[S.R. Little Stone]

Does anyone have thoughts on how poetry might take shape in the realms of Virtual Reality? I've been contemplating VR/AR lately and feel like broad adoption of the technology might precipitate a golden age of poetry. I would argue that literature is essentially a form of virtual reality that uses the reader's imagination as the simulation software. Now our species is developing machines that can serve as an external, prosthetic imagination. Aside from debate about whether VR/AR is "good" or "beneficial," I'd like to consider how poets might make the most of the medium.

Here's a link to a VR adaptation of Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnHDPhwqVGQ

My initial thoughts:

1. Imagistic Fluidity: VR will allow authors to convey their thoughts with enhanced fluidity, as images and phenomena that may be unfamiliar to readers may be partially suggested/conveyed through VR representations. (Application: we can be a little more daring in our leaps of imagery and association, because VR will provide a backdrop to offer audiences context.)
2. Rhetorical Devices: Some rhetorical devices will become more valuable and others less. In a similar vein as Ezra Pound's Imagist Manifesto, in which Pound emphasized the value of concrete imagery as a universally resonant aspect of poetic expression (i.e it carries over even in translation across languages, whereas form and context do not always), I think accessible imagery will prove most effective in VR. Cultural context will likely become less valuable, as audiences will be coming from and exploring such broad ranges of content that there will not be enough overlap of experiences to form what can be meaningfully called culture. (Application: Phenomena will take priority, with an emphasis on stimuli that provide immediate gratification.)
3. Liberated POV: It seems from initial research that VR will allow users to explore foreign and even "impossible" points of view, such as the POV of a tree in a rainforest or a shared POV of multiple users co-piloting one character. Maybe the user can become an entire field, as in John Clare's "The Lament of Swordy Well." Sounds kinda scary, but also sounds like an opportunity to explore new realms of sense and meaning. (Application: Authors can convey unconventional POV's more convincingly and perhaps even skip between POV's e.g. Human --> Ant --> Human.)
4. Prioritization of VR senses of sight, sound, and touch/motion. Smell and taste aren't yet part of the VR palette. (Application: Description of smell and taste images may be a good opportunity to break the 4th wall and address the audience e.g. "Oh, beloved stranger, if only you could taste these ripe raspberries and know that they are real!")
5. Speaker as guide/commentator: A speaker may accompany a VR user through a digital world and provide commentary, as a sports commentator enhances the audience's experiences of a sporting event by providing context and guiding the audience's attention. May even be a source of tension, as an unreliable speaker could skew/lie about the description of a scene for dramatic effect.


I'm most interested in the kinds of phenomena and special effects that could be evoked in VR (such as the notion of traversing different points of view or scales of view). I'd be interested in hearing any other thoughts/insights about combining poetry and VR that you might have!

-LS

[Max Goodman]

Some fascinating speculations, Little Stone.

I'm not sure there's any reason to think that VR will change poetry any more than film has. Some poetry is influenced by film, but not, I think, much of it or in a genre-shaking way. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

Originally Posted by S.R. Little Stone

literature is essentially a form of virtual reality that uses the reader's imagination as the simulation software.

Yes. Literature, film, and VR are ways of communicating experiences and ideas. From a writer's (rather than a techie's) perspective, VR's big innovation, it seems to me, is the choose-your-own-route aspect, which some literature (usually for kids) has tried.

Originally Posted by S.R. Little Stone

we can be a little more daring in our leaps of imagery and association, because VR will provide a backdrop to offer audiences context.)

It's been possible for a long time to supplement literature with images. I think it's generally considered that relying on that, rather than supplying it through words, weakens the writing. Is there reason to think this will be different with VR?

Originally Posted by S.R. Little Stone

Cultural context will likely become less valuable, as audiences will be coming from and exploring such broad ranges of content that there will not be enough overlap of experiences to form what can be meaningfully called culture.

