Interactive Poetry

 I enjoyed Cruising and Dear E.E. a lot, and think they are great examples of using the medium of a piece as part of the piece itself. When I first opened Cruising I was confused on how I was supposed to read it since the text and images were going way too fast to read. Once I figured out how to control it I was surprised by how sensitive it was and how it was quite difficult to keep the poem moving in a way that I  could easily digest it. Thinking about it more though, I think it works really well since the story of the piece is about young people wanting to experience more of the world the aspect of learning to control the piece evokes that same feeling in the reader. I also think the images that move on the bottom of the screen reinforce the aspect of driving in the piece since it feels like looking out of the window of a speeding car. 

 I think Dear E.E.'s use of medium is even more impressive and well executed than that of Cruising. I mainly think this because the themes of dreaming and memory in Dear E.E. lends themselves better to interactive poetry. The constant shaking and moving of the elements on the story, as well as the random letters that shoot through the background, do a great job in evoking the sense of being in a dream. They also evoke the feeling of trying to recall something you can't quite remember. I also think the simple, almost child-like drawings is a good way of getting these feelings since dreams and memories are something so important to being humans that they are things we start to do as kids. 

 For my bring it I looked at First Screening: Computer Poems by bpNichol, It was a collection of 12 poems made in BASIC. I found the poems to be very entertaining and impressive, but I did find too much deeper meaning in them. My favorite of them: After the Storm features words and letters moving around the screen to create the line "This is the sentence that the wind blew here" I thought it was very clever and a great way to use the movement that is available in digital poetry to create something that could not be made on paper. I also really liked Construction one which sees "TOWER" appear on the bottom of the screen and another "TOWER" appears on top of it until it reaches the top where "BABLE" begins to flood the screen. I liked this one because it was interesting to see the Tower of Bable story portrayed in such a unique way.