PO L I S H IM PACT A GUIDE FOR FOREIGNERS TO POLISH ELECTRONIC, EXPERIMENTAL AND OTHERWISE UNCONVENTIONAL LITERATURE
2
Welcome to the land of King Ubu Experimental, electronic, and otherwise unconventional Poland in a nutshell Everything begins here
9
Polish specialties and inspirations
42
Snapshots from the field of Polish digital literature in the past and today
58
A social network game to learn about Central and Eastern Europe
66
Who’s who
Keleti blokk blocks
Ha!wangarda 2016 in New York
1
Your spellcheckers
will be soon correcting literature into liberature, just you be patient!
P O L A ND
WAS THE FIRST
We believe that everything began and shall continue to begin in Poland. In Eden, Adam and Eve spoke Polish, the protong, or the first language, from which all other languages originated (which was scientifically proven by Stanisław Szukalski, Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Polish grandfather”), Christopher Columbus was Polish, and, of course, experimental literature also began in the land upon the Vistula River. “HOW COME, ” YOU ASK? It is impossible to talk about experiments and pushing boundaries in literature1 without King Ubu or the Poles (because that is the full title of Jarry’s play). It is common knowledge that the teenage author set the action of his play “in Poland, that is, nowhere.” As, indeed, at the time he created his work, Poland was temporarily non-existent.
called this liberature1, invented bioart, wrote a me-
We want to borrow Jarry’s metaphor to tell you about
Probably most of you, our Readers, know the divide
the existing/non-existing empire in the field of literary
into the center and peripheries. You might think that
experimentation, literary thought, and digital textual-
only the center matters and that you happen to be in
ity. The Polish empire.
it. We want to make this perspective our own. We are
From this booklet you will learn that you have been
writing this book as citizens of the great non-existing/
misinformed about the history of world experimental
existing empire of King Ubu. In it we offer a selection of
literature. We want to tell you that it was really in Po-
projects that we consider to be the first, best and most
land that digital literature was invented, that a Polish
influential, without looking back at anyone else’s story.
ga-palindrome, and Poles were in the avant-garde of literary trolling. Moreover, Poles are so advanced that they have participated in the creation of a coalition against the dominance of the English language, and our experimental artists simply refuse to be called experimental.
artist was the first to introduce spatiality and networkedness into literary art, that Poles rediscovered
Therefore, gentlemen of Poland, forward!
the medium of the book for artistic expression and
Or rather, backward!
A MAP OF
EXP ERIM E N T AL
AND OTHERWISE UNCONVENTIONAL POLAND
Kraków:
Nowa Wieś:
↪ The Liberature Reading Room
↪ Museum of Palindromes
↪ Korporacja Ha!art
London:
↪ Ha!wangarda festival
↪ seat of Techsty
↪ Mocak Museum of Contemporary Art
Rzeszów:
you can see Dróżdż’s Między here
↪ Andrzej Głowacki’s lab
↪ Rozdzielczość Chleba often performs here
Wrocław:
Łódź:
↪ You can see a lot of Dróżdż’s works here
↪ The Film Form Workshop was here
Dąbrowa Dolna k. Kielc:
↪
↪ Radosław Nowakowski’s publishing house
ms2 — you can find some of Wojciech
Bruszewski’s works here ↪ Book Art Museum
Liberatorium
IS IT REALLY
EX P E R I M ENTAL ? From From Combinatorics to Liberature On Misunderstandings Connected with So-called “Experimental Literature” by Zenon Fajfer
It is amazing how successful this scientific word has
used whenever one wants to ignore or a work or avoid
been in the field of art. “Experimental” is used to de-
passing judgment on it (on the other hand avoiding
scribe painting, music, theatre, film; also poetry and
judgement may be the most reasonable form of contact
the novel can be “experimental.” “Experimental” is ap-
with art on the part of the critic), and often, as Ray-
plied not only to attempts to solve this or that artistic
mond Federman rightly pointed out, it is used simply
problem in the process of creating a work of art (in
to protect the reader against its pernicious influence:
this sense of the word, every writer, even the most traditional one, is experimenting, and traces of his ex-
Everything that does not fall into the category of successful
periments are left in his drawer), but also to finished
fiction (commercially, that is), or what Jean Paul Sartre
works, which, since they have been completed, are
once called “nutritious literature, ” everything that is found
no longer experiments. This subtle term of offence is
“unreadable for our readers” (that’s the publishers and
editors speaking – but who the hell gave them the right to
Divine Comedy is nothing else but, as we would call it
decide what is readable or valuable for their readers?) is
today, an enormous “linguistic experiment.” That lover
immediately relegated to the domain of experimentation
of antiquity (and other people’s wives) literally created
– a safe and useless place.
a new language for the sake of his poem!
Personally, I do not believe that a fiction writer with the
[…]
least amount of self-respect and integrity, and belief in
And nobody calls these eminent books “experimental
what he is doing, ever says to himself: “I am now going to
writing”! The term is aimed at new works, still untamed
experiment with fiction; I am now writing an experimental
(not to say, unarmed) by criticism, books so innovative
piece of fiction.”
that they evade easy evaluations and existing classi-
To put it in a nutshell, this insult is used to characterize
fications.
anything that is different, complicated, and original in the
[…]
arts, and implies, intentionally or unintentionally, that
It is high time, then, to invent another, more adequate
there is still a long way to go from experiment to “properly
term of abuse. Who knows, however, if the term isn’t
applied theory.”
worth saving to describe the activities of those con-
[…]
tract critics of literature and the other Muses, since
Is this an exaggeration? But how else can I describe
if anything is experimental, it is exactly criticism, not
the innovation of Aeschylus, who betrayed tradition
creative writing. And there is nothing wrong with that,
and introduced the second actor on the stage, while
if only we finally realize it. It is definitely an experiment
limiting the domination of the chorus? Sophocles’ fur-
on the living organism, and subsequent generations of
ther innovation, i.e. introduction of yet another actor,
critics can experiment on the same organism in differ-
could also be called “experimental.” And what about
ent ways. So it is the theory that is experimental, not
Shakespearian drama with its loose, episodic plot, re-
the practice. If anybody notices a risky paradox here,
jecting traditional rules of composition and ignoring
she is not mistaken. This statement applies also to the
the three unities? All of them were great and risky “ex-
present discourse, which I accept with all humility.
periments,” to use today’s idiom. What is more, Homer gets deserved praise from Horace for not starting his epic ab ovo. But does that not testify to his unhealthy tendency to “experiment”? And what about Dante? His
Polish specialities and inspirations
#creativecomputing #demoscene #collaborative writing #party
Did you know that Poland belonged to the part of the world that saw the birth of one of the most interesting social phenomena in the field of digital media – the demoscene? The demoscene is a subculture of computer geeks,
ular platform. Participants of the ZX Spectrum scene
who meet at demoparties, where they show off their
are a different subculture than those programming for
computing skills on old platforms and engage in Dio-
the Amiga. The machine you use is a very important
nysian partying.
identity marker.
The scene came to life in the 1980s and flourishes
Parties may gather up to a couple hundred people,
to this day. In its first days its members were called
who bring their own equipment (very often they are
“illegal boys” (“illegal” because they often engaged in
organized in school gym halls).
pirating), they were the first generation of teenagers
The demoscene is like an underground society, a social
growing up with personal computers (like the Amiga,
microcosm. The screenwriters of the cult movie Fight
Atari, Commodore, ZX Spectrum).
Club were inspired the experience of the demoscene, and the opening credits reference demo aesthetics.
One of the main elements of the parties is a competi-
The demosceners also lead a kind of double life; they
tion called “compo,” during which works from different
are regular workers in normal occupations and become
scene genres are demonstrated: especially demos and
creative all-powerful computer hackers at parties.
intros.
The demoscene has been the largest-scale known creative computing social phenomenon in history.
A party is usually organized by the users of one partic-
Moreover, it is completely independent. The parties
are organized without any institutional support or
grammers) and has its own particular sense of humor.
grants. This is a truly grassroots movement devoted
The demoscene also functions in North America, but
to testing the limits of computers and creating art.
it differs from its European counterpart in one key as-
The aim of demosecene geeks is to amaze the audience
pect. In Europe, it is difficult to imagine a party without
with their programming skills. “Old-school” demos are
alcoholic beverages...
written on retro platforms – with these works the main challenge is to overcome the limitations of the machine and present a new effect. The difference between demos and videos is that they are generated in real-time, which is often the only way, given the limited capacity of the first computers.
“In the most general definition, a demo is a [...] computer program [...] that generates
The demoscene is also a gold mine for scholars re-
an audiovisual structure in the form of an
searching the beginnings of digital textuality. It gave
animation with sound. Such a definition
birth to an array of genres, which can be seen and
of the demo underlines the key traits of
studied as e-literature. These include textual demos
demos, distinguishing them from forms
(with scrolls), games, disc magazines and digital ad-
like games, music videos, or animations
aptations of books.
created with 3D modeling tools: the demo is a real-time program, the key effects of
In Polish demoscene literature, one of the most unique
which are generated during its execution
works is The Road to Assland by Yerzmyey and the
by a processor carrying out predefined
Hooy-Program group. The title of this ZX Spectrum
computation and acting according to algo-
work is both an invitation and warning for those who
rithms that combine and process relatively
want to research the aesthetics of this subculture. Se-
simple input.”
rious respectable scientists should perhaps avoid this phenomenon, which can be at times quite politically
— Piotr Czerski, “Maszyny, które mogą
incorrect (given most of its artists were teenage pro-
wszystko,” Ha!art, 2014
What Is Liberature?
Liberature is liberty, artistic freedom, trespassing across borders between genres and arts. It is literature unconstrained by conventions, canons and critics. It is writing-weighing letters in order to build a book. It is writing that takes into account the book as a physical object. Katarzyna Bazarnik Od Joyce’a do liberatury
There are literary works in which the artistic message is transmitted not only through the verbal medium, but also through the author “speaking” via book as a whole. In such works, a drawing or a blank space has the power of a poetic metaphor, and typography is elevated to the status of a stylistic device. Language is visual and material, and its materiality is meaningful. The space of the book is no longer transparent and insignificant. The architecture of the work becomes a meaningful place that the reader can traverse or explore in unexpected ways. Hence, the material book, which can be of any shape and structure, is not just a neutral container for a text, but an integral component of the literary work. It is a spatial-temporal object shaped by authors just as they shape the fictional world through words. So such works often go beyond language and speak through blank spaces, images and other graphic elements, different kinds and colours of paper or other materials used for printing and binding. But this is not creative design or book art. These are books written by authors—writers and poets, who use the resources of the book as their material, too. It is literature in the form of the book, or liberature. The term, derived from the Latin word liber, was in-
was Oka-leczenie (Mute-I-Late) by Fajfer and Katarzyna
troduced in 1999 by Polish poet Zenon Fajfer in his
Bazarnik. The concept sprang from the couple’s col-
seminal article “Liberature. Appendix to a dictionary of
laboration on this jointly written work. After a decade,
Literary Terms.” The first book referred to as liberature
the book finally took on the shape of a triple-dos-a-dos.
The authors used this unconventional form to hint at
goes beyond the stereotype of the ordinary book,
a subtle connection between three separate stories
which makes the imprint stand out among publishing
told in the separate codices of their book—the story
lines in Poland.
of a dying man, a baby to be born, and a love affair in
↪
between. The title can be loosely translated as “Mute-
Fajfer and Bazarnik’s books, their theoretical proposal,
I-Late” or “Eye-S-Ore.” In the original, it is a pun on the
as well as editorial and publishing activities set off
Polish word okaleczenie, which means “hurting of the
a distinct movement in contemporary Polish literature,
eye”; but when cut into halves, the word turns into
which has also attracted growing attention abroad.
its opposite: “healing on the eye.” So the title invites
Fajfer’s original idea, elaborated theoretically by Ba-
readers to cast off stereotypical habits of reading, to
zarnik and others, has gradually been recognised as
pay attention to every detail of the entire book and
a literary genre that combines verbal and non-ver-
perceive the work in more a integral way.
bal means of expression in the meaningful space of
↪
a book. So far presentations of liberature in the form
Fajfer and Bazarnik’s next book (O)patrzenie (Ga(u)ze),
of lectures, public talks and book exhibitions have been
published in 2003, launched the imprint under the
held all over Europe, in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy,
name of Liberatura in Ha!art Publishing House. The
and beyond: in Taiwan, Japan and the USA (New York,
aim of the series is to present liberatic writing as
Chicago, Philadelphia and Oakland).
a distinct, though little acknowledged tradition that
↪
celebrates the book as the meaningful and liberated
But one may justifiably ask what this book-bound
medium of writers (www.ha.art.pl/liberatura.html).
genre has to do with electronic literature? A lot in fact.
