybe; and others. Theo’s non-computational poetry appears or will soon appear in Action, Spectacle; 3AM; Juked; Litro; Bone Bouquet; 240P of 1080 Press; and elsewhere. They have taught computational art/literature and cyberfeminism at RISD, Brown, CUNY Brooklyn College, and The New School; they currently teach in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Theo is also the founder and director of ORAL.pub, a recently resuscitated publication for poetry/art made for and inseparable from the web. They hold an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown. Theo grew up in the Southwest (especially Phoenix) and on the internet. More at theo.land/.

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