irc poetry:
something like magnetic/cut-up-word poetry, but a little more structured. the poems are 2+ word phrases taken from a segment of dialogue. spelling and case is preserved, but puncuation and spacing may be modified. the phrases are presented in chronological order.
note: the right side is color/letter coded by line to show what was said by different contributors of the conversation (letters a-h)
why?
an irc chatroom is an interesting experience. it’s like always having one ear in a room full of people having a discussion. it goes on whether you participate or not, and every utterance is readable and re-readable by each person. entire conversations can be analyzed and quoted with accuracy. its major differences are its lack of nonverbal communication, physical contact, and the ability to sense when someone is about to speak or to whom they intend to speak to.
consequently, there are interesting observations to be made when you can see an entire conversation laid in front of you. the way conversation flows and changes, especially amongst a group, is absolutely fascinating. these poems play with this and the fact that data visualization doesn’t always have to be charts and graphs or even contain quantifiable information.
read the poems in plain text format: one, two.
