This narrative “cyberpoem” started in 1995 with the goal of developing into a lengthy “soapie” about the life of i. The project obviously didn’t go on for a long time, though the 18 webisodes plus two alternate guest webisodes collected here are a testament to an ingenious exploration of the narrative potential of animated Concrete Poetry. Each piece is an ingenious animated GIF that illustrates and comments upon a moment in the early life of a character named i. The personification of the typographical character i and the transformation of other words into objects that i explores and interacts with truly exemplifies the Noigandres group’s description of Concrete Poetry as “tension of things-words in space-time.”
If this all seems too intellectual and dry, go read the poems: they are surprisingly moving as i comes to life.