Is the assumption here that people will stop living in the real world? I don't see how VR will bring about the end of culture. I must be misunderstanding what you mean.

Thanks for provoking me to think about this.

[S.R. Little Stone]

Originally Posted by Max Goodman

Yes. Literature, film, and VR are ways of communicating experiences and ideas. From a writer's (rather than a techie's) perspective, VR's big innovation, it seems to me, is the choose-your-own-route aspect, which some literature (usually for kids) has tried.

I think for most audiences, the experience of using VR will bear greater semblance to a dream or vision (or maybe hypnosis) than literature or film, in that users will have less ability to retain disbelief (in the sense of the "willing suspension of disbelief" that Coleridge credited as a prerequisite for the success of literary fantasy) when engaged with the medium. I think VR tricks users' brains into thinking representations are reality by entrancing users in ways that go beyond the capacity of most poetry and film.

Originally Posted by Max Goodman

It's been possible for a long time to supplement literature with images. I think it's generally considered that relying on that, rather than supplying it through words, weakens the writing. Is there reason to think this will be different with VR?

And yet, I know many more "average readers" who adore and celebrate Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss than Robert Frost or Walt Whitman. Add a musical artist like Taylor Swift into the running and it seems hard to argue that additional layers of media weaken poetry, in the sense of critical reception at least. Greek marbles were adorned with garish paint and classical lyrics with lyre tunes. Shakespeare's plays were performed by costumed actors on decorated stages and his lyrics sung out.

When we write, our words are like shadows of the visions that inspire them. It seems like VR may provide audiences with an opportunity to believe they're experiencing the flashes of inspiration that give rise to poetry, in ways that few (though certainly some) readers are able to attain.

Originally Posted by Max Goodman

Is the assumption here that people will stop living in the real world? I don't see how VR will bring about the end of culture. I must be misunderstanding what you mean.

I think our relationships have been growing less and less direct and local since we started engaging with media (whether smoke signals, written word, telephone, or skype). Correspondingly, I think our "culture" has become more diffuse and commodified with the advent of mass media and delocalization of goods to the extent that nearly all cultural identifiers have become inseparable from "mainstream" cultural expressions (e.g. language, food, water, labor, education, art, faith...). I think AR/VR will only continue to break down the supposed cultural barriers that people use to identify themselves. I think we will continue living in the "real world" (which has already been vastly supplanted with projections/advertisements that we call the "built environment") but will engage with it less and less, in favor of the immediate and customized gratifications offered by AR/VR.

I don't see my interpretation of the trajectory of human consciousness as a good thing. I'd like to use poetry to intervene and spark resistance to our apparent descent into complacency and compliance.

[Julie Steiner]

The experience of creating a VR interpretation of a poem would be a far, far more enjoyable way of engaging with the poem than the experience of checking out a VR that someone else made.

I watched about half of the "Stopping By Woods" VR, marveling that a 12-line poem that is so simple and evocative could be turned into such a long, gray, lifeless ordeal.

It wasn't just that the graphics could be much improved, although they certainly did leave a lot to be desired. (For example, the pictured "woods" are actually more like an orchard of identical trees, evenly spaced and with no undergrowth or signs of other life. Not the sort of place that would leave me so gobsmacked by its loveliness that I would interrupt my journey to spend time in it, but I was forced to do so by the VR scenario.)

But even if the graphics and sound were as lifelike as the holodeck on the Starship Enterprise, I wouldn't count on this sort of presentation winning new fans for poetry. Poetry and VR just seem like inherently different art forms.

Once a poem is written and offered to an audience, it becomes the unique, firsthand experience of the audience, and is open to multiple interpretations.

Virtual reality, in contrast, continues to attempt to control almost every aspect of the audience's experience of an environment, within certain defined parameters. Specific sensory input is given under the careful curation of the person who designed that experience. That can't help but limit the kinds of meaning that are allowed to happen.

