one bit poetry

ONE BIT POETRY is a public, interactive intervention. Connected to installed light modules in the building, a display visible from all sides becomes a matrix of letters above all the roofs of the capital. From dusk onwards, the public art project strings together visible sequences of letters that can be read as lyrical texts. The broadcast texts are visible in the original tweet length of a maximum of 140 words.

The „short texts“ of selected participants such as artists, writers, philosophers, scientists etc. from all over the UK will be broadcast. At nightfall, their texts (current thoughts, interjections, poems, quotes,…), some of which are of the day, will be visible through the public building. ONE-BIT POETRY is in the tradition of my previous participatory works in public spaces, such as the SOS POETRY in the „Museu de Arte“ in Rio de Janeiro. Here, ONE BIT POETRY also brings together a partly random audience and the artistic work in what can be an unmediated encounter at a prominent location in the urban space.

Drawing from a variety of genres, two participants per night in authorship (over a period of approximately 2 weeks = 28 authors) are invited to send their spontaneous or prepared „tweets“, which are received in an urban, analogue setting. Through the concept of broadcasting these texts in the form of continuous series of letters, ONE BIT POETRY demands curiosity, attention and time through this serial presentation of content. This demands a different quality of patience and attention from the recipients. A formally decelerated counter-design to the usual accelerated media reading.

The artistic work is a fusion of the oeuvres sculpture and text. The technology, the light, the architecture depict an apparently backward-looking form of expression that is closer to Morse code than to a ticker. The viewer’s inattention results in the message being sent becoming incomprehensible. As a counterpoint to an ever faster information speed, ONE BIT POETRY literally sends the content. A different, contemplative reception and an unfamiliar view of information becomes possible.