5578611
doi
10.1215/03335372-8720043
oai:zenodo.org:5578611
user-artdel
user-eu
A Critique of Control and Black Boxes: Lit Mods of Ian Hatcher's "⌰ (Total Runout)"
Seiça, Álvaro
University of Bergen
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Ian Hatcher
"⌰ (Total Runout)"
digital poetry
sound poetry
performance
black box
control society
surveillance
WikiLeaks
lit mod
erasure poetry
<p>This article analyzes Ian Hatcher’s online and kinetic poem “⌰ (Total Runout)”<strong> </strong>(2015) from a point of view of a critique of corporate and governmental black boxing, at the level of its code, text, visual output, sound, and live performance. The multimodal poem is part of the <em>Drone Pilot</em> suite, and it is presented in different versions: as a web-based work, sound piece, and performance. It remixes appropriated text from a WikiLeaked manual by the UK Ministry of Defence, essays on artificial intelligence, and Hatcher’s own text. The overall versions of the work, understood as variable events, boldly problematize communication and cognitive processes in networks—whether they are implemented in computer systems by secret agencies or corporations. Hatcher’s critique of black boxes entails recreating issues of security, control and surveillance, as digital systems are increasingly paving the way for less privacy and less knowledge about their inner workings. As a result, the poem questions the essence of privacy, redaction, and systemic violence, when access is a privileged asset of agents with security clearances or those with a deep knowledge of programming. This article presents “⌰ (Total Runout)” in the scope of the poet’s aesthetic program. Then, it analyzes its Web version’s interface and source code. The kinetic poem’s spatial and temporal dimensions are discussed via experiments that modify the source code. The methods here presented deform the poem’s temporal display, by means of modifications, or what I call <em>lit mods</em>. Thus, the article proposes an approach for a more informed reading and understanding of digital kinetic poems, since they are ever-changing events. Finally, it locates the work’s aural and performative versions in cultural and political context.</p>
Zenodo
2020-12-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
5578610
user-artdel
user-eu
award_title=The Art of Deleting: A Study of Erasure Poetry, Practices of Control, Surveillance, and Censorship; award_number=793147; award_identifiers_scheme=url; award_identifiers_identifier=https://cordis.europa.eu/projects/793147; funder_id=00k4n6c32; funder_name=European Commission;
1634694530.295242
5530029
md5:71be0157dde9527d8e217e92a176c808
https://zenodo.org/records/5578611/files/POE41_4_02Seica_AM.pdf
public
Poetics Today
41
4
503–537
2020-12-01