So far it has published over twenty titles, including
First of all, liberatic books often rely on a non-linear,
Mallarmé’s The Throw of the Dice, Queneau’s One
hypertextual kind of narration. Take B.S. Johnson’s The
Hundred Thousand Billion Poems, B.S. Johnson’s The
Unfortunates. This novel-in-a-box consists of twen-
Unfortunates, the trade edition of Oka-leczenie, the first
ty-seven unbound sections of differing length that
translation ever of Herta Müller’s poetic collages Der
can be read in any order. It tells a story of a sports
Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm and Polish translation of
journalist who arrives in an unknown city to report
James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Each of its volumes is
on a football match and unexpectedly gets entangled
different, each has its own unique shape, and each
in a web of painful memories that this place evokes in
him. Only the “First” and “Last” sections are marked,
ten letters, in which paradoxically, the printed codex is
indicating where to enter and leave his story. The read-
much more interactive than electronic poems on the
ers may follow some temporal clues to reconstruct his
CD included in the book. In his latest work Powieki
repressed, traumatic memories in chronological order.
(Eyelids) Fajfer offers his readers an amazing textual
Alternatively, they may look for other “textual links”
labyrinth, build up from a series of emanational poems,
to reconstruct his present visit in the city, and treat
intricately interconnected on many levels. Again the
the memories as flashbacks. Finally, they may read
readers are invited to either explore it using their own
the book in any random order, as if in imitation of an
perceptivity, pen and paper and the printed book, or
associative flow of the hero’s thoughts. Raymond Que-
turn to the DVD, in which they can use arrows and
neau’s One Hundred Thousand Billion Poems also offers
hyperlinks.
the readers an incredible number of possible ways of
↪
arranging their own sonnet. It is a highly interactive
Other authors of liberature who have close links to
book, inviting physical manipulation of this textual ma-
the electronic medium are Radosław Nowakowski
chine. Oka-leczenie also requires similar cooperation.
and Robert Szczerbowski, who are presented in oth-
The readers are not only free to choose any of the
er parts of this publication. Szczerbowski’s Antologia:
three volumes as the starting point, but may also dis-
Kompozycje. Księga żywota. Æ, published as volume 20
cover “invisible” texts hidden under the surface. While
in “Liberatura” series, is a story of imaginative fiction
reading the initials of all the words they can recover
that travels across ages and media. Reaching back to
hidden stories and discover how the whole book has
the tradition of oral storytelling, this narrative inhabits
emanated from just one word. Many other liberatic
traditional, printed codices (in Parts I and II—Compo-
works require a comparable, “non-trivial effort to tra-
sitions, and The Book of Life), and then moves beyond
verse the text,” to use Espen Aarseth’s term, equally
them to electronic platforms. Part III of the Anthology,
useful to describe electronic literature and liberature.
an untitled, programmatically anonymous text, called
↪
Æ for convenience’s sake, is the first Polish electronic
But hypertextual structure is not the only similarity
piece of creative writing. It was initially issued in a set
between these two types of creative writing. Liberatic
comprising a 3½-inch floppy disc and the printed dos-
works often investigate the tension between paper and
à-dos booklet in 1996. However, when it appeared
virtual spaces, as does Fajfer in dwadzieścia jeden liter/
in 2013 in the Anthology, the most up-to-date digital
technology turned out to be… print. Its electronic ver-
↪
sion is now accessible on various platforms by scanning
The first The Liberature Reading Room was found-
the QR code printed on a postcard included in the
ed in October 2002 as part of the Art Library in the
Anthology.
Małopolska Culture Institute on the basis of Katarzyna
↪
Bazarnik and Zenon Fajfer’s collection and donations
Of course, this brief overview can only hint at the links
of other authors; now it is a part of the Multimedia
between liberature and electronic literature. But it is
Section of the Main Library of Malopolska Province. It
worth pointing out in conclusion that appearing three
collects contemporary works of liberatic character, and
years before N. Katherine Hayles’ “technotexts” and
works anticipating it, which could be now classified as
ten years before Jessica Pressman’s “bookishness,
liberatic, as well as theoretical and critical publications,
liberature is a uniquely Polish contribution to the dis-
reviews, notes, press clippings, and all other related
cussion on complex relations between content and
materials. It presently amounts to about 300 items
form, literary language and its material encodings, as
and is still growing. The Reading Room hosts meetings
well as preconceptions about practices of reading and
and lectures on liberature, similar artistic and literary
writing. And in liberature it is the book that appears
phenomena, and on particular authors.
as a truly innovative medium, and a non-transparent interface that by no means has exhausted its potential. liberature reading room
See more in: The Liberature Reading Room in Arteteka, in Malopolska Garden of Arts, ul. Rajska 12, Kraków, Poland www.liberatura.pl
Did you know that the celebrated Polish writer W i t o l d G o m b r o w i c z was a pioneer of modern trolling in the literary community? Witold Gombrowicz is the author of the essay Against Poets (Polish: Przeciw poetom), which was published in the 1950s in the journal Kultura, a very important publication of the Polish emigration in Paris during the communist period. The essay was written in Argentina, where Gombrowicz lived for 25 years. Gombrowicz presented his essay for the first time in
It is important to note that poetry played a crucial role
1947, when he met with his friends in the Argentinian
in shaping the Polish national identity. In particular,
bookstore and cafe Fray Moco. He read to them the
romantic poetry was considered one of the key ele-
Spanish translation of his manifesto Against Poets, writ-
ments for preserving Polishness in the time in history
ten in the poetics of a trolling comment. In this gesture
when Poland was taken apart by neighboring empires.
by Gombrowicz, who hates on poetry as a Form, as
The poetic tradition is so strong in our country that
a Church, an Institution, we find the same formula
Polish literature did not even create a strong tradition
we experience in the contemporary online strategy
of realist novels, only great poetic works and novels
of trolling. Gombrowicz’s trolling was very successful,
written according to the “poetic prose model.” Thus
provoking emotional replies from many well-known
Gombrowicz the troll attacked something most sacred,
literary scholars and poets, including the Polish Nobel
especially as he did this only two years after the Second
Prize winner in literature, Czesław Miłosz. Anecdote
World War, in which many poets died fighting. From
has it that many more important Polish literary figures
his safe refuge in Argentina, where the writer had
had sent in serious responses, but the editor of Kultura
passed the war, such trolling was extremely powerful.
persuaded them to withdraw their polemical articles,
Gombrowicz was mericless in attacking something
arguing they would make themselves look silly. Thus,
that was absolutely dominant, a taboo, a certainty and
the predigital trolling met its predigital “don’t feed the
common good. Only from out of Poland could such
troll” equivalent.
a total attack be launched.
Remebering Gombrowicz’s epic trolling in 2015 In Gombrowicz’s formula and strategy, Piotr Marec-
in Buenos Aires. And they did so presenting their
ki found a link between the times when the Polish
manifesto in the own languages, Polish and Span-
writer did a reading of his text for the Argentinian
ish. They advocated: “We know very well that all
audience and today’s digital practices. During the
that happens happens in language, it is in it that
E-Poetry Festival in Buenos Aires (2015) Gombro-
are manifest all types of domination, [...]. Language
wicz’s gesture was recreated, but directed at differ-
reproduces absolutely everything and is the most
ent forms of domination, with the use of a different
effective tool of symbolic violence. There is no need
lexicon – the one describing the struggles within
to add that as representatives of laguages that are
the field of digital literature. Thus, the English lan-
subjected and dominated we feel this everyday. The
guage was attacked as the most oppressive factor
center calls us margins, peripheries or ends of the
in the field. It is mostly in English that the current
world, and we either have no voice, or our voice is
canon of e-literature has been written and it is in
made to be uniportant, barely audible, weakened
this language that all international discussions and
so that it cannot be heard or properly expressed,
events in the field are held. To this practice Polish
on the verge of exclusion and ignoring.”
and Argentinian artists said a large, hateful NO
E
fektem tego spotkania było założenie kolalicji, której nazwa wyrażana może być w każdym jezyku poza angielskim, przeciwko któremu kolalicja jest zwrócona. W Buenos Aires zaczęto od nazwy polskiej, która brzmi Koalicja Przeciwko Angielskiemu jako Językowi Dominującemu, w skrócie Koalicja przeciw AngDo. Jak ustalono nierówności językowe i impreializm językowy angielskiego będziemy piętnować w każdej formule. Tę praktykę hejtingu przeciwko dominacji angielskiego poparło wiele głosów ze świata “obrzeży i peryferii.”
LEM
Stanisław Lem, the Polish science fiction writer, philosopher and futurologist, author of Solaris, foresaw in his writings electronic literature (which he called biterature) and bioliterature
Lem — the polymath
of dragons: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
Lem, Poland’s most translated writer, said of him-
purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say,
self: “It is common knowledge that Lem ate the en-
non-existent, but each non-existed in an entirely
cyclopedia, and if you shake him a bit, he will spit
different way….” Dragons of Probability is a favorite
out swarms of algorithms and formulas…” The critic
text of physicians and mathematicians, who often
Stanisław Bereś is even more direct “This writer,
use it when teaching students.. The story is also
like an intellectual bulldozer, with amazing erudite
referenced by Stephanie Strickland in her volume
ease cuts through all possible areas
Dragon Logic.
of intellectual inquiry.” Lem paired
Love, mathematics and mimesis
profound philosophical and liter-
The language of science can be
ary knowledge with education in
applied to writing about anything
science and mathematics. The writ-
– including love and eroticism (al-
ing of the author of The Cyberiad
though about the latter mostly with
(1965) abounds with references to
irony and mockery, which is typical
theories from the field of science
of Lem). The digital poet the Elec-
and often uses its language.
tronic Bard from The First Sally (A), or Trurl’s Electronic Bard generates
The story Dragons of Probability
love poetry: “A love poem, lyrical,
is one of the works in which Lem
pastoral, and expressed in the lan-
used terminology from the hard
guage of pure mathematics. Tensor
sciences, including quantum me-
algebra mainly, with a little topology
chanics. The beginning reads: “Everyone knows
and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you
that dragons don’t exist. But while this simplistic
understand, and in the cybernetic spirit.” The idea
formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suf-
of literature created by other means than human
fice for the scientific mind…Cerebron, attacking the
writers recurs in Lem’s works, and the concept of
problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds
literature created by machines through mimesis
The Electric Bard from Warsaw
explained in the introduction to the History of Bitic Literature provides interesting interpretative context to studies on
Biopoetry
the newest experiments
Stanisław Lem came up with
emotions spontaneously
in generative literature,
the idea of biopoetry three
using Morse Code (E. coli
especially works which
decades before Eduardo
eloquentissima), then Gulli-
appropriate the literary
Kac published his biopoetry
ver creates a literary exercise
manifesto in the Cybertext
for E.coli forcing bacteria to
Yerbook 2002/03. Lem’s
write his own poetry (E.coli
Imaginary Magniture (1973)
poetica). The poems are short
main, including work like Sea and Spar Between by
– a collection of prefaces to
and grammatical errors oc-
Stephanie Strickland and Nick Montfort or Once
fictional books – contains
cur (“Agar agar is my love as
Upon a Tide by J.R. Carpenter.
a preface to Eruntics by Regi-
were stated above”) but this
nald Gulliver, which is based
does not change the fact that
on the following idea: “Why
the bacterial poetry project
not to mutate a bacteria so it
is revolutionary. How do you
by writers through translation aggregates fed with
is be able to write? ” The main
find Lem’s ideas today when
the texts of work and other sources: biographies and
protagonist of Gulliver’s
Christian Bök succeeds with
monographs. This process allowed the machines to
experiment is Escherichia
his poetic bug (The Xenotext
spontaneously create works that should have been
coli (E. coli). At the beginning
Experiment, since 2008)? Tru-
the “microbe” is trained to
ly anticipatory, isn’t it?
canon and draw from works in the public do-
Mimesis […] was about completing the body of work
written, but their authors neglected to do so or did not have time to write them. The essence of mimesis
articulate its thoughts and
– the creation of “missing links” in literature – was thus the meticulous analysis of works by a given author, which would lead to synthesis: of threads, motives, ideas and structures – signaled in their existing works,
*** Interesting fact: The Warsaw Copernicus Science
but unstated directly. — Dariusz Brzostek, Projekt
Center has a poetry generating machine inspired by
literatury konceptualnej? O „książkach nieistniejących” Stanisława Lema, 2001]
the Electric Bard
Philip K. Dick vs Stanisław Lem Even though Stanisław Lem took a dim view on American science fiction (“poorly written, ” “interested more in adventure than in ideas or new literary forms”) he considered Philip K. Dick as one of the best sci-fi writers, “a visionary among the charlatans.” Lem’s compliments, praise and endorsement
[…]
did not withhold the accusations Dick formulated in
Their main successes would appear to be in the fields
1974 in his letter to the FBI. Dick questioned Lem’s
of academic articles, book reviews and possibly thro-
existence, claiming that “Lem” was a false name used
ugh our organization the control in the future of the
by a group of communists operating as to infiltrate
awarding of honors and titles. I think, though, at this
the field of sci-fi writing and to gain control over it
time, that their campaign to establish Lem himself as
through criticism.
a major novelist and critic is losing ground; it has begun to encounter serious opposition: Lem’s creative abilities
From Philip K. Dick’s letter to the FBI,
now appear to have been overrated and Lem’s crude,
September 2nd, 1974
insulting and downright ignorant attacks on American
[…]
science fiction and American science fiction writers
For an Iron Curtain Party group — Lem is probably
went too far too fast and alienated everyone but the
a composite committee rather than an individual, since
Party faithful (I am one of those highly alienated).
he writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign,
It is a grim development for our field and its hopes to
to him, languages and sometimes does not — to gain
find much of our criticism and academic theses and
monopoly positions of power from which they can con-
publications completely controlled by a faceless group
trol opinion through criticism and pedagogic essays is
in Krakow, Poland. What can be done, though, I do
a threat to our whole field of science fiction and its free
not know.
exchange of views and ideas.
