Open “Entre Ville” by J.R. Carpenter
This hypertextual collection of poems, short videos, drawings, and quotes provide an immersive experience of Carpenter’s life in Mile End, a neighborhood in Montréal. The beautifully framed short videos interspersed throughout scrapbook-like interface enrich the already vivid imagery of the central poem in the work, “Saint Urbain Street Heat.” These videos evoke a sense of touch through the textures of its textiles, and its carefully wandering eye following a vine or a clothesline show us the visual poetry of her neighborhood. Pieces like “Mattress” do a great job of showing how the coils and seams of a mattress can flow like the sound of water from a pool in the background. “Entre Ville” is full of what Werner Herzog calls “the voodoo of location.”
Featured in Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2, ELO 2012 Media Art Show