is a series of "computer-poems" by Canadian poet, writer and editor Barrie Phillip Nichol, also known as bpNichol.
The piece is one of the first of its kind to fuse the tradition of Concrete Poetry with the possibilities of the emerging computer technologies of its time. It is created on the
(stylized as Apple ][), one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products which was released in 1977.
, to whom we are very grateful.
bpNichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988, born in Vancouver, British Columbia), was one of Canada’s most important
poets. In his lifetime he wrote concrete poetry,
novels, short fiction, musical scores, computer
texts and scripts for the muppet-based
children’s show Fraggle Rock. bpNichol died in
Toronto, Ontario on September 25, 1988.
I remember the first computer that was brought into my
house. I must have been somewhere between the ages of six and seven,
as I recall this occurring in the first house I can remember living in. The
computer was of fashionable beige or a warm grey with a large blown
glass monitor. This infantile technology seemed to operate as more of a
decoration than as a fully functional piece of equipment, but somehow
defined my single mother’s household as essentially modern. During
the computer’s short existence in the basement turned wreck room, I
had given my hand at trying to comprehend this beast under the stairs.
Firstly, my mother would type a short command into the matrix, which
would subsequently provide me the ability to process words across the
infinite space of the screen. Free from the interfaces of operating systems,
rudimentary orange characters appeared floating on the surface
of a black abyss: a, b, c, d, and a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y populate
the blank space before me as I punched the protruding keys. Gibberish
on the edge of the fathomless void which made up the negative space
around the typeface. A space only actualized when the random letters
and numbers were pushed into and out of the temporal rift stored in
the shadowy depths of the computer. Free of time and place. Without
the ability to save or replicate any of my random compositions, or to
ultimately understand my goal with this technology, my relationship to
this computer lasted very briefly. Eventually focusing my screen time on
more in depth adventures provided by video game consoles.
It takes a unique perspective to look into the expanse of the
unknown and to have the ability to see endless possibilities
rather than pure nothingness. To take the mechanics of
a medium and forge it into a material for creative outlet
requires an interest in upending convention. Within the
work of Canadian poet bpNichol there is an attention and
sensitivity to the structure of language. His work challenges
how we perceive and comprehend the visual and auditory
construction of words and their purpose. Repetition and
rhyme allow for the flow of meaning to extend from one word
to another causing the listener, reader, or both, to develop
thematic interpretations as the lines of definitions become
blurred together.
In First Screening, published by his own imprint Underwhich Editions in
1984, bpNichol takes on early forms of technology to create animated
poetic compositions. These works explore the structure of both written
and digital language, while simultaneously discovering the potential
possibilities that reside within the seemingly dark abyss of a primordial
computer. First Screening is a poetry edition originally designed for the
Apple IIe computers, an upgraded version of the original Apple II, and
a pioneer in the field mass market computing as the first commercially
successful personal computer. The Apple II was continually produced
and on the market from its launch in 1977 until Apple ceased
production of this model 1993. The accessibility and portability of these
computers allowed for a community of users to develop. These original
users were offered the ability to both balance their cheque books and
simultaneously explore The Oregon Trail on the same device, and in
doing so became a new viably digital public.
In a printed insert accompanying the edition, bpNichol states
that “computers & computer languages also open up new
ways of expressing old contents, of revivifying them. One is in
a position to make it new.” Through First Screening the poet
employs older static ideas of concrete poetry and expands
them with technology. Adding a new dimension beyond the
surface of the page or screen, this work takes into account the
poetics and materiality of its construction: “the off-screen programming moves from brute stumbling to some more
elegant solutions, a record of the process of programming,
the process of composition...”.
With this new technology accessible on a consumer market, the
process of publishing digital poetry became more localised, allowing for
publishers, like bpNichol, to distribute digital works at the vanguard of
digital publishing. Previous poets who employed digital technologies,
such as Stan Vanderbeek and his experiments at the AT&T labs during
the 1960’s, required elaborate equipment and precise installation to
experience early digital renderings and animations. bpNichol understood
the new consumer platform and produced this pioneering digital work
by taking a democratic position towards distribution, making it available
for the personal computer. The original version of First Screening was
published on 5 ¼” floppy disks in a numbered and signed edition of
100, therefore essentially producing one of the first ebooks of poetry
before the concept of this format would have ever be conceived.
During the time of my first computer, my mother was working
as a secretary at a local university. I rightfully assumed this
impossible calculator was more a creature “for work” as my
mother put it, and subsequently left it be finding no solace
in the strict confines its orange text on a black screen. In
the end, this formidable beast lasted only a brief time in the
lexicon of my childhood, and only physically present until my
family moved house shortly thereafter. In doing so we caught
up with the rest of society, who were already invested in
operating Windows 95.
As technology evolved past the Applesoft Basic programming language
that bpNichol employed for First Screening, the archivability of this early
digital work came into question. How can we reconcile our digital past
in the wake of our exponential future? As technology progresses, how
can we archive these early forms of computing while the adaptability
of technology is so geared to new aspirations, discarding the past in its
wake? Fortunately now we are able to experience this work, or collection
of works, through detailed archival process. A daisy chain of transferring
the files from one operating system to the next, taking over three years
to complete, brought First Screening back to life for the twenty-first
century. Although the experience of the work has changed from the
floppy disk to, for this exhibition, an embedded video, the sensitivity
of the computers’ construction and the construction of language still
resonates with the artist’s unique sensibility.
I realise now it was within the computer screen’s particular
depth of black space where the true potential of the
technology existed. Not so much within the short commands
or tax calculations that the device was intended to be used
for. The work of bpNichol explores the poetic capabilities of
programming by employing the principles of the medium for
his own artistic endeavours. He initiates a poetic future set
against the backdrop of the blown glass monitor, to stare into
the black expanse and visualize its potential for creativity
rather than alienation. bpNichol offers a unique observation
into the fathomless potential of the abyss, and proposes a
newly forged digital, and distributable, future for poetry.
THE END.
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