Did you know that composing palindromes is a national pastime in Poland? There’s even a Museum of Palindromes in Nowa
In 1996, Józef Godzic, another prolific palin-
Wieś near Serock. Despite the peculiarities of the
drome-writer, obtained the Guinness Book of Re-
Polish language, which uses a lot of consonants
cords certificate for creating a total of 50 billion
and digraphs (“cz,”“sz,”“ch.”..). Polish writers indulge
palindrome compositions. However, his name is
in writing PALINDROMADERS – extremely long
not featured in the Guinness Book of Records itself,
palindromes (the term was coined by Stanisław
since, as he explains “it turned out to be a problem
Barańczak, a celebrated Polish poet and translator).
that the palindromes where in Polish. Moreover, I was told that there are too many of them to count.”
The longest mega-palindrome written in Polish (and
Józed Godzic’s feat was possible thanks to his own
perhaps in any language) is ŻARTEM W METRAŻ! by
algorithm for writing palindromes. It is featured in
Tadeusz Morawski – it counts 33 thousand char-
his four-volume publication Taaaaaaaaaka księga,
acters; though, let’s remember – as the website of
which also lists palindrome phrases that can be used
the Museum of Palindromes advises us – it’s not
as building blocks for larger compositions. He calls
the length that counts, but the fun.
it The Moon Book, since if all the palindromes that can be created with it were to be written out, it would produce a book of a width comparable to the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
M I C H A E L J OY C E A POLISH WRITER Polish sweets may have made a cameo appearance in afternoon, a story, but his other works leave no doubts about it: Michael Joyce, the father of hypertext fiction, is a Polish writer! John Paul the II, pierogi, Wałęsa, Solidarność and vodka all abound in Twilight, a Symphony – considered Joyce’s finest hypertext. This work also happens to be a satire on the hegemony of English, where American supremacy over other languages is given a harsh lesson in irony. Through his Polish characters (Magda and Wojtek), and their complex relation to the main protagonist, Hugh, Joyce’s novel – like no other before it – breaks away from the stereotypical image of Chicago Polacks. Instead, the author of Twilight paints a picture of people originating from the Land of Ubu as highly cultured, brave fighters who can stand up to any tyranny. How did this happen? The author of these classical
reached for Old Polish silvae rerum: “books on anything
works of hypertext fiction grew up in Buffalo among
on everything” (you can read more about this form
Polish (girl) friends who read Adam Mickiewicz (the
on page 38). Michael Joyce transfers this very poetic
Polish equivalent of Byron) and Czesław Miłosz (No-
onto the computer screen. No wonder that it is the
ble Prize in Literature). The latter is famous for his
Miłosz’s piece “The Poet in Ruins” that forms the cen-
distinct poetics of disconnected fragments: heaps of
tral point of Joyce’s memos for the next millennium in
broken images that shine and make sense only after
“Othermindedness.”
readers connect them. In order to find an equivalent
poetic expression for the post-war experience, Miłosz
Stanisław Dróżdż’s textual
caves
“I consider myself a poet. More of a poet than an artist, though it’s all mixed together. My poetry is closer to sciences than arts” – Stanisław Dróżdż
BETWEEN Stanisław Dróżdż is a key figure in Polish concrete
for the Biennale visitors. According to instructions,
poetry. His best-known work is the textual cave
participants were to throw the six dice lying on the
Między (Between). The installation, which currently
table located in the middle of the pavilion, place
can be seen at the Mocak Museum of Contempo-
the dice in a row and memorize or write down the
rary Art in Kraków, consists of a white cube, the
obtained sequence of pips, and then try to find it
inside walls of which are covered in rows of letters.
among the 46,656 combinations on the walls. “If
The set of letters is limited to “m,” “i,” “ę,” “d,” “z,” and
you find it, you win, if not, you lose.”
“y” — they are arranged in different combinations but never form the word itself. The viewer/reader
In the numerous reviews of Alea Iacta Est, there are two main
can enter the cube and thus be truly “between.”
interpretative motifs. The first—playing on the words uttered
ALEA IACTA EST
by Caesar after crossing the Rubicon—refers to the cultural
Between is not the only one of Dróżdż’s poetical works regarded as a proto-cave. Another of his
contexts of acting on a Caesarean prophesy that consists of throwing the dice, which “became the synonym of game as a form of life [. . .] and as such functions until today in the langu-
works offering its viewers a reading (and game-like)
age of history, politics, art, philosophy, logics and mathematics.”
experience in a 3D environment was Alea Iacta Est
Małgorzata Dawidek Gryglicka concludes, “Cast fate decided
(2003) – exhibited at the 50th Venice Biennale. Not
about one’s position. The impossibility of influencing the final
only does this installation serve as an intriguing ex-
arrangement of the dice was what attracted most and what
ample of the analog ancestry of playable literature, but it is also a perfect example of the intersection
keeps attracting those who trust the dice. CHANCE.” The second, more common, interpretation refers to A Roll of the Dice by Stéphane Mallarmé, a poem about the number “which when
of art and science in experimental writing.
found will allow us to recognize the mathematical formula of
Drożdż’s installation in the Polish pavilion consisted
the universe, the secret of being, thus to introduce order into
of a room “inlaid” from ceiling to floor with nearly
indefinite and escaping human cognition reality.” As Grzegorz
280,000 dice, arranged in a sequence of all 46,656 of possible outcomes of a traditional game in which six dice are thrown. The author prepared a game
Dziamski emphasizes, we keep on looking for this number but we can come across it only by chance (“Every thought is a roll of the dice and the roll of the dice will never abolish chance”). Alea Iacta Est has been also made into a six-volume book published in 2006. Its pages are covered with the uninterrupted flow of pips.
ERASING S C H U L Z
#appropriation #erasure #loss
It is a common practice in experimental literature to employ uncreative writing practices, such as appropriation, and to remix renowned works of traditional literature. One of the canonical Polish authors who have had
to English by Celina Wieniewska as The Street of
the greatest influence on world literature in general
Crocodiles (Polish title: Sklepy cynamonowe). Using
is Bruno Schulz. His small but extremely powerful
this cut-up technique he created the Tree of Codes.
body of work has inspired countless references
Foer, who calls Schulz’s work “the richest text that
and tributes.
he knows.” The American writer also underlines
The writer’s works are accompanied by the story
that during the erasure process he had “the feeling
of his death, to which writers inspired by Schulz
that [he] was…transcribing a dream that The Street
often allude. David Goldfarb explains:
of Crocodiles might have had.”
When Schulz’s work began to appear in English, it was accompanied by When Schulz’s work began to appear in English, it was accompanied by the dramatic the dramatic story of his death. As a Jew with valuable artistic talents, story of his death. As a Jew with valuable artistic talents, Schulz had enjoyed the Schulz had enjoyed the protection of a Nazi officer named Felix Landau protection of a Nazi officer named Felix Landau who employed him to paint murals who employed him to paint murals for his children. During an anti-Jewish for his children. During an anti-Jewish action known as ‘Black Thursday’ in Schulz’s action known as ‘Black Thursday’ in Schulz’s home town of Drohobycz home town of Drohobycz on November 19, 1942, Landau allegedly shot a Jewish on November 19, 1942, Landau allegedly shot a Jewish dentist who was dentist who was protected by another Nazi officer named Karl Günther. The story, protected by another Nazi officer named Karl Günther. The story, told told by Izydor Friedman to Ficowski, is that Günther shot Schulz in revenge, with by Izydor Friedman to Ficowski, is that Günther shot Schulz in revenge, the line ‘you shot my Jew; I shot your Jew’. These words, uttered over the body of with the line ‘you shot my Jew; I shot your Jew’. These words, uttered over one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, are so ghoulishly mesmerising the body of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, are so that they threaten to overshadow Schulz’s own luminous words. (David Goldfarb, ghoulishly mesmerising that they threaten to overshadow Schulz’s own luAppropriations of Bruno Schulz, 2011) minous words. (David Goldfarb, Appropriations of Bruno Schulz, 2011)
Schulz’s texts have also been rewritten, remixed and appropriated by Polish artists. One controversial example of such practices is the textual generator by Leszek Onak Cierniste diody [Thorny diodes], in which the story August is remixed with the manual for the iconic Polish car Fiat 125p. In 2013 Korporacja Ha!art published a digital adaptation of Schulz’s stories, under the titled Bał-
It is thus unsurprising that many writers appro-
wochwał, to celebrate the entrance of the artist’s
priating Schulz base the concept of their pieces
work into the public domain. The authors of the
around the motif of loss, erasure and absence. Jon-
adaptation, which was stylized to look like a ret-
athan Safran Foer physically cut out the majority of
ro textual game, are Mariusz Pisarski and Marcin
text from Schulz’s collection of stories translated
Bylak.
REBECCA: You are right. One would find in one column, for example, the story of Marquesa de val Florida being unfaithful to her husband, in the other the effects this event had on him. That would no doubt clarify the story
VELASQUEZ: It is a veritable labyrinth. I had always thought that novels and other works of that kind should be written in several columns like chronological tables.
A proto-hypertext from 1810: T h e M a n u s c r i p t Found in S aragossa by Jan Potocki
Count Jan Potocki’s Le Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse (1794-1810) is considered to be the first Polish proto-hypertext. Spanning 66 chapters and populated by a large and colorful cast of Gypsies, demons, inquisitors and cabbalists, Potocki’s frametale fiction challenges the linearity of print – a medium unfit to present complexity of spoken tales. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa’s structure of sto-
In 1965, the novel was adapted into the film The
ries-within-stories reaches several levels of depth.
Saragossa Manuscript by director Wojciech Has,
Its characters and motifs – a few of the most prom-
with Zbigniew Cybulski as Alfonse van Worden.
inent being honor, disguise, metamorphosis and
In 2012, Korporacja Ha!art published a hypertext
conspiracy – recur and change shape throughout.
version of Potocki’s novel, created by Mariusz Pis-
As a collection of numerous intersecting tales, the
arski and illustrated by Jakub Niedziela. The adap-
work calls for better presentation and cross-refer-
tation was presented on the exhibition of digital
encing not possible until the emergence of digital
literature in Bibliothèque Nationale de France
technology. Potocki himself, through Velasquez –
during ELO 2013 Conference. It has all the navi-
one of his main characters – suggests additional
gational tools Potocki could have imagined: tables
tools in form of “chronological tables” that would
of narrators and characters, 800 links, and a new
sort the complex narrative content by protagonists
device called “post-links.”
and dates. Many intermezzos and meta-fictional references further implode the linearity of print and the very temporal nature of storytelling.
For Polish people predigital writing is so
f i ve c e n tu ri es ago
It was not uncommon for the “authors” of these volumes to include members of the whole family, sometimes even the entire generation. Hence, quite often one could see in them many different “characters” of handwriting, ranging from some that could easily delight calligraphers to scribbles made by trembling old men or by hands just taken off a sabre or a plough (K. Bartoszewski)
SILVAE RERUM Polish literature, from the Baroque up until the 19th century, exhibited the wide popularity of an ergodic, dynamic form of writing with textonic user functions. Called silvae, from silva rerum [Latin for ‘forest of things’] these works were distributed among noble class, whose members were at the same time readers, characters, writers, commentators and editors of a single work. Often collaborative and multi-generational, the handwritten silva was an all-in-one genre: a diary, a scrapbook, a collection of poems and other artifacts. Dating back to Ancient Roman times, silva was reborn in some parts of Europe, especially in Poland, during the Baroque period, and is considered one of the best examples of predigital openness and heterogeneity of form. The first documented example of Polish silva was an
a common practice. If a reader wanted to browse
anonymous manuscript written between 1560 and
the family history in regards to financial aspects, he
1570. It contained odes, trifles, and erotic poems
or she skipped through occasional poems and fo-
of the two most prominent authors of the era: Jan
cused just on economic information. If we consider
Kochanowski and Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, as well as
that comments written by fathers could be followed
three unidentified Latin poems and a Latin-Polish
by those written by sons and this process could go
school draft. Later silvae could contain much more
on through generations, a single silva appears to
varied artifacts, including recipes for a long-lasting
be a huge axial hypertext (the axis being formed
writing ink and hints for killing rats; some also fea-
by the temporal framework of the family chronicle
tured locks of hair of family members.
and the physical boundaries of a manuscript), more
▶
compound and complicated than contemporary
An exemplary silva was hard to read in a linear fash-
Internet blogs. By definition, the silva is a work in
ion. Some manuscripts had almost two thousand
statu nascendi, written and read by a specific group
pages. Skipping through material must have been
of people it changes as their lives change, and it
ends when there is no one to write the story further.
a multiple text, it is open to additions, comments and
During the time of writing it has many features of
corrections.