Even if certain details were deliberately left up to the reader--for example, if the reader could choose deciduous or evergreen trees or a mix, or could choose what color "my little horse" is--that freedom of choice would still give undue importance to details that really have no importance in the poem, and which can only distract from the emotions.

Modern update:

[Eratosphere-guidelines non-compliant, General Talk-posted original poem deleted. I don't want to set a bad example for new members and get them in trouble. But Jim quoted it below. I'd change the third line to "He will not see me-- Whoops! Oh, dear."]

[Jim Moonan]

.
Julie: Whose woods these are, I think I know.
His house is in the village, though.
He will not see me...wait, a lens.
Surveillance camera. Guess I'll go.

That is good! (I, too, couldn't get very far with the" Stopping By the Woods" VR)


Quickly (I haven't much time), I do think there is a future for poetry to join with visual arts. Performing arts also.

Here’s a Ted Talk by Billy Collins in which he presents three of his poems in collaboration with a graphic artist to produce visual poetry. (Most people here seem lukewarm to Billy Collins’ poetry, though I think he is a very skilled free verse poet.)

Anyway, I think the more arts can crossover/merge/meld/mutate with each other the better. Spawned Art.

But pure poetry on the page is magic.

I’d like to see poets collaborate with theatre people. There must be a stage for words. Yes? Director! Script! Scenery! Costumes!
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[Martin Elster]

Here is a poem that was inspired by virtual reality. The epigraph goes like this:

It’s not just humans who can benefit from VR. Moscow-area farmers strapped modified VR headsets to cows to see if it improved their mood—and, of course, their milk production. —Engadget

https://www.lightenup-online.co.uk/i...oving-the-cows

[Kevin Rainbow]

Absolutely. Who wouldn't want to use expensive gadgets to do things their own imagination can do for free? It would be ideal to make the experience of a poem resemble a movie or music video or a video game. This will save us from the pain of having to continue to experience poetry as just poetry itself.

Obviously sarcasm. No offense.

Honestly, people are already so immersed in gadgets and visual stimulation accompanying almost everything, seeing these things in such a state of excess and influencing people like a drug-addition, it is hard to imagine even more movement in their direction, instead of less, would be better.
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[Aaron Novick]

It seems strange to me to speak of VR "precipitat[ing] a golden age of poetry" when poetry is already easily the most popular art form on the planet (in the form of hip-hop, of course). (Nor does the poetry of today strike me as especially degenerate, though of course it is difficult to get the requisite distance from one's own time.)

Better, I think to ask about the potential of VR as a distinct artistic medium. Artists of all kinds use the techniques at their disposal to manipulate their audience's senses; as VR comes into its own, it will no doubt be exploited to these same ends. This may involve the integration of poetry (as films have integrated with poetry, and music, and painting, etc.), but needn't. So, again, I think it's the wrong question to ask about it as it specifically relates to poetry.

The small-minded and timid will, of course, fear this (and will express this fear as unconsidered dismissal); such may, as always, be ignored.

I confess a certain old-fashioned fondness for the direct encounter with words alone, unmediated by anything beyond the reader's mind and ambient environment. But I would hate to be so foolish as to mistake this preference for a guiding law.

[S.R. Little Stone]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

But even if the graphics and sound were as lifelike as the holodeck on the Starship Enterprise, I wouldn't count on this sort of presentation winning new fans for poetry. Poetry and VR just seem like inherently different art forms.

Once a poem is written and offered to an audience, it becomes the unique, firsthand experience of the audience, and is open to multiple interpretations.

Virtual reality, in contrast, continues to attempt to control almost every aspect of the audience's experience of an environment, within certain defined parameters.

Kevin expressed similar feelings in his response. I am not personally "looking forward to" or "in favor of" what I see as a descent into a more passive and addiction-based consumption of more dissociative and oversaturated media. I'm especially wary of the potential for users/consumers to be increasingly monitored, censored, and psychologically