Center for
Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech
haikumania
haikumania is about connection
the digital arts world and in particular
web-based work has become perhaps overly concerned with interactive code works
e-literature often indicating 'hypertext' and
there are some wonderful hypertext works already out there and being produced
other works include experimentations in word
modulation through code and works that now present code itself as literature as
art
haikumania is interested not so much in
creating interactive hypertext works although there are some examples within
the work
but in the process of intellectual of personal
connection that the web and especially electronic mail can bring to the
creation of collaborative works
haikumania's starting point is the linked renga
poetry of
to create a collaborative piece where
the final piece is greater than the sum of its parts the creation of a renga
piece the process in itself being a performance
some talk of renga being conducted
in sacred spaces well yes but such spaces are where ever the group decides to
operate
a specially created space a gallery around
the kitchen table a busy shopping street the park a nursery school a prison
hall the worldwide web
haikumania has worked in all these places all in
their own way becoming sacred as the space between and connecting individuals
where they create together collborative and connecting works 'interactive arts-ren'
for clarity haikumania
uses the term 'renga' to refer to any linked poetry work
with its roots however tenuously in the haikai tradition this might encompass all new linked forms
the term 'renku' is used to refer to
works that choose to explore more closely the writing of linked works
that stay closer to the traditions and
rules of japanese linked poetry in particular
the use of seasonal words link and shift
the wider linked arts pieces are reffered to as 'ren' ren from the Japanese loosly
meaning connect or connection
haikumania is interested in how works might
include actions connections and creations in and between the digital and
the chemically coded worlds
to promote active connections between
individuals and communities at local national and international levels
by connecting we can change the world
haikumania could not exist without the
hundreds of individuals that have contributed to and continue to contribute to
it
i thank them all i
thank you all each day you change my world change me
paul t conneally
haikumania
october 2003
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