PERMUTATONAL POEMS Did you know that the revolting nature of Poles gave way to some morally ambiguous permuta-
Another interesting fact: it could take you three thou-
tional poems as early as in Baroque period? In
sand years to read a single permutational poem, Car-
the anonymous Cuirass Hardened for an Ancient
men Infinitum by the Jesuit poet Ksawery Prolewicz
Knight (1663) – a visual poem on the code of con-
(1732).
duct for knights – the readers could read the text
The poem is composed from seven concentrically arranged
towards two conflicting verses and stanzas, one
circles, each enclosing a part of the text. The starting point
in line with the Church and one in line with more
is always in the center of the circle and the sentence placed
Dionysian values. Two swords were printed on the
there: The sadness bearer. Thanks to its combinatorial formula
page that were suppose to cut out two different
the poem resembles an incessant litany. In his commentary
world views:
the author claimed that to be able to read all the possible variants one should live at least three thousand years.
reading one
▶
You shall have no other gods,
Other visual and permutational works from the Baroque
hey live against all the odds
include poems in the form of a garden, a snake, a star, a laby-
You shall not make wrongful use
rinth, a cross, and even an obelisk mounted with a star (Kanty
of the name of your Lord,
Herka, Porta Triumphalis (1725).
you will be excused
▶ Carmen Quadratum by Władysław Simandi (1719) is a serious
reading two
permutational machine. Based on the principle of Carmen
You shall have other Gods,
XXV from the 4th century by Optatianus Porfirius, Carmen
hey live against all the odds
Quadratum allowed all the words from the first five columns
You shall make wrongful use
to be arranged at random. Only the third word in every verse
of the name of your Lord, you will be excused
is stable – it guarantees the effect, namely that every permutation (1,62 billion possibilities) will produce a hexameter.
di d yo u kn o w
that a one-letter work can emanate an entire long story? Did you know that a whole poem can evolve from a single letter? I didn’t know that this was possible, but Polish poet, Zenon Fajfer did. How did he do It? Look:
This is Fajfer’s “Ars Poetica.” These screenshots show how a whole textual universe can be born out a single word, and how the text can return to the embryonic IT. “Ars Poetica” has become so emblematic of Polish electronic literature that it even made it into school textbooks. If you read it in a printed version, you must discover the invisible texts yourself. But if you are too lazy to do this, you can read its kinetic, animated version at http://www.techsty.art.pl/magazyn3/fajfer/Ars_poetica_polish. html (the Polish original) and at http://www.techsty.art.pl/magazyn3/fajfer/Ars_poetica_english. html (its English translation).
Fajfer uses the emanational form in other poems and books, too: his liberatic Oka-leczenie and (O)patrzenie, written with Katarzyna Bazarnik, his famous bottlebook-poem
Spoglądając
przez ozonową dziurę (Detect Ozone Whole Nearby), printed on a transparent plastic sheet placed in an empty vodka bottle, as well as the labyrinthine hypertext Powieki (check it out on Techsty, issue 9/2014 (http:// techsty.art.pl/m9/).
DARING TRANSLATION PROJECTS Polish translators know no fear. King Ubu’s land
went to the bin of failed translational projects.
is one of the few countries on Earth to boast a com-
As a result of these perturbations Poland’s gift
plete translation of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.
to the world was the first browser version of the
In 2012 Korporacja Ha!art published Krzysztof
Storyspace classic! Afternoon for Firefox and Safari
Bartnicki’s translation – his feat took 10 years to
was published by Ha!art in 2011 (R. Nowakowski,
accomplish. Krzysztof Bartnicki has also created
M. Pisarski, J. Jagiełło).
projects inspired by Joyce, including a “Da Capo al Finne” (2013), in which he takes of Joyce’s mas-
Another area enthusiastically explored by Polish
terpiece only the letters, which are used in music
translators is language transfer of generators.
notation (ABCDEFGH). In the thus created score
Monika Górska-Olesińska, Aleksandra Małecka,
he found motives from Haydn, Chopin, and also
Piotr Marecki and Mariusz Pisarski have translated
The Imperial March from Star Wars.
a choice of generators by Nick Montfort into Polish. The latter three are also contributors to the Ren-
In the field of e-lit, translation from Polish into for-
derings project headed by Nick Montfort, which
eign languages, and the other way round flourishes.
is devoted to translating and porting highly com-
One of the pioneer projects was the translation
putational and otherwise unusual literary works.
of afternoon, a story by Michael Joyce, which was
Piotr Marecki and Aleksandra Małecka are work-
a challenge not only for literary, but also for tech-
ing on a variety of projects involving experimental
nical reasons. The test port of a Polish version for
translation techniques, like redoing, multimedia
Storyspace, which was ready in 2008, turned our
translation or automatic translation. At the 2015
hardly readable! Lack of support for Polish diacrit-
Electronic Literature Conference they decided to
ics resulted in a serious inability of preserving the
present their book with the automatic translation
conditional links. In the end, despite warm support
of Alfred Jarry’s King Ubu into Polish.
from Eastgate Systems, afternoon in Storyspace PL
STANISŁAW C Z Y C Z
Stanisław Czycz’s struggles with the typewriter In the 1950s Stanisław Czycz created a series of non-linear poliphonic poems, in which he placed columns of parallel voices one beside the other. He refused to be limited by the standard piece of paper, and sought to expand his writing surface, experimenting with a regular-sized typewriter and an A3 sheet of paper or gluing pages to obtain scrolls. Czycz’s heroic struggles to obtain the works he imagined (with unconventional typesetting and coloured text) using limited technical equipment became the stuff of local Kraków legends. His works were like scores for multimedia artwork, yet impossible in his times, and included not only texts, but also musical notation and images.
[…] The dramatic struggle to note down the poetic work about Andrzej Wróblewski became the
His most famous work is Arw, which started as
personal drama of the artist, who had to fight
a screenplay about the life of the painter Andrzej
with the typewriter to preserve the image of the
Wróblewski commissioned by Andrzej Wajda, but
famous painter for posterity. It was terrible...
turned into a long experimental poem.
— Sylwester Marynowicz
Czycz’s writing was a print anticipation of digital literature, representing many of its traits, like nonlinearity and multimediality.
Ż U K P I W KOW S K I ’ S BOOK OF ALL WORDS
Żuk Piwkowski’s Book of All Words Long, long ago, in the 1970s, behind the Iron Curtain,
with the page number and chapter number.
Żuk Piwkowski wrote his pioneering e-literary works
Żuk Piwkowski wrote the algorithm for his Book in
for the miniframe computer.
1975.
His goal was to create a total Borgesian work, which
The work, originally written for a miniframe computer,
would contain all possible words (using letters from
was later rewritten in html and published online.
the Latin alphabet), a 1:1 linguistic map.
The failed performance
He called his work The Book of All Words.
In the 1980s, Żuk Piwkowski wanted to organize
a performance that would involve writing the Book
It truly does contain all words, existing and non-ex-
of All Words over a long distance. A user in in one city
isting ones.
(Boston, Paris or Warsaw) would type in a word, and it
would be printed in one of the other cities. Everything
The reader may type any word of any length and the
was prepared at Centre Pompidou in Paris and at MIT
program will print the page with the word, together
in Cambridge, MA, but...
“In Poland telephone communication was connected by operators. I had the codes and passwords for the computer at MIT, I had the access code to a computer in a military center in Warsaw, which wanted to work with me. Maybe they wanted to get into that MIT computer. [laugh] It all had to go through a telephone connection, and unfortunately it was impossible to get through these operators. […] We tried for hours, but we never connected.” ↪ Żuk Piwkowski
WO J CIECH B R U S ZEWS K I ’S MACHINES FOR NEW WORDS AND OTHER PURPOSES Photographs of sound, a four-arm gramophone, sonic camera, a radio station that broadcasts a never-ending, computer generated philosophical dialogue – are just a few of the tools invented by Wojciech Bruszewski in order to explore the cognitive potential of a machine and its “hypothetical consciousness.” A graduate of film direction at the Polish National
nature. Fascinated by Jorge Louis Borges’s com-
Film, Television and Theater School in Łódź, and
binatorial methods, Bruszewski created the first
a member of the avant-garde, Łódź-based group
versions of his interactive, literary device titled
Warsztat Formy Filmowej (WFF), Bruszewski be-
Nowe słowa [New Words] or Maszyna do nowych słów
gan with experiments with form in film, but then
[New Word Machine] in 1972. In the first version,
moved on to studying the role of a wide range
the “machine” was made of five cubes strung on
of mediatory factors in our perception of reality:
a piece of rope stretched between two posts. The
from language through photographic camera to
sides of the cubes featured single letters, the rows
computers.
of which formed “words” nonexistent in the Polish
Of direct interest to e-literature are Bruszewski’s
language. By turning the cubes, the viewer-operator
hybrid forms of cybertextual and combinatorial
could change the combination of letters, and thus
New Words
(when viewers unveiled the canvas, hidden parts were revealed). In Maszyna poetycka [Poetry Machine] (19821984), the idea and technical design of the original concept of a combinatorial device was further developed. This time it was based on electronic integrated circuits: the
create “new words.” In Text (1974), Bruszewski explored typographic, calligraphic and vocal elements in a photographic canvas with printed text, hung on a wall in a way that was both – fragmentary (as a static piece of material the flag revealed only parts of text), and interactive
generator was made of a light board with a row of twelve letter displays made from electronically controlled fluorescent lamps. The function of the random mechanism was fulfilled by a white noise generator and electronic circuits translating its impulses into the displaying of particular letters.
The pinnacle of Bruszewski’s combinatorial work was Sonety [Sonnets] (1992-96), a series of generative poetry installations. An Amiga computer programmed by Bruszewski
title was obtained by copying the first three words
selected strings of vowels and consonants at ran-
of the first line and adding dots. The beginning of
dom. The generated units – after forming words of
the first sonnet generated during the premiere
one to eight letters in length – arranged themselves
installation in 1992 read as follows:
into one of the two classic sonnet forms. To include
Yk dog fudc ana iffulci faz re ztyw,
rhymes, the three letters of each line were copied
Pa dygl pa af tnap pnyqacr iz ygofabe.
and inserted at the end of the appropriate line, de-
Ga yzmopy apoles gaqnynz pobomaj vfuabe,
pending on the chosen structure of the sonnet. The
Tedu amquci obe e dyjneb e ud urmutyw.
Sonety was a multimodal project, in which the text generated on screen was simultaneously printed in a book format and read by a speech synthesizer or by an invited actor. The work proved to be one of the most spectacular and memorable of Bruszewski’s performances, even more so since it changed its name depending on the location at which it was exhibited. Thus, there
POETRY MACHINE (FLUORESCENT LAMP VERSION) – how it worked:
were Leipzig Sonnets (Leipzig,
The letter set was limited to the vowels A, E, O, U and conso-
Medienbiennale, 1992), Wrocław
nants R, P, S, L, C, F, H. Each of them was assigned a fixed place
Sonnets (Wrocław, WRO festival,
in the row and their succession was designed in such a way that
1993), Budapest Sonnets (Buda-
the randomly generated sentences would be pronounceable.
pest, The Butterfly Effect, 1996) and Warsaw Sonnets (Warszawa, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej,
The assignment of spaces between the words was also partly random, but the row of letters would always be divided into two or three words.
1993).
Bruszewski’s Amiga 2000 was able to generate two sonnets per minute. The first collection of
AMIGA AS A POETRY PLATFORM During his many years of artistic work, Bruszewski used the Amiga computer in his projects. When this platform lost the market battle to other computers, Bruszewski gave up on programming.
Sonnets containing three hundred fifty-nine poems took a night to generate. On the next day it was printed and bound. The same procedure was used for the next seven volumes of poems, but, thanks to the use of a faster machine (Amiga 4000), the time needed for generating the complete volume was reduced to two hours.
KING OF L I BERLAN D IA In the Kingdom of Ubu, Radosław Nowakowski stands as a kingdom on his own: a prolific creator of art books, a drummer playing “music of flying fish” (as Osjan, the band he plays with, describes it), author of bookish installations and several works of hypertext fiction including a polyvocal opus magnum Koniec świata według Emeryka (The End of the World according to Emeryk; Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków, 2005). In this vast and dense labyrinth of text, voice is given to a plethora of human and non-human, animate and inanimate narrators who recount their own points of views on the events of one single summer day. An ardent fan of James Joyce, Gertude Stein and Glenn Gould,
the National Library in Warsaw, Stanford University Library,
Nowakowski was also the best person in Poland to under-
Wexford Arts Centre, the School of the Art Institute of Chi-
take translating the works of Michael Joyce: afternoon, a story
cago (Joan Flaxman Library), The New York Public Library,
(popołudnie, pewna historia, 2011) and Twilight. A Symphony
the British Library, Canadian Centre for Architecture in Mon-
(Zmrok, symfonia, 2015).
treal, Copenhagen Kunstindustrimuseum, and the Book Art Museum in Łódź?
