In March I exhibited an interactive poetry-object titled ‘Poem Under Construction’ as part of the annual Hadau Exhibition. The theme of this year’s exhibition was ‘Is it Finished?’ and my piece responds to this theme in a literal sense: the artwork requires audience interaction in order to become ‘finished’. It invites viewers to add words, phrases or drawings, and to place these inside the collaged crate. Once the exhibition came to an end, I typed up all of the contributions, and have now formed these into a collage-poem which you can listen to below…

It is a fascinating, risky, and nerve-wracking process to invite contributions from viewers, impossible to predict what the outcome might be. Some threads of connection did emerge, particularly in relation to the ‘Is it finished?’ theme of the exhibition. The fact that the exhibition took place in a building which is used both as a café, arts venue and an active church, meant that contributions varied considerably, moving from the everyday to the spiritual, to the creative, and back again. And this makes for quite an unusual and interesting mix.

The process of fitting these words and phrases into a poem was not an easy one. I typed up all of the contributions and then began to fit them together like a jigsaw. I picked out a first line, and an ending, and then gradually filled in the space in the middle, creating links based on sound, logic and sense.

I felt a strong sense of responsibility to try and use all of the words and phrases if I possibly could, and to try and avoid altering them, or altering their intended meaning. Though, of course, in many cases, there is no way of knowing what the intended meaning may have been. I have added a few filler words, to create links between sections of the poem, and there are one or two grammatical adjustments, but the majority of the text is taken directly from the contributions of viewers.

One of the problems I encountered was unexpected. There were two lines (one about a giant, and one about a tea-cosy) that felt so strong by themselves, and so specific, that I struggled to find a way of fitting them into the poem. So, in the end, I used these two very strong lines to form the structure of a second text: a short children’s bedtime story: ‘The Giant Giant bakes a Giant Pie’. This allowed me to transfer some of the words and phrases from the poem to the story, making the poem feel less overly long, while still making use of all of the contributions.

Listen to the poem here….

Another surprise was that one person contributed a physical object to the crate, in the form of a pearl. It felt like such a strong metaphor for the fact that something precious or valuable can emerge from a cacophony of words and competing voices, that I had to use it as my final line. It fitted perfectly with another contribution: the unfinished phrase ‘I love it when’, and you can see/hear the result here. If you click on the ‘description’ you can also see a transcript of the poem, and the short story text.

I have titled the poem ‘Poem Under Construction No. 1’ to emphasise the fact that this could be the first of many. The crate may well be exhibited again in a different context, and could result in a whole series of poems! (and maybe another children’s story…)

For those who are interested: this project builds on my previous work with interactive and intermedial ekphrasis as part of my PhD.