On Post-Internet Poetics...

So there are a bunch of fun people writing poetry in unique and creative ways nowadays. Or perhaps I ought say they are "finding" poetry or "publishing" poetry in unique ways, or more generally thinking of poesy differently. The Internet has democratized media along all fronts and we see the repercussions of this age of free information in most places we look. The current unrest in North Africa and the Middle East is a result of free information and access to media. The downfall of the recording industry in the past ten years has as its root the democratization of media. Any fool with a network connection can publish any information, any media. The media may be text (poetry!), sound, video, etc. Many have written about the consequences of free media effectively. I'll just touch on a few of the people I find most interesting and some projects and aspects of projects I find compelling.

I've done quite a bit of my own work on the fringes of poesy over the past few years. This has included theft of text from all sources: advertising language, web source code, dialogue and speech, SMS, social network text, etc. The act of writing post-Duchamp and post-Kenneth Goldsmith may be more accurately termed a "framing" or a choice. We're surrounded by language, by information. Much of our contemporary existence is "curating" our sources of information. We perform daily many an artistic or poetic task: we choose where to place our "gaze," we select information to "share," we place it in a new "frame" and associate it with our selves. Much of the trick of poesy or art is directing this gaze to something previously neglected, or encouraging an "aesthetic attitude" be taken toward an object never before taken as such. There are quite a few young artists doing just those things!

First of all, I'll talk about the 2011 poet laureate Poncho Peligroso. "Laureate" comes from laurel and is like a crown. In modern praxis it's a distinction bestowed by a polity, by a government, by an institution upon an individual. Like the title "president" or "pastor," the title, the crown, the distinction has no meaning with out the institution. The Laureate's task in the U.S. is to bring more awareness to the writing and reading of poetry. Now, Poncho isn't really the recognized Poet Laureate (or is he?). He and fellow writer Steve Roggenbuck have devised a gag that muddles with the authority and relevance of a laureate title. By utilizing a technique called "Google bombing", they've harnessed the algorithm that ranks pages in Google searches and are now directing 2011 poet laureate traffic to Poncho's site.

Just like Mubarak and autocrats in the Middle East aren't able to control the media their constituents have access to in a post-Wikileaks, post-Internet world, institutions have less of an influence on who we as a people see as "artists" or "poets." Danto's institutional theory, having been so defined, is becoming obsolete. By harnessing new-media tools, artists and agitators are able to create false and misleading information that undermines the authority of institutions. No longer do governments, polities, academic institutions, critics and literary magazines get to decide who the poets are and who they aren't. New media tools allow artists, allow anyone to publish content and share expressions and information with the world.

Not only are the titles and accolades associated with institutions being challenged, but the traditional avenues and forums for poesy are being altered. Just as Fluxus and Conceptual artists placed an influence on the performative aspect of the work, its situation in space and time, 21st century poets have expanded far beyond the page and the chapbook. Poets and artists like Jenny Holzer and Robert Barry use words in unique ways both in and outside gallery space. This brings an aspect of involvement with the environment and encourages a sort of participation by the audience and viewer. Writers like Steve Roggenbuck tend to take their minimalist text projects and put them in living environments. A short poem printed out and placed in a chair lift, on a locked door or held in any other place alters the traditional context of poesy. These artists bring the word beyond the page and back into the social sphere where it can become more immediately effective.

Not only is the poetry forced into new and exciting contexts, but the distinction between what is formally poetry and what isn't is blurred. Many of these poets continually find text presented and "frame" it as poetry, or make a concerted effort to view what is traditionally considered just speech as art. They "frame" a YouTube comment, a thread on a social network, a product review or an advertisement. Roggenbuck keeps a running blog of what he considers INTERNET POETRY. In a world with increasing levels of technology and machinery, the "dialogue" we have with our tools becomes a curious means by which to analyze our connection with our artifacts. In the interest of better service, software applications and social media tend to ask us as users for bits of information, or to tell us strange and interesting things while we operate our profiles. This artificial dialogue is an inspiration to a whole wave of Millennial writers and post-Internet artists.

While social and political institutions have always recognized the import of art as a tool for controlling a populace and influencing behaviors, democratization of media allows even the least powerful and least funded of persons to manipulate messages in such a way that undermines hierarchical authority. Publishers are no longer the only ones who can publish. A book pressed by Random House is just as "published" as a status update on a social network. There is scarcely a distinction to be made between printed material and immaterial Internet content. In many ways we live in a post-media world where the medium is no longer the message. Because of the proliferation of media perhaps we are seeing the message's emancipation; its emancipation from the institution, from medium and perhaps, finally, from authority itself...