Did you know…
↪
…. that the longest hypertext in book form (Sienkiewicza Street
… Nowakowski wrote what could be considered a Borgesian
by Nowakowski) stretches for nearly 10 meters and can be
literary MMORPG — a series of digital, branching calligrams
read from any side? Sienkiewicza Street employs a visual, comic
entitled Liberlandia (2009). Nowakowski encourages Liber-
book like representation of one of the longest high streets in
landia readers to have their own Liberlandia passports and
Poland (in Kielce) to tell numerous micro stories about shops,
become citizens of this evolving, multi-lingual, textual, lab-
houses, their inhabitants and random pedestrians. In May
yrinthine state.
2005 it won the 2nd Prize at the International Book Arts Fair
↪
Competition in Seoul.
The author lives in a village near the Łysogóry mountain range,
↪
where he and his wife run the Liberatorium publishing house
… twenty self-made books by Nowakowski were exhibited
(www.liberatorium.com).
on almost every continent and are in special collections of
ANDRZEJ GŁOWACKI’S
AR C HE TYP TURE
Andrzej Głowacki is the kind of artist who combines his creative practices, as an architect and writer, with academic research. He founded his own lab (a rarity in Polish humanities) in Rzeszów and equipped it with a digital cave for literary experiments. However, for this author AR technology is no gimmick and its use is inscribed into his consequent theoretical, educational and artistic practice. The key theoretical and practical category for
works is Archetyptura (2011). The print book has
Głowacki is empathy, which he understands as
only QR codes and minimalist illustrations, which
designing his works in such a way that they invite
refer the reader to the electronic work, which in
the user to leave their trace and co-create the work
turn invites her to leave their mark (drawing, writ-
(Głowacki founded a scientific journal devoted to
ing) on the print book. But Głowacki’s team explores
these problems, titled CyberEmpathy). In his work,
also more unusual platforms for e-lit, including tea
he draws on his experience as a successful architect.
bags, bed sheets or bow ties.
He produces most of his works with his laboratory
They describe these projects with the neologism
team, with which he works on applications using
“archetypture,” composed of the words “literature,”
AR technology or spatial cave writing. One of their
“architecture,” and “archetype.”
KATARZYNA GIEŁŻYŃSKA’S vi d eo p o ems
and their translation
Katarzyna Giełżyńska is a Prague-based artist, who works for Czech television designing graphics and opening credits. After hours, she uses her talents to create minimalist video poems. Mixing clever visual and linguistic puns with philosophical pondering, she strives no less than to describe the world. In 2012 Katarzyna Giełżyńska published a collection of poems titled Con(du)it (“Conduit” is the name of the font used in the poems). In 2014 together with Aleksandra Małecka she embarked on the task of translating the collection, using a multimedia approach, which involved redoing some of the pieces with new sound and graphics. Both volumes can be accessed at Ha!art’s website – be sure to compare the two language versions. Con(du)it in Polish: www.ha.art.pl/gielzynska | Con(du)it in English: www.ha.art.pl/conduit Con(du)it has been included in Volume 3 of the Electronic Literature Collection.
⇠⇢
[kastracja]
[castrat(i)on]
⇠⇢
[granaty]
[shooter game]
ROZDZIELCZOŚĆ CHLEBA ART COLLECTIVE AND PUBLISHING HOUSE
Rozdzielczość Chleba [Resolution of Bread] was founded in 2011, nominally as a publishing house, in practice as a social and technological production facility generating new waves in culture. The name of the group references the first act of piracy – described in the pages of the New Testament – committed by Jesus Christ himself by multiplying bread for the people gathered around him. Rozdzielczość Chleba’s poetry series, the center-
books devoted to broadly defined cyberculture,
piece of their publishing activities, features talented
as well as the journal Nośnik [Medium], which serves
young poets, who see experimentation as fuel for
as a platform for the irregular presentation and
their creative work. Other publications include
summary of the group’s interventions. Alongside
publishing, the collective also holds performances
cyberhobo movement [cyberżulerstwo], in which
and artistic interventions, which combine literature,
its members explore the artistic and aesthetic
intermedia and visual arts. Rozdzielczość Chleba’s
consequences of Internet addiction, sitting glued
activity is entirely non-profit, and its publications
to a computer and lack of physical activity other
and documentation of many artistic interventions
than scrolling images. Another successful project
can be downloaded freely. The members of the
is ZUSwave, which has gained great popularity, as
group are: Leszek Onak, Łukasz Podgórni and Piotr
a surprising and pleasing combination of post-inter-
Puldzian Płucienniczak.
net aesthetics and decor characteristic of the early phase of Polish capitalism. The computerization of
Rozdzielczość Chleba has been described in pop-
the ZUS (the Polish Social Insurance Institution)
ular weeklies, art magazines and academic books
cost more than NASA’s mission to Mars – this cal-
as a phenomenon unique not only for Poland, but
culation sheds a new light on the complexity of the
for the entire region. The analyses underline the
relationship between society and technology…
group’s uncompromising approach to copyright and
In the nearest future the group is planning esca-
the economy of the field of art/literature, its conse-
pades to the areas of copyright piracy, motorization
quent realization of its independent program and
and cybersex.
the promotion of what is described as cyberculture. Rozdzielczość Chleba’s most recent project is its
Website: http://ść-ch.pl
KELETI BLOKK BLOCKS Blokowisko Dear Pen Pal,
So, to explain: in the past there were some wise people, who wanted all people, whether rich or poor, to live
My name is Slavko, I am eleven years old and I live
in comfortable and modern conditions. They wanted
in Eastern Europe. My English teacher told me to
people to stop living in houses, to which there leads
write to you and tell you about my home. Because
a trail of mud, and to live in blocks of flats for many
for some time now there is no more Russian in
families, to which there is a road, and from where it
schools, but English. In the student’s book there
is close to work, to the park and to the store. But this
were a lot of useless expressions, like tiles or local
was the communist’s idea, and everything that came
community. I had to look up in the dictionary how
from the communists is bad, so now again there are
to say blokowisko in English. I found: “residential
houses being built, and there are trails of mud leading
district consisting of large blocks of flats.” Mom said
to them, because developers are for building houses,
she wasn’t sure that was it and maybe you don’t
not for building roads, and the municipal authorities
have such a word.
are for yet something else (mom says I should write that this is typical for periphery countries).
So, anyway, something went wrong with those wise
a burglar alarm, because, as the Eastern European
people’s ideas, because there is no park anymore,
saying advises “What is guarded, God guards.” This
there are new houses there, with a trail of mud
is probably why there recently appeared a big fence
leading to them, and instead of going to the store,
around our block and now we can’t play anymore
we drive to a supermarket in the suburbs. This is be-
with children from the neighboring block.
cause there is no bakery or grocery store anymore – but there are other stores. Like the store with
The corridors are common space. Common space
English second hand clothing or German chemical
is a place where you can’t keep a bike, because, as
products. There are also places where you can take
the neighbor says, this is a common space. In the
out a loan, remove a simlock or duplicate your keys.
past there used to be a lot of glass from broken bottles, but since we have the fence, only common
And, thanks to European subsidies, we have a foot-
space is left.
ball (soccer) field in our neighborhood, but the field is closed, because it is unclear who should pay the
And now a bit about the apartment. In the times
janitor (the municipal authorities are for something
where there was Russian in school, the apartments
else). There is also a new lawn, because on the old
were all the same. Everyone has their own all-in-one
one there was no grass, only dirt. Now there is grass,
sofa, and in the dining room there was a Plywood
but you cannot walk on it, because you will ruin it.
wall unit, and in the wall unit there was crystal
There is a sign that informs us about that: “Don’t
glass from Bulgaria. Now, when there is English
step on the grass.”
in schools, they are also all the same, because everyone does their own euro-renovation, but what
In a blokowisko it is very important whether someone
counts is who does it first. In order to do your eu-
is rich or poor. Those who are rich always block the
ro-renovation you need to buy European furniture,
sidewalk with a big car. Those who are poor block
that is furniture that is too large for our small rooms.
the sidewalk with an even bigger car. Moreover,
For instance, in my room, after the euro-renovation,
rich or poor, every-one has a satellite antenna and
in order to turn on the light, you need to move the
desk, and in order to sit at the desk, you have to fold
So a lot changes after the euro-renovation, but one
the bed. Moreover, after the euro-renovation there
thing that does not are noises. In the day you hear
is no more dining room, but a salon, and no more
the neighbors fighting or going to the toilet. And
wall unit, but a drink bar, and in the drink bar there
in the night you hear trucks backing up. Mom says
is duralex glassware instead of crystal glass. If you
it’s because we are a transit country. After I looked
don’t have money, it’s enough to buy the duralex,
up all these words in the dictionary, I asked Mom
hide the crystals in the closet (you never know), and
between what countries was this transit, if all the
just call the rest by different names. What you must
countries around are periphery countries and Mom
buy is a shower with a radio and massager, but you
said that between the West and the West. I don’t
have to watch out for the water not to spill on the
understand any of this, perhaps you can explain this
floor, because commie-piping cannot handle the
to me, since you live there.
euro-water inflow. I think that’s all. If you want to know more about Another thing that changed are the colors of our
blokowisko and housing blocks, I invite you to our
blocks. They say they used to be all gray, with plaster
Facebook game. It may seem surprising to you,
falling off. Today the plaster falls off too, but the
but blokowiska in Eastern Europe differ between
blocks are colorful, with colors like lemon yellow or
countries, as much as the countries themselves.
fuchsia. Mom says this is because my countrymen,
Maybe you are surprised that we have Internet
and especially Lech Wałęsa, fought for freedom,
in our blocks. Until quite recently, the neighbors
and freedom means you are free to do anything.
would arrange to come together and hang cables
For instance you are free to have a business and
between windows. But then the wind would blow
advertise it, and this is why there is freedom to cov-
and tear the cables down. One time Dad tried to
er all the windows in our block with a large ad for
catch a cable flying in the wind like that, but it hit
mayonnaise. And people are free to build up their
him in the face. Luckily, now there is Wi-Fi and you
balconies with columns in a European style – Doric,
don’t have to make arrangements with anyone, you
Ionic or Corinthian.
just have to hack their password.
Yours, Slavko
Keleti blokk bloki (Hungarian for “the blocks of the Eastern Bloc”) is a Facebook game, in which participants try to
(the semiotics of urban space seen through the lens
identify the geographical location of housing blocks
of the Street View camera), sociology (researching
from Google Street View screenshots. The game
stereotypes about each country of the Eastern bloc,
challenges the popular belief that housing blocks
which are – successfully or not – applied by the
look identical from East Germany to Vladivostok
participants), and digital textuality (the participants’
and works to undermine the image of the Eastern
justifications of their guesses take on the form of
Bloc as a monolith, shaped by the discourse of the
short prose forms). “Keleti blokk bloki” has inspired
West. “Keleti blok blokki” is an interesting subject
at least two digital literary forms: flash non-fiction
for inquiry at the junction of visual anthropology
and street view reportage.
RULES OF THE GAME The objective of the game is to guess the country
The objects most often erased include road signs,
of a block posted by another participant. As the
car brand signs, air conditioning, signs with names
name “Keleti blokk bloki” indicates, the buildings
of institutions, national symbols. What remains is
can come from any location in the “keleti blokk.”
architecture and details (curtains, sidewalk curbs,
The pictures, mostly screenshots from Google
colors of the buildings) and the general visual con-
Street View, are posted by the participants on the
text. The guessing involves venturing hundreds of
game’s Facebook group. The players can censor
stereotypes and myths, which sometimes prove
fragments of the picture, which seem too charac-
useful, and sometimes prove misleading.
teristic, in order to make the guessing more difficult.
KAMIKADZE LOGGIA a DIY addition to the block, out of all kinds of building material. It is found in countries, in which during the transformation construction law was absent or was a dead letter, that is in most of the former republics of the USSR. It is used as a storage room, fridge, studio, extra room or patio.
AIR CONDITIONERS for obvious reasons, they can be found in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia. For less obvious ones – in all of Russia, including Siberia. Preliminary research suggests this is due to overproduction of air conditioners in the USSR.
HIGH WHITE CURBS they are found predominantly in the former republics of the USSR, due to fear of sneaky imperialist potato bugs, as well as antipathy towards cyclists – cultural representatives of the rotten West. Lace curtains with the decorative motive of geese – a specialty of former German Democratic Republic. They are also observed in countries aspiring to German civilization, like the Czech Republic or Slovenia. Sometimes, they are also hung – but this requires training in history – in a country aspiring to Roman civilization, that is Romania.
THE MAJORITY OF CARS ARE SUVS – characteristic of countries, for which the coveted an unequaled model of empowerment is oligarchy – Bulgaria, Moldavia, Ukraine.
