Alan Bigelow – I ❤️ E-Poetry

“The Seven Wonders” por Alan Bigelow

February 14, 2019May 22, 2014 by Yaisha Cordero

Este webyarn nos lleva a un viaje a través de la mente del hablante desencadenado por los ingredientes mientras explora su cocina. El hablante establece una extraña conexión entre siete ingredientes (harina, pimienta, azúcar, sal, aceite de oliva, vinagre, tomillo) y su relación romántica con una mujer que lo abandonó. Está estructurado como una narración lineal que sigue el mismo patrón con cada ingrediente de la cocina: la revelación del ingrediente, la explicación de su significado histórico o su uso tanto de manera positiva como negativa, un video se incorpora como acompañante y, finalmente, la conexión entre el ingrediente, el hablante y su relación.

De forma similar a otra de las obras de Bigelow, “In a World Without Electricity“, el locutor de “The Seven Wonders” reconstruye los eventos pasados para darles sentido. En el trabajo anterior, el hablante recuerda la muerte de alguien cercano a él, mientras que en “The Seven Wonders” el orador examina su relación amorosa aparentemente finalizada con una mujer desaparecida con la esperanza de encontrar el cierre.

Cada ingrediente tiene un propósito. El hablante compara cada relación romántica y sus componentes. Al hacerlo, en dieciséis días el hablante llega a un acuerdo con el aparente final de su relación. La harina representa la base que debe tener cualquier relación, y sin la cual se puede desmoronar. Pepper es la especia más comercializada en el mundo, que el orador compara con la forma en que la gente usa el amor superficial para darle vida a una relación floreciente. El hablante está dando a entender que el “amor” se ha abaratado y comercializado de la misma manera que la pimienta. Luego viene el azúcar y demás con los ingredientes restantes. Las fotos de los ingredientes están en una escala cercana, macroscópica, comparable a la forma en que el hablante está analizando su relación, y también evoca las monumentales Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Los GIF representan el viaje que el amante ausente está tomando a partir de las Cataratas del Niágara y terminando…

Bueno, eso es para que lo descubras, querido lector.

Traducido por Reina Santiago

“The Seven Wonders” by Alan Bigelow

May 22, 2014 by Yaisha Cordero

This webyarn takes us on a journey through the mind of the speaker triggered by ingredients while he explores his kitchen. The speaker makes a bizarre connection between seven ingredients (flour, pepper, sugar, salt, olive oil, vinegar, thyme) and his romantic relationship with a woman who has abandoned him. It is structured as a linear narrative that follows the same pattern with each kitchen ingredient: the revealing of the ingredient, the explanation its historical significance or its use in both positive and negative ways, a video is incorporated as a companion, and finally the connection between the ingredient, the speaker, and his relationship.

Similarly to another one of Bigelow’s works, “In a World Without Electricity,” the speaker of “The Seven Wonders” reconstructs past events in order to make sense of them. In the earlier work, the speaker reminisces over the death of someone close to him, while in “The Seven Wonders” the speaker examines his seemingly finalized amorous relationship with a long gone woman in the hopes of finding closure.

Seven Wonders Pepper

Each ingredient serves a purpose. The speaker is comparing each one to romantic relationship and its components. By doing so, in sixteen days the speaker comes to terms with the apparent end of his relationship. The flour represents the foundation any relationship should have, and without which it can crumble. Pepper is the most traded spice in the World which the speaker compares to how people use superficial love to spice up a burgeoning relationship. The speaker is implying that “love” has been cheapened and commercialized the same way pepper has. Next comes sugar and so on with the remaining ingredients. The photos of the ingredients are in close, macroscopic scale, comparable to the way the speaker is analyzing his relationship, and also evoking the monumental Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The GIFs represent the journey the absent lover is taking starting at the Niagara Falls and ending…

Well that’s for you to discover, dear reader.

“In a World Without Electricity” by Alan Bigelow

April 8, 2013 by Leonardo Flores

This is a true story about the untimely death of someone close to the speaker, who seeks to reconstruct the story of her death in a way that can provide closure and hopefully justice. It is also a reflection on analog and digital storytelling and the objects that hold these stories.

“How They Brought the News from Paradise” by Alan Bigelow

April 7, 2013 by Leonardo Flores

This narrative poem tells the mock-heroic adventures of an unlikely antihero on an imaginary quest. As Bigelow describes the piece,

In “How They Brought the News from Paradise to Paterson,” a first-person speaker narrates his story (in heroic verse) as he swims from one end of a resort pool complex to another in search of what he thinks is more alcohol, but is in fact a journey to find his marriage
and himself. The poem plays with the epic and tragic within a setting stifled with consumerism and class separation.

The poem is structured as the monomyth, in which the speaker, while lounging at the Paradise pool bar in a 5-star resort in Barbados, overhears what he interprets as a call to adventure: the bar has run out of rum. Taking upon himself to embark upon a journey through the pool complex to find the god-like Concierge at the far end, whose “sage advice / and quick, imperious commands” would restore the flow of rum in Paradise.

“Last Words” by Alan Bigelow

December 31, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

The complete title for this multimedia poem is “Last Words (Ordinary People Speak at the Moment of Death / In or Around the New York City Area)” and it is both descriptive of the poem’s theme and suggestive of a key strategy. Organized around eight characters’ final words and the contexts in which those words were uttered, each one is represented by a brief “slice of death” narrative, and a poetic voice from beyond that provides an ironic counterpoint, full of Bigelow’s characteristic darkly understated humor.

“Pangram (The Quick Brown Fox)” by Alan Bigelow

April 30, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

For this piece, Bigelow uses the most famous pangram in the English language, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” to structure a poetic narrative hypertext. Each letter contains a piece of a story about a relationship about to change, expressed by means of a poetic line that moves in meaningful ways over a brief looped video background. Not wishing to reveal more about the story, I will just say that Bigelow deftly maps the story onto the pangram several ways: chromatically, graphemically, allegorically, and cinematically.

“Pangram (The Quick Brown Fox)” por Alan Bigelow

February 13, 2019April 30, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

Para esta pieza, Bigelow usa el pangrama más famoso en el idioma inglés, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” para estructurar un hipertexto narrativo poético. Cada carta contiene una parte de una historia sobre una relación a punto de cambiar, expresada mediante una línea poética que se mueve de manera significativa sobre un breve video de fondo en bucle. Sin querer revelar más sobre la historia, solo diré que Bigelow dibuja hábilmente la historia en el pangrama de varias maneras: cromática, grafística, alegórica y cinematográfica.

“He Said She Said” by Alan Bigelow

April 29, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

This Webyarn frames an argument between husband and wife about having children. The wife wants to keep trying, while the husband doesn’t seem to want children at all. The piece is structured around a wedding: its imagery (cake, dancing, food), vows, institutions, and symbols. The surface of the text responds to the reader’s mouseovers, rewarding exploration by triggering multiple layers of language and musical phrases in short loops. The circularity of the wedding ring structures the poem as the argument goes round and round the topic, replaying sounds, images, words, and their movements. A small cluster of squares slowly gets colored in a non-linear sequence near the bottom of the window, suggesting the passage of time for this relationship, yet the questions continue throughout. Will this disagreement ever get resolved?

“He Said She Said” por Alan Bigelow

February 13, 2019April 29, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

Este Webyarn enmarca una discusión entre marido y mujer sobre tener hijos. La esposa quiere seguir intentándolo, mientras que el marido no parece querer hijos en absoluto. La pieza está estructurada en torno a una boda: sus imágenes (pastel, baile, comida), votos, instituciones y símbolos. La superficie del texto responde a las transferencias del lector, recompensando la exploración al activar múltiples capas de lenguaje y frases musicales en bucles cortos. La circularidad del anillo de bodas estructura el poema a medida que el argumento da vueltas y vueltas al tema, reproduciendo sonidos, imágenes, palabras y sus movimientos. Un pequeño grupo de cuadrados se colorea lentamente en una secuencia no lineal cerca de la parte inferior de la pantalla, lo que sugiere el paso del tiempo para esta relación, pero las preguntas continúan. ¿Se resolverá alguna vez este desacuerdo?

“This Is Not A Poem” by Alan Bigelow

April 28, 2012 by Leonardo Flores

In a move that echoes Magritte’s famous painting “The Treachery of Images” (see below), Bigelow uses a very traditional poem (“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer) to draw attention to the impact of media on a poem. Magritte’s realistic depiction of a pipe juxtaposed with the seemingly paradoxical statement “This is is not a pipe” led audiences to realize that they were looking at oil paint on canvas, a representation of a pipe, which is much different from a real pipe (try smoking it).