›darling‹ is a rendition of a poem by Greta Monach (1928-2018) that I discovered in the book ›Computer Poems‹, an anthology published in 1973. Although Greta Monach is best known for her concrete sound poetry, she was also one of the first to experiment with computer-generating poems.
Original poem by Greta Monach
The poem’s repeating building blocks of text form constellations on the page in column-like patterns. It reads like a touching but chaotic monologue which stands in contrast to the technical grid the poem placed in.
To transport the poem into the web I broke down the poem to its most basic elements – the text and the grid. I built up the same grid in HTML and wrote a script that would dynamically fill each cell with one of the poem's text components, which are not visible to the user by default. Because Greta Monach’s poem is made up of continuous areas of text I wanted the user to be able to interact with the poem in a way that would achieve a similar look. The user can reveal the poem by clicking or dragging the cursor filling in the empty space with words.
Since a new constellation is generated with each reload and each user interacts in their own way with the poem, there are a myriad of possible variations that can be created. In some ways the users are repeating Monach’s process of experimenting with computer-generated poetry in the early 1970s.
Greta Monach
Computer Poems