PRIVATIZATION OF ELEVATION PAINTING flourishes in the countries with the fastest plummeting social network indexes – Poland and Russia. This also occurs in Ukraine, though recently less frequently.
Ha!wangarda: LIBERATURE, ARTISTS’ BOOKS & E-LITERATURE exhibition catalogue New York 2016
What is LIBERATURE? Liberature is a kind of literature in which text and its material form constitute an organic whole in accordance with the authors intention. The name of the genre was proposed in 1999 by Polish poet Zenon Fajfer. “Liberatura” imprint is an editorial project of Katarzyna Bazarnik and Zenon Fajfer published since 2003 as part of Korporacja Ha!art Publishing House in Krakow. Each title published in the imprint has its own unique shape which is dictated by the requirements of its text. The books trespass editorial conventions and often have unconventional shapes. Described as “the most astonishing publishing series in Poland, ” it has attracted international attention and been presented at literary festivals, book fairs and conferences all over the world. The books presented in the exhibition come from Liberature Reading Room in Arteteka, the multimedia section of the Main Library of Malopolska Voivodship in Krakow, Poland, founded and curated by Katarzyna Bazarnik and Zenon Fajfer since 2002. Some books in the e-literature section come from Ha!art archive, and Piotr Marecki’s private library.
What is the ARTIST’S BOOK? The artist’s book has culturally-specific, and often mutually exclusive, meanings. In Poland, the term is strongly associated with the visual arts, being historically grounded in the rich tradition of the literary avant-garde, and strict control of printing technologies in the age of communism. It can be described as a self-contained, autonomous, artistic work expressed through or inspired by the form of the book, which may include text, but this needn’t be so. This qualification, more relevant to the American or Polish traditions of book art, is contestable in French livre d’artiste, which are joint compositions of a poet and a painter, often coordinated by an editor and typographer. Regardless of local differences, artists’ books are considered hybrid forms situated between literature, the visual arts, sculpture, installation, and even the happening. As Johanna Drucker contends, the category is so broad that “there are no specific criteria for defining what the term covers, ” and it is “as little bound by constraints of medium or form as those more familiar rubrics ‘painting’ and ‘sculpture’.” Despite some striking similarities between liberature and artists’ books — such as a liberal approach to conventions, materials, modes, and media—liberature is narrower in its generic claims and affiliations. It is better described as a kind of book-bound writing with
a clear literary dominant, in which all other dimensions are subservient to text. The dominant of the artist’s book is in the visual, and the aesthetic, articulating meaning more through forms than language itself. The exhibits in the Artists’ Books Gallery and OffLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING serve to illuminate specificities of each genre, and their many interrelations.
What is E-LITERATURE? Just as book art, electronic literature, or e-lit, is a richly diverse field of artistic practices which combine text, images, motion, sound, music, computer codes, and hardware specificity, and often involves readers/viewers in an interaction. Its constantly evolving forms include on-line and off-line hypertexts, kinetic poetry using Flash or other platforms, digital art installations which require reading or have other literary aspects, conversational characters (so-called chatterbots), digital interactive poetry and fiction, literary apps, email, SMS messages, or blog novels, computer generated poems, stories, collaborative writing projects and other kinds of online performances that develop new ways of writing. Many of e-lit works have a considerable textual component of literary quality; all rely on “the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer” (http://eliterature.org/what-is-e-lit/). Although much literary activity is moving into the digital environments, a reverse process is also noticeable. The exhibition also features several digital-born printed, or otherwise materially “analogue” works, or those that problematize stereotypical expectations about the capabilities of print and the electronic media.
Why use CATEGORIES at all? Although the works collected in this exhibition are gathered under the above labels, many, if not all of them defy narrow pigeonholing. They transgress and expand strict classifications. All could be also described as “avant-garde (or ha! vant-garde), ” “experimental, ” “conceptual.” But these terms are also charged with connotations that resonate differently for different artists and different audiences. Yet these categories are useful because they suggest how the authors locate their works, and how we as curators understand what and how they mean—to us. Hopefully, this will help you appreciate specificity and uniqueness of the exhibited works.
Liberature 1. ZENON FAJFER i KATARZYNA BAZARNIK (Poland) Oka-leczenie (Mute-I-Late) Oka-leczenie, which initiated the contemporary movement of Liberature, authored by its main representatives and theorists Zenon Fajfer and his wife and collaborator Katarzyna Bazarnik Katarzyna Bazarnik (printed in 2000 in the prototype edition of 9 copies). The triple-codex Oka-leczenie owns its unconventional shape to two different narratives connected by an invisible thread running through the hidden spaces of the texts. The book contains visible text and the invisible, fractal-like texts, written in the emanational technique specially devised by Fajfer to render liminal experiences: the inaccessible stream of consciousness of a dying man, and an invisible world of the unborn baby. The readers can decide if they wish to uncover the invisible texts, or if they read only the surface text, but each way of reading makes for a different experience and a different story. This copy is of the first trade edition of 2009 (print run of 1001 copies) vol. 8 of Liberature series. 2. KATARZYNA BAZARNIK i ZENON FAJFER (Poland) (O) patrzenie (Ga (u) ze) The book contains multilayered text of a fractal-like structure written in overlapping kinds of writing and has an intentionally torn cover. It initiated “Liberatura” publishing line of Korporacja Ha!art in 2003. Two copies: the 1st edition of 2003, distributed with Ha!art Magazine, the 2nd edition of 2009, published with Oka-leczenie. 3. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Spoglądając przez ozonową dziurę (Detect Ozone Whole Nearby) This poem, exposed to the on-lookers’ gaze in a glass cage, redefines the notion of the book. In 2009 a journal for teachers of Polish “Polonistyka” included the Bottle in their list of suggestions for a new canon. The 1st edition of 200 copies came out in 2004, the 2nd, corrected one of 500 copies appeared in 2009. Series: Liberature, vol. 2. 4. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) ten letters/dwadzieścia jeden liter translated by Katarzyna Bazarnik A bilingual poetry volume, exploring the tensions between the visible and the invisible, the material and the virtual, the static and the kinetic. Paradoxically, the printed book, which features uncut and folded pages,
offers its readers interaction while the film-poem on the DVD disc, which is the final part of the volume, invites them to contemplation. Series: Liberature, vol. 10–11, 2010. 5. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Liberature or Total Literature. Collected Essays 1999–2009 Liberatura czyli literatura totalna. Eseje zebrane z lat 1999–2009 A bilingual edition of essays and articles by the inventor of the term “liberature” , edited and translated by his collaborator Katarzyna Bazarnik, prefaced by prof. Wojciech Kalaga, who defines liberature as a hybrid transgenre, claiming that it constitutes “the crowning” of the tendency to combine the visuality and the semantics of language, resulting in a reading experience “unknown to the reception of conventional literature.” A book with a twist as it has only one right angle. Series: Liberature, vol. 12, 2010. 6. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Powieki (Eyelids) A poetic volume consisting of a printed book and a CD, contains a hypertextual labyrinth through which one can wander forward, backward, and into words, on the page or on the screen. The volume breaks off mid word that finds its continuation in the virtual space. Multidimensional poems written in the original, emanational form invite the readers to choose their own paths to explore visible and invisible worlds. Forma Publishing House 2013. 7. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Widok z głębokiej wieży (A View from the Deep Tower) A finely crafted volume, fusing intimate memories, a lyrical travelogue, and ironic reflections on contemporary life in carefully arranged cycles of poems that subtly play out materiality and visuality of language. Including a balcony that extends into a different space, and a QR code transporting the readers into a different dimension and different reality. Forma Publishing House 2015. 8. KATARZYNA BAZARNIK I ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Liberature The first publication on liberature in English, prepared specially for the Fifth International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature, held at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in March 2005.
9. KATARZYNA BAZARNIK & ZENON FAJFER (eds.) & students of Mills College (Poland & USA) Sonnet of Sonnets A textual-visual poem in the form of the book that reflects the proportions of the Italian sonnet, prepared during the workshop with students of prof. Kathleen Walkup’s “Visible Language” seminar in Mills College, Oakland USA. Series: Liberature, vol. 18, 2012. 10. KATARZYNA BAZARNIK (Poland) Joyce and Liberature Drawing on tradition of avant-garde experimentation and the small press tradition, the author shows how Joyce’s work constructs a distinct literary genre between voice and writing, word and image, abstraction and materiality, fitting into the concept of liberature. Especially spectacular in this respect is Finnegans Wake and booklets with fragments of the novel preceding its publication, and already Ulysses contains evidence of Joyce working with the material space of the book. 11. PAWEŁ DUNAJKO (Poland) ([...]) This untitled book is a prose poem written on 34 cards placed in a slipcase with cut-out windows in which a movable, potential title may appear, depending on how the reader shuffles the cards. In the words of the author, “it aims to silence the voice and let the writing speak.” Series: Liberature, vol. 13, 2010. 12. HERTA MÜLLER (Germany) Strażnik bierze swój grzebień. Der Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm translated by Artur Kożuch A collection of 94 collage poems published as separate cards in a box, considered one of Nobel-Prize winner Müller’s most original works. The small format and the loose form of the volume correspond with the content of the poems, which originated as postcards sent to friends from her forced exile. The Polish bilingual edition, being the first translation of this work into a foreign language, was published as vol. 15 of “Liberature” line of Korporacja Ha!art in 2010, and follows closely the design of the German original published in 1993 by Rowohlt Verlag.
13. DARIUSZ ORSZULEWSKI (Poland) Jezus nigdy nie był aż tak blady (Jesus has never been so pale before) A double-faced novel with uncut pages that the reader needs to violate in order to get the whole story about a double-faced hero by the author who willingly subscribed to the poetics of liberature. Series: Liberature, vol. 21, 2013. 14. STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ (France) Rzut kośćmi nigdy nie zniesie przypadku/ Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard Translated by Tomasz Różycki In the poem The Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance, overwhelmed by a powerful, though never realised vision of the Book, Stéphane Mallarmé achieved a radical breakthrough in the linearity of literary notation, which was intended to “space out the reading” (the first magazine edition 1897, the posthumous book edition 1914). Prefaced by Michał Paweł Markowski, this bilingual edition is the first Polish publication of the poem that fully reflects the typographic arrangement of both versions of the original (the previous publications ruined its spatial arrangement). Series: Liberature, vol. 3, 2005. 15. RAYMOND QUENEAU (France) Sto tysięcy miliardów wierszy (Cent mille milliards de poèmes) translated by Jan Gondowicz The famous “poem generator” by Raymond Queneau, published in 1961, invites the readers to co-create the work of as yet unknown size. Ten sonnets are printed on cardboard cut into separate strips, each containing a separate line so that they can be interchanged, which enables the readers to generate the eponymous one hundred billion poems. As the author calculated, a non-stop reading would take someone “190 258 751 years, plus a few hours and a quarter” to read. The cornerstone of the French group OuLiPo, which combines mathematics and literature. Beside English, German and Swedish, Polish is the fourth language into which Queneau’s work has been translated so far. Series: Liberature, vol. 6, 2008.
16. WILLIAM BLAKE (the UK) Małżeństwo Nieba & Piekła/The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Translated by Franek Wygoda William Blake, a famous romantic poet, printer and illustrator, who designed and printed his books himself, must be definitely seen as one of the precursors of liberature. This is the only Polish edition of Blake so far trying to render the integrity of image and text in the original design, published by Rękodzielnia Arhat, 2002. 17. LAURENCE STERNE (the UK) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman First published in 1759 this novel is famous for typographic devices, which can be now described as liberatic, including the notorious marble page (the endpaper used by book-binders to join the pages with the covers) following chapter XXXVI of book III, the black page marking the moment of Reverend Yorick’s death, and the “virtual” chapter XXIV of book IV created by a gap of ten pages allegedly torn off by the author, reflected in both the chapter numbering and pagination. A contemporary reinterpretation of the 18th century material meanings by London-based Visual Editions (2010), in 2011 it was nominated for the Design of the Year award by the London Design Museum. 18. B.S. JOHNSON (the UK) Nieszczęśni (The Unfortunates) translated by Katarzyna Bazarnik A novel-in-the-box containing unbound leaves and sections of the story by one of the most interesting British writers of the 60’s, a record of the chaotic working of memory and the mind. The translation by Katarzyna Bazarnik was distinguished at Wrocław Good Books Fair 2008. Series: Liberature, vol. 5, 2008. 19. MARC SAPORTA (France) Composition No. 1 An aleatory novel, the first modern book-in-the-box, anticipating the hypertext, tells a story of a man who lost memory and the sense of time in consequence of a car accident. The French original appeared in 1961;
the English translation was first published by Simon and Schuster in 1963 in New York; this edition was published in the UK by Visual Editions in 2011. In December 2003 Nick Montfort was surprised to find out that “there seems to be exactly one page devoted to Composition No. 1 on the entire Web; it is in Polish and consists of two paragraphs.” 20. ROBERT SZCZERBOWSKI (Poland) Antologia: Kompozycje. Księga żywota. Æ (Anthology: Compositions. The Booke of Life. Æ) Szczerbowski’s oeuvre is governed by the principle of simulacrum. Kompozycje is a collection of short, often surrealistic or parable-like stories drawing on different musical compositions. Stylistically polyphonic Księga żywota (The Booke of Life), published anonymously, suggests to the readers that it was written by generations of authors over many centuries. Finally, the untitled work, referred to as Æ, is a self-generating text, travelling freely from the paper and print medium of the book into the hypertextual, virtual space of the screen. So Antologia constitutes evidence of a logical literary development that affirms writing over the individual creating agent, akin to liberature due to significance of the medium. Series: Liberature, vol. 20, 2013. 21. WILLIAM H. GASS (USA) Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife Published in 1968, this noveletta by an American postmodernist blurs the boundary between the body of the eponymous woman and the body of the book, integrating into its narrative photographs and over a dozen of different typefaces. 22. RAYMOND FEDERMAN (USA) Podwójna wygrana jak nic (Double or Nothing) translated by Jerzy Kutnik The debut novel of one of the leading American postmodernists converges four streams of discourse to tell (or hide) a story of a Holocaust survivor arriving in America. A multilayered narrative was designed and typed by the author, and its layout was carefully reproduced by the translator. Series: Liberature, vol. 16, 2010.
