A HAND WITH MYRIAD DIGITS

Once the project A Hand With Myriad Digits involved the use of the computer in both the generation of (computer) poems and the presentation of texts in general, such as 40-character-wide short notes. Later it was confined (again) to 'Motion Poems', a computer poetry program. Originally written in (GW-)BASIC, this interactive program for generating 'motion poems' was (partially) translated into TURBO PASCAL and further improved. Poems move across the screen as they are being produced, with or without interaction of the reader. At this place you can only link to motion poems that were already generated on a computer elsewhere. They are presented here in a trailer or as stills.

MOTION POEMS IN TRAILERS

This site offers two motion poems which can be made to move across the screen in a trailer:

• A Finger of Value
  -- a motion poem with ideals that matter
• The Middle Finger
  -- a motion poem about the new paradigm

MOTION POEM STILLS

A motion poem still is a static representation of a motion poem on a screen or on paper. Motion poems can be distinguished from one another by the set of specific data they make use of. A still is complete if all the data of such a 'database' occur in it. But every part of such a complete still is a (partial) still in itself, certainly when it corresponds with a whole 'canto', as the subdivision of a motion poem is called.

You can see and read the complete stills of the following five motion poems:

1. Digits Dull, My Foot!
   -- computer poetry with a digital diction
2. Five Fingers Grasping The Earth
   -- a poem about the natural environment
3. A Finger of Value
   -- a motion poem with ideals that matter
4. The Middle Finger
   -- a motion poem about the new paradigm
5. A Finger of Flesh and Blood
   -- a computer poem about erotic drives