Kyle Brett

Screen capture of Blue Hyacinth: M M M M Blue Hyacinth Pauline Masurel Jim Andrews V I S P O Stir Frys Tabitha flexes against the collar . I try to sound as though I know what I'm talking about. in the alleyway. I just like the look of the grey mare; the bookie can tell, it was probably obvious from the moment I walked in. the hyacinth itself or secreted When it happens the noise insists before, ...it goes on for months another in the corner is smoking. She's watching the race . Rather, it's a subtle matter of class, . when she can't gain entry, Across the road clubbers spill out on to the pavements - he comes. he goes. she waits for weeks. after all. she picks her way back across the landing - Do you want this, I could report it slowly, sadly who would care? and begins to stroke it through the sticky tangle of her hair. — Open “Blue Hyacinth” by Pauline Masurel and Jim Andrews

Slightly modifying the “cut-up” technique of Dadaist and Modernist writers in her digital work, “Blue Hyacinth,” Pauline Masurel encourages her readers not to destroy the original four poems, but rather jumble them together, stir them up, and weave them in a way that shares in the creative process of generating an individualized text. By presenting “Blue Hyacinth” as a stir-fry work (using Jim Andrews’ “Stir Fry Texts” framework) that allows readers to reflect on the original poems, Masurel is changing the author-reader relationship. Masurel ensures that readers become extensions of herself by encouraging readers to manipulate her writings and fashion a text that becomes less a traditional example of poetry and more a collaborative piece shared between individual reader and writer. With “Blue Hyacinth,” Masurel crafts a space where traditional print culture roles fade and are replaced by their mutable digital counterparts. Never once just a reader or an author, those that encounter “Blue Hyacinth” are able to exercise a semblance of autonomy that is novel to texts within the digital medium.

Modificando ligeramente la técnica de “corte” de escritores dadaístas y modernistas en su obra digital, “Blue Hyacinth“, Pauline Masurel anima a sus lectores a no destruir los cuatro poemas originales, sino mezclarlos, agitarlos y tejerlos de una manera que comparte en el proceso creativo de generar un texto individualizado. Al presentar “Blue Hyacinth” como un trabajo de salteado (utilizando el marco “Stir Fry Texts” de Jim Andrews) que permite a los lectores reflexionar sobre los poemas originales, Masurel está cambiando la relación entre el autor y el lector. Masurel asegura que los lectores se conviertan en extensiones de sí misma al alentar a los lectores a manipular sus escritos y crear un texto que se vuelva menos un ejemplo tradicional de poesía y más una pieza de colaboración compartida entre lectores y escritores individuales. Con “Blue Hyacinth”, Masurel crea un espacio en el que los roles de la cultura de impresión tradicional se desvanecen y son reemplazados por sus contrapartes digitales mutables. Nunca solo un lector o un autor, aquellos que se encuentran con “Blue Hyacinth” son capaces de ejercer una apariencia de autonomía que es novedosa para los textos dentro del medio digital.