23. Jonathan SAFRAN FOER (USA) Tree of Codes A palimpsest story cut out by the American novelist from Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles, the English translation of Cinnamon Shops, published by Visual Editions, London, 2010. 24. PHILIP MEERSMAN (Belgium) This is Belgian Chocolate Typographically powerful poems arranged within the space of the codex tell a story of a sensitive poet commenting with a wonderful sense of humour on life in a modern city. Meersman’s work “has been described as ‘overwhelming and wonderful’ with a style that permits the concept of an international language, underlying his strong anti-war stance.” Published in New York by Three Rooms Press in 2014.
Reception of LIBERATURE: 25. Ha!art no 15/2003 The first monograph issue devoted to liberature, designed in collaboration with Zenon Fajfer (the image on the cover is his sign-poem, made of the letters ZENKASI, the artistic penname of the creators of liberature), including the first reviews of the prototype edition of Oka-leczenie, and an interview with Zenkasi duo. 26. Ha!art no 30/2010 Another monograph issue devoted to liberature, prepared to celebrate the ten years of the phenomenon. 27. Ha!art no 40/2013 The radical issue, including works specially written for the magazine by authors subscribing to the poetics of liberature (Michael Joyce, Carolyn Guyer, USA; Hsia Yu, Taiwan; Shinsuke Takasaki, Japan/ USA; Bojan Meserko, Slovenia; Peter Waugh, the UK/Austria; Wei Yun-Lin-Górecka, Poland-Taiwan; Radosław Nowakowski, Robert Szczerbowski, Katarzyna Bazarnik, Zenon Fajfer, Poland) 28. JAPANESE JOURNAL OF LITERARY STUDIES, PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO 『れにくさ』. Renyxa. Рениксa, 3 (2012) It features “Liberature: a Literary Genre Integrating Text with the Form of the Book”, the essay based on Katarzyna Bazarnik’s lecture at the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo in 2011.
29. TAIWANESE POETIC QUARTERLY Off the Roll, Poetry + (衛生紙詩刊+) This poetic quarterly founded in 2008 by a well-known poet Hung Hung (鴻鴻), is one of the most important, avant-garde literary magazines in Taiwan. It publishes only works that are “unique, differ from the mainstream taste and find it impossible to be published anywhere else”. They include poetry, drama and works trespassing borderlines of different literary genres, by authors from Asia and Europe. Thanks to Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka, a Taiwanese poetess who lives in Krakow, works by Polish authors have appeared twice in this magazine. These are: “Świadkowie lub nasza mała stabilizacja” by Tadeusz Różewicz (translated into Chinese by in Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka) and “7 letters” by Zenon Fajfer (translated into English by Katarzyna Bazarnik), together with an interview about Liberature.
Other 30. STEVEN ZULTANSKI (USA) PAD The Polish transposition of Steven Zultanski’s notorious PAD (Make Now Press, 2010) adapted into Polish by Piotr Marecki and published as Interes by Korporacja Ha!art (Kraków, 2016). It features a catalogue of all objects to be found in a young man’s flat (the author’s in the original, the translator’s in the Polish edition), listing them according to whether or not he could lift them with his penis. A sort of ethnological report, it also cocks a snook at the idea of experimental writing as masculinist, parodying the fallocentric perspective on it. 31. JAAN MALIN (Estonia) Maa ja ilm. Romaan I. This “asemantic novel” opens with a usual selection of blurbs praising the ingenuity and literary talents of the author, and continues in a purely invented language, resembling Estonian, but making no sense. Published by: paranoia publishing group ltd. (Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Tallin, Paris, Tokyo, 2015), that is a leading Estonian experimental artist and sound poetry performer, Jaan Malin, who plans its “translations” into other languages.
Between LIBERATURE and ARTIST’S BOOK 32. RADOSŁAW NOWAKOWSKI (Poland) Hasa Rapasa. Opis spektaklu niemożliwego. Description of an Impossible Performance This book, a description of an impossible performance”, has been written since the end of the 90s of the last century in an open edition. It has undergone several metamorphoses: from three separate codices (1997–98), through the triangle (2001), to an irregular quadrangle (2009). The triangular version, written in Polish, English and Esperanto, on display here comes from the Liberature Reading Room. As the author explains: “Yes, it has been the fourth attempt to describe something impossible. The fourth failed attempt. Perhaps the fifth one would be also a failure, even if the book were a pentagon, and if it existed at all. The only successful attempt would be an impossible book. Unfortunately, a triangular book turned out to be impossible.” 33. RADOSŁAW NOWAKOWSKI (Poland) Ulica Sienkiewicza w Kielcach. Sienkiewicza Street in Kielce A 10,5 long leporello story about an accidental trip in an unknown city. The book published by the BWA of Kielce in the print run of 500 copies, was awarded the silver medal during the 2005 Seoul Book Arts Competition. 34. ANDRZEJ BEDNARCZYK (Poland) Świątynia kamienia/The Temple of Stone Translated by Barbara Kutryba This bilingual volume published in 1995 by the Krakow section of Polish Writer’s Association in the edition of 400 copies contains meditative lyrical poetry placed between concrete covers. The well with a piece of rock inside is an integral part of each poem. 35. ZBIGNIEW SAŁAJ (Poland) Jesienny poemat (Autumn Poem) An example of liberature and an artist’s book in one, a work that uses the semantics of matter: a poem about transitoriness is printed with fading ink on wooden pages recycled from type cases.
36. DOROTA KAMISIŃSKA (Poland) Antrakt Inspired by Fajfer’s multilayered poems of Powieki (Eyelids), the book artist transposed the opening poem of his collection into an interactive artist’s book. By turning its pages the reader unfolds the invisible texts hidden in the printed version or displayed on the computer screen in the book’s electronic part. A single copy, handwritten and bound, Zabierzów, Poland, 2014. 37. ZOFIA SZCZĘSNA (Poland) Osobliwość (Singularity) An artist’s book devised during Liberature seminar run by Zenon Fajfer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland, in 2013. Inspired by Einstein's theory of relativity and superstring theory, it contains text about deformations of space-time distorted in a similar way in the cylindrical mirror. 38. EMMETT WILLIAMS (USA), PIOTR BIKONT, ANDRZEJ CHĘTKO, LECH HUNIEWICZ, BOŻENA KALINOWSKA, JANUSZ PAWEŁ TRYZNO (Poland) Emmett Williams’ Light Poem This collaborative artists’ book is a record of Emmett Williams’ reading of the eponymous poem in Łódź, Poland, in the early 90’s. The lines embossed on thick pages with Panaeuropa type (20p) correspond to the poet’s whisper, while the play of colours evokes the gradual extinguishing of candles used in his performance. Book Art Museum: Correspondance des Artes, no. 13, 1991. 50 pages. Print run: 95. Each copy signed by Emmett Williams. 39. CAROLYN GUYER & MICHAEL JOYCE (USA) More Than a Year. 13 Months Calendar On Ha!art’s invitationto contribute to the “radical” issue 40 of Ha!art magazine, the pioneer of hypertext Michael Joyce and a visual artist Carolyn Guyer created a piece that combines text and textiles in the form of constrained poetry (each line has only 12 characters), hand-printed on linen square pages decorated with embroidery. Its paper print version was published in Polish in 2013. They donated the original to Liberature Reading Room collection in Kraków..
40. HSIA YU (Taiwan) Pink Noise Hsia Yu is a Taiwanese poet, essayist and playwright, acclaimed as one of the most interesting poetic voices of contemporary Taiwan. She has published four poetry volumes in which the shape of the book and typography constitute additional means of expression, which makes her work akin to liberature. Pink Noise (2007)exploits the semantics of matter: the print on transparent pages produces an effect of visual noise.
Between LIBERATURE AND ELECTRONIC LITERATURE 41. ROBERT SZCZERBOWSKI (Poland) Æ Originally published as an anonymous booklet without a title in 1991, this is the first Polish work of digital literature. Released on a 3,5' dics in 1996 by Pusty Obłok Publishers, reissued in 2002 on-line as Æ on the author's website, and later on Techsty (the first Polish online compendium and a journal of electronic literature) it appeared in 2013 as part of Szczerbowski’s Antologia in the form of a postcard with a QR code referring the reader to the Internet location: http://techsty.art.pl/ae/raster.html. 42. RADOSŁAW NOWAKOWSKI (Poland) Koniec świata według Emeryka (The End of the World according to Emeryk) A multimodal, hypertextual novel, using movement, colour, and shapes, by author of liberature and e-literature. It tells a story about the last day before the end of the world in a small Polish village of Nowa Slupia. The legend has that this will happen when the stone figure of a “pilgrim”, supposed to move by the distance of the grain of sand every year, reaches the monastery on the nearby mountain. The villagers decide to attract more tourists and publicity by speeding this up, and transport the ancient statue to the mountain top. Published by Ha!art in 2005, it is now available on-line at: http://www.liberatorium.com/emeryk/brzask.htm 43. RADOSŁAW NOWAKOWSKI (Poland) Liberlandia A kind of a Borgesian literary MMORPG, a three-lingual hypertextual encyclopaedic, open work, which the author describes as “ my state. My country. Neither democracy, nor kingdom. A textdom. A hypertextdom.
A work in constant progress. Endless construction. Infinite reconstruction. A tale having its beginning in the middle and being developed and spread in all directions. A free book for a free reader. You pay almost nothing visiting this country, only the time you waste for reading. You can even earn a little for you can always spend the same time doing something even more needless and unnecessary.” You can visit it here: http:// www.liberatorium.com/liberlandia.html. 44. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Primum Mobile translated by Katarzyna Bazarnik The final part of ten letters/dwadzieścia jeden liter, with kinetic poems going back to 2005, challenges the readers expectations because it invites them to contemplation, not interaction, typical for e-lit pieces. Paradoxically, the printed book, which features uncut and folded pages, demands of them more active involvement than the film-poem on the DVD (animation by Jakub Woynarowski; appeared in Liberature series, vol. 10–11, 2010). A part of it is “Ars poetica, ” an emanational poem animated in Flash, antologised in Electronic Literature Collection 3. English and Polish versions, running time 15 min. 45. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) Powieki (Eyelids) A poetic volume consisting of a printed book and a CD, contains a hypertextual labyrinth through which one can wander forward, backward, and inside words, on the page or on the screen or on-line at http://techsty. art.pl/powieki/. The electronic version was programmed in Flash by Olga Dwornik (nee Rybacka) following Zenon Fajfer’s script. Forma Publishing House 2013. 46. ZENON FAJFER (Poland) “Widok z głębokiej wieży” (A View from the Deep Tower) This emanational, multilayered poem comes with a poetic volume under the same title. Its animated on-line version, programmed by Olga Dwonik, reveals the hidden layers of invisible texts in a fine dance on the computer screen. The electronic version of the poem was published on-line in Wakat at http://wakat.sdk.pl/ widok-z-glebokiej-wiezy/in 2015, and is used in Fajfer’s poetic performance “A View from the Deep Tower.” (script by Teresa Nowak).
