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Truth Comic
september 2004
Truth Comic is a poem about authority, particularly paternalistic authority with associated implications of judgement and traditionally assumed patriarchal rights.
It explores, using symbols, the difficulty of reconciling creative thinking with moral expectations within a paternalistic, patriarchal model. Thus it is about the influence of feminism.
The symbols used also reveal a struggle between a spontaneous child self who wishes to obey a paternalistic authority and knowledge that the feminist revolution is a necessary one to become an independent adult who can explore ideas without resorting to child-like, irresponsible rebellion. A woman does need to intellectualise thought, but not emotion, while claiming emotion as a moral right. For a societal model to designate emotion is immoral.
Notice the symbolic use of military cap badge and Major's crown, East European car, chaotically placed beer bottles and child's puzzle pieces.
instructions: seven pages linked by the red, blue and green big dots and cross, click to change the page. find these dots and crosses and other mouseover links by sliding the mouse over the page. there is reason in this madness! hypertext rocks!
limit
september 2004
A poem based on hexagram 60 of the I Ching - Limitation
or Chieh, which instructs: "things cannot forever separate" and
reveals the way, through the mystery of its six yin and yang lines 
that limitation creates coherence, stability and unification, in the way that
the waters of a lake are held together by limitation in that it is contained
by rock and earth.
The text reveals that limitation must not be taken to extremes or it becomes fundamentalism. It indicates the way of going forward through moderation to the end goal of unity.
This hexagram was given as an oracular reply to a query and the poem limit was written as an interpretation and expression of the oracle.
instructions: links have been created to limit
the visual presentation of parts of this poem in various ways, to show the
way that moderation can be exerted in various difficult circumstances. the
pictures all relate to psychological conditions inspired by real events and
possible future events.
mouseovers mainly and a few clicks - five pages.
prison detail
october 2004
Detail can illuminate a subject; but it takes intelligence to become absorbed in detail without losing the original point of such investigation. "Prison detail" can also mean the assignment to special duties.
One of the starter points of this poem was the much used phrase: "Aspirational living". This focuses on objective reality, on the possessions one may or may not own: the assemblage of objects that together are routinely put forward as constituting a desirable life style. In this poem objects are used randomly to suggest a life style without such material aspiration but with health and vitality at its roots and as its goal.
To be imprisoned within such a contemplative life is perhaps more an honour than a sentence; but we all need to feel ordinary human comfort and experience the reassurance of warmth and friendliness. No one can survive happily wrapped up in any kind of self absorption, be it that of an aspirational or contemplative life.
These are some of the ideas presented in this hypertext poem illustrated by four objects: a bamboo leaf, a peony leaf, an article from the Guardian and some bubble wrap. Are they recognised when looked at in close up, minute detail? Do they make any more sense when considered as a complete object? What symbolic association can be gleaned from the relationship of the objects? What ideas are linked automatically with each? And what light do these cast on the dichotomy of aspirational and contemplative life styles?
instructions: mouseovers and clicks are used to reveal linked text and graphics. they are not always obvious! relying more on the reader's interest, intelligence and instinct to establish the order, manifestation and exact presentation of the poem. this is the beauty of hypertext - it allows the fluid nature of the poetic mind to transmit the principal of imagination in flux to the reader, communicating more directly to the creative part of the reader's mind than is possible in a traditional black and white, text on paper poem. eight pages.
layer love
august 2004
layer love is a simple hypertext over three pages. It explores the ability of single words within the context of the multi-dimensional nature of hypertext, to become alive and adapt to meanings imagined by the reader when linked together under the dynamic principles of hypertext.
What then does this poem mean?
The idea is that its meanings are entirely personal, the actual words and numbers used are suggestive rather than determinative. This hints at a wider attitude of openness, lack of prejudice and freedom under the auspices of which the Internet was originally conceived.
instructions: click and drag individual words to change the pages.
excuse
august 2004
excuse is a love poem to an absent, invisible person, met or rather found, on the Internet.
The title excuse refers firstly to excuses made by the invisible person who is unsure whether reality is preferable to a romance of the mind and the merging of two imaginations. Secondly it is an apology, "excuse me" by the poet for accusing her most respected beloved of making any such excuses!
The concept explored is the relationship between a romantic ideal and the difficulties of realising or communicating this. Can love that flourishes in the realm of the imagination (and in hypertext presented on the Internet) be an ideal love?
It is a poem both of unconditional longing for a spiritual ideal and a conditional longing for this spiritual ideal to become real.
instructions: some of the links are deliberately
obscure and difficult to find, as the messages are secret, like those left
in the cleft of a tree. The secrecy of the links make obscure the connections
between the six pages of this hypertext poem. this imitates the instinctive
emotions that inspired this poem. The element of hypertext brings a reader
interactive element into the poetic reflection of the often hidden and discrete
aspect of nature herself and natural, spontaneous expression of deep emotion.
hard drive human
november 2004
In this poem ideas of courtly love as applied to a contemporary scenario are presented. This world we live in is not one of vulgarity, we experience and act upon subtle emotion perhaps in even finer detail than people did in the past.
The poet puts herself in the role of the medieval woman scholar writing to convince that women understand and embrace principals of honour and fidelity. In medieval times it was believed that women were absolutely at the mercy of their emotions and the influence of others.
The poem Hard Drive Human extrapolates the soul of a woman who knows herself and her emotions and understands the pressure they play in life, as in art. She knows how to cultivate the influence of her emotions through love to refine her intellect. Her emotions do not turn her into an irrational, gullible animal.
It is presented within window areas reminiscent of medieval stained glass. They have been created from a scanned hard drive to show one way the niceties and refining, spiritual qualities of emotion can be experienced, via the Internet, where the sensual faculties can be entirely excluded from the means communication. The word alone can suffice.
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patience fast/slow
august 2004
In the Poem Patience the comparative speed of the passing of time is explored. The obvious difference is fast and slow. There are many reasons why time sometimes flies by and at others it drags. The reasons explored here relate to family relationships: they can be liberating but they can also fix a person into a form (or psychological personality format) that is uncomfortable. As can a role in work; the supreme fictional example of this is Yossarian.
The flip of a coin can be decisive, the rule of chance can also breed obsession and addiction to gambling which can totally alter the perception of time. Love too plays strange games with linear time.
However hard we try to make time go in a straight line there is another part of self that would have it dance to a different rhythm.
Fear, another strong, primal emotion influences the passing of time. The scans of these beautiful watches are of my father's 1940s watches, bought while on active service in Europe in WWII. During action the soldiers would not sleep for five nights in a row.
Comments on the nature of human aggression and its expression in warfare are also discovered in the poem Patience Fast/Slow
Instructions: Slow section: individual words are on layers, drag these
to the middle of the watch to change the pages.
Fast section: some objects are on layers that can be dragged, mainly resulting in hidden messages. There are two subtly different pages in this section and a few pages with links in pop up menus.
