›AINMATED‹ is a poem created by Paula Claire (1939), a british concrete, sound and performance poet and artist. The poem is part of a series of works done on a typewriter. Although the poem is placed statically on the page it appears to be in movement coinciding with the trees and the wind, which are the textual components of the work. The words agglomerate, overlap and leave spaces empty to give a sense of a natural kinetic energy.
Original poem ›ANIMATED‹ by Paula Claire
In my interpretation of Claire’s work the user still places word for word like a typewriter on the work surface – where the paper has now been replaced by a screen. The forward movement in technology changed the poem to a dynamic rendering which changes every time and becomes alive by user interaction.
By moving the mouse the user creates chains of text in which the distance between the letters to each other is determined by the speed of the user's hand. After the first letter is placed, there is potential for transformation. Scrolling triggers the replacement of each letter to closed brackets which appear as a typographical image of a leaf swaying back and forth. When the user repeats the process of ›writing‹ with the mouse and transforming the text by scrolling, multiple layers of moving leaves remind us of the kinetic energy that inhabits Paula Claire’s poem.
Typical to concrete poetry you could ask yourself: Am I writing or drawing this poem? Concrete poetry treats the text as visual material, where the poems often act more like an image – a constellation – than as literature. To make concrete poetry is to cross disciplinary lines.