47. ŁUKASZ PODGÓRNI (Poland) Skanowanie balu (Scanning the ball) A volume of cyberpoetry by one of the key figures of Polish e-lit. The digital edition published on-line by Rozdzielczość Chleba [Resolution of Bread] Art Collective, the paper volume by Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków, 2012, in collaboration with Pawlacz Perski lab, which produced the CD. It features a nervous dialogue between postdigital music by Porcje Rosolowe experimental web lab, and Podgorni’s post (?!)cyberpoems interpreted by speech synthetizers. See his e-works at http://szafranchinche.ovh.org and http://pdgr.tumblr.com. 48. KATARZYNA GIEŁŻYŃSKA C()n Du It It is an on-line collection of poetic audio-videoclips, according to Electronic Literature Collection 3, “presenting the most important phenomena of visual culture and asking questions about a man’s place in the online sphere and about identity in the era of avatars. Intense, expressive and ironic pictures, show in an epigrammatic form our daily internet ‘rituals’, like clicking, posting, chatting. (…) The video poems use a series of animations and techniques evocative of 1990s animated GIF works, 2000s Flash poetry, and contemporary kinetic typography videos. Varied in tone, strategy, and messages— yet held together by a consistent font that gives it its title— these poems collectively invite reflection on the human condition in the digital age.” http://haart.e-kei.pl/conduit/ 49. ANETA KAMIŃSKA (Poland) Czary i mary (hipertekst) [Hocus-pocus. (Hypertext)] Inspired by the typography of the web, this volume of poems and poetic prose invites the readers to explore Kaminska’s mixture of the realistic and the oneiric in the non-linear reading. Published by Staromiejski Dom Kultury in Warsaw, 2007. Transposed into the Internet by David Sypniewski, its digital counterpart surprises us with effects that match Kaminska’s poetic devices in their ingenuity. Explore it at http://www.czary-i-mary.pl/. 50. AGATA LANKAMER (Poland) Szumy (Noises) An augmented reality book, it is a story of love and fascination in which one printed part contains the interior monologue, the other printed volume is full of abstract graphics reflecting emotions of the narrator, whereas
the QR code transports the readers to the (collective?) unconscious represented by the website. A A one-ofa-kind by talented, young Polish artist from Czestochowa. Digital print, hand bound, 2013. 51. MICHAEL JOYCE (USA) afternoon. a story and popołudnie. pewna historia A classic of electronic literature, this is the first hypertextual novel to be read on the computer screen. It contains 539 lexias connected by 931 links, which offers the readers thousands of possible paths to follow, while discovering a story of a fatal accident resulting in the death of the narrator’s son. Written in 1987, it was published in 1989 and 1991 by Eastgate Systems. Its Polish translation by Mariusz Pisarski and Radosław Nowakowski appeared in Ha!art Publishing House in 2011. 52. MICHAEL JOYCE (USA) twilight. a symphony and zmrok — symfonia Another hypertextual novel by the master of the genre, it is “a courageous and innovative exploration of home, family, and the nostalgia that can't ever quite replace them, ” featuring Magda, a Polish political refugee, now seeking the “Twilight doctor” to help her depart peacefully into the other world. Published in 1996 by Eastgate Systems, it was released on-line by Ha!art Publishing House in Radoslaw Nowakowski’s translation, programmed by Jakub Jagiełło and edited by Mariusz Pisarski, with Łukasz Podgórni’s graphics (see it at: http://haart.e-kei.pl/zmrok/). 53. NICK MONTFORT (USA) Zegar światowy (World Clock) Text generator translated by Piotr Marecki. World Clock is a digital-born printed book, an example of overlap between liberature and electronic literature. Created for National Novel Generation Month Contest in the USA, the software is a text generator producing a series of micro narratives, inspired by Stanisław Lem’s fictional review in his One Human Minute; but it is accessed through the interface of the traditional, printed book, or rather one of its possible material interfaces. A line from Lem’s book and information in the colophon: “Generated (with free software) & printed in Poland” are the clues for the readers on the genesis of Montfort’s work. Series: Liberature, vol. 22, 2014. More on the project at http://nickm.com/post/2013/11/world-clock/.
54. Zenon Fajfer Clock of Timelessness / Zegar Bezczasowości Poem translated by Katarzyna Bazarnik, programmed by Olga Dwornik. On display is also Zenon Fajfer’s kinetic poem, intended to be the key part of a site-specific project: a city clock tower for New York City and Krakow. In the past great cities boasted city clocks whose chiming paced the life of their inhabitants. Today's clocks are disciplining tools, urging us to hurry up. Fajfer’s poetic idea is to inspire people to slow down and experience a moment of contemplation. In order to do so he wants to build city clock towers in New York City and Krakow whose faces will feature the 12 letters of the word TIMELESSNESS and three other language versions: BEZCZASOWOŚĆ / ATEMPORALITA / ATEMPORALITÉ, instead of digits. Every hour the clock will display a poem instead of sounding a chime. The clocks will dialogue with each other, thus forming a symbolic bridge across the Atlantic.
DANK DANK MEME MEME A dank meme is a type of self-reflexive meme, ironically playing on overused images, programmatically limiting its scope and resorting to a sense of humour specific to a particular audience. According to the Urban Dictionary, “a meme that is just really radical, cool, and neat.” Another really dank definition in UD describes it as “an ironic expression used to mock online viral media and injokes that have exhausted their comedic value to the point of being trite or cliché. In this context, the word ‘dank,’ originally coined as a term for high quality marijuana, is satirically used as a synonym for ‘cool.’”
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME: Thursday, September 22nd OFFLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING, 21 Ludlow Street New York, NY 10002 http://centralbookingnyc.com/event/polish-impact-hawangarda-2016-in-new-york/
6–8 pm
Polish Impact: Ha!wangarda 2016 in New York kickoff launch of Liberature, Book Art, and E-literature exhibition
7 pm
Curators’ Talks: Maddy Rosenberg on book art, Katarzyna Bazarnik on liberature, Piotr Marecki on electronic literature.
September 22nd — October 2nd OFFLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING, 21 Ludlow Street New York, NY 10002 http://centralbookingnyc.com/event/polish-impact-hawangarda-2016-in-new-york/ GALLERY AND EXHIBITION HOURS: THURSDAY-SUNDAY, 12–6 PM Ha!wangarda: Liberature, Book Art, and E-literature exhibition
Friday, Sept 23 Charlotte Patisserie, 596 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222 | http://charlottepatisserie.com/
12 pm
Brunch z Korporacją Ha!art czyli Młoda Polska w Memach/Brunch with Ha!art or Young Poland in Memes (presentation in Polish) by Kaja Puto, Łukasz Podgórni, Piotr Marecki Wendy’s Subway 379 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 | http://www.wendyssubway.com/
5 pm
Liberature: poetry bound to the book, a talk by Katarzyna Bazarnik, and poetry presentation by Zenon Fajfer
6 pm
Demoscene poetry presented by Piotr Marecki
Saturday, Sept 24 Wendy’s Subway 379 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 | http://www.wendyssubway.com/
4 pm
Facebook game „Keleti blok blokki” presentation by Kaja Puto
5 pm
Matrix, Ha!art’s experimental animations presented by Piotr Marecki
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME: Sunday, September 25th OFFLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING 21 Ludlow Street New York, NY 10002 http://centralbookingnyc.com/event/polish-impact-hawangarda-2016-in-new-york/
3 pm
Clock of Timelessness/Zegar Bezczasowości presentation of city clock tower project for New York and Krakow by Zenon Fajfer, and launch of his kinetic poem
3.30 pm
Post-poetry, cyberhoboness, speech synthesis workout, audiovisual performance by Łukasz Podgórni.
4–6 pm
“OFF-BOOK. Between the analogue and the digital,” a round table on artists’ books, liberature and electronic literature as contemporary forms of creative and experimental writing panelists: Maddy Rosenberg, Katarzyna Bazarnik, Zenon Fajfer, Piotr Marecki, Łukasz Podgórni, Carolyn Guyer, Michael
Joyce, Nick Montfort, Steven Zultanski. Moderator: Kaja Puto.
Wednesday, September 28th Greenpoint Library 107 Norman Ave. at Leonard St., Brooklyn, NY 11222 | http://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar
6:30 pm
Seans poetycki “Widok z głębokiej wieży/View from the Deep Tower”, Zenon Fajfer’s poetry reading (in Polish with selected poems in English)
Sunday, October 2nd OFFLINE at CENTRAL BOOKING 21 Ludlow Street New York, NY 10002 http://centralbookingnyc.com/event/polish-impact-hawangarda-2016-in-new-york/
3–5 pm
Liberatic Collage or try writing in someone else’s words, workshop with Katarzyna Bazarnik
5 pm
Zenon Fajfer’s poetry reading View from the Deep Tower, translation and reading in English by Katarzyna Bazarnik, programming by Olga Dwornik, script by Teresa Nowak
KATARZYNA BAZARNIK k.bazarnik@uj.edu.pl, zenkasi@ha.art.pl Jagiellonian University, Krakรณw literary scholar, editor & translator keywords: liberature, experimental writing, materiality of the book, James Joyce
MARIUSZ PISARSKI mariusz.pisarski@ha.art.pl University of Warsaw researcher, producer & translator keywords: hypertext archeology, adaptation, intersemiotic narratives
ZENON FAJFER zenkasi@wp.pl, zenkasi@ha.art.pl independent artist, Krakรณw poet, editor & theorist of liberature keywords: poetry, liberature, emanational form, invisible texts, space and time of the literary work
KAJA PUTO
CAROLYN GUYER
kaja.puto@ha.art.pl Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków
American mixed-media visual
journalist, editor & translator
artist, hypertext fiction writer,
keywords: Eastern Europe,
and web developer, former
postcolonialism,
director of web development
ideological criticism
at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. keywords: stamp, textile, poem, art
PIOTR MARECKI
MICHAEL JOYCE
piotr.marecki@ha.art.pl Korporacja Ha!art,
American novelist, poet, critic,
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
and collaborative multimedia
researcher, publisher &
artist, best known as the author
translator
of afternoon, which
keywords: decentering,
The New York Times called “
demoscene, subcultures,
the granddaddy of
experimental translation,
hypertext fictions.”
conceptual writing
keywords: stamp, textile, poem, art
ALEKSANDRA MAŁECKA
NICK MONTFORT
aleksandra.malecka@ha.art.pl Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków
develops computational art and
translator & editor
poetry, often collaboratively.
keywords: translation studies,
He is a professor at MIT and is
experimental translation
the principal of the naming firm Nomnym. He lives in New York and Boston.
ŁUKASZ PODGÓRNI
MONIKA GÓRSKAOLESIŃSKA
Polish cyberpoet, graphic and
ikagorska@gmail.com,
apps creator, sculptor of audio
mgorska@uni.opole.pl
files and trainer of speech synthesizers, collaborates with Korporacja Ha!art Foundation and Rozdzielczość Chleba art collective. keywords: cyberhoboness, post-poetry, poorwave
MADDY ROSENBERG
University of Opole, Opole scholar, researcher & translator keywords: digital poetry, electronic literature, new media art, art & science intersections, cybercultures
PIOTR PULDZIAN PŁUCIENNICZAK
an artist and curator, native of
piotr@puldzian.net
Brooklyn. She founded and runs
artist, sociologist & activist
CENTRAL BOOKING
Rozdzielczość Chleba, Warsaw
keywords: oil painting, artists’
keywords: electronic literature,
books, printmaking, drawing, toy
netart, piracy, social insurance
theater, installation
estethics
STEVEN ZULTANSKI
JANOTA katarzyna.janota@ha.art.pl
is a Brooklyn-based author of
designer & artist
experimental poetry, prose,
Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków
and criticism.
keywords: graphic design,
keywords: experimental writing
weird arts, user experience, digital wellness, desktop publishing. drawings
In this publication: ↪ Katarzyna Bazarnik wrote the articles about liberature and emanational texts. ↪ Katarzyna Bazarnik wrote the catalogue of liberature, book art and e-literature exhibition ↪ Katarzyna Bazarnik prepared the note of dank memes, and the festival programme ↪ Katarzyna Bazarnik and Mariusz Pisarski prepared the text about Radosław Nowakowski. ↪ Monika Górska-Olesińska wrote about Stanisław Lem and Stanisław Dróżdż. ↪ Zenon Fajfer contributed his text about the notion
↪ Aleksandra Małecka and Piotr Marecki wrote about palindromes, and Andrzej Głowacki. ↪ Mariusz Pisarski wrote about Polish pre-digital literature of the baroque period, Jan Potocki, Michael Joyce and Wojciech Bruszewski. Piotr Marecki wrote about pre-digital trolling, Schulz, Stanisław Czycz, the demoscene, and Żuk Piwkowski. ↪ Kaja Puto wrote about keleti blokk blocks. ↪ Piotr Puldzian Płucienniczak wrote about Rozdzielczość Chleba. ↪ Aleksandra Małecka and Piotr Marecki conceived and coordinated the project.
of „the experimental.” ↪ Aleksandra Małecka wrote the note about Katarzyna Giełżyńska.
↪ Aleksandra Małecka edited the texts. ↪ Katarzyna Janota designed the graphics.
↪ Aleksandra Małecka and Mariusz Pisarski wrote the article about translations.
Polish Impact. A guide for fo-
Copyright: the Authors
The publication was
reigners to Polish electronic,
and Korporacja Ha!art
supported by The Ministry
experimental and otherwise
Published by Korporacja
of Culture and National
unconventional literature,
Ha!art, pl. Szczepański 3a,
Heritage of The Republic
2nd enlarged ed.
31–011 Kraków
of Poland
K. Bazarnik, Kraków 2016
http://www.ha.art.pl/
Publikację dofinansowano
Design & Illustrations:
ISBN 978-83-64057-95-3
ze środków Ministerstwa
eds. A. Małecka,P. Marecki,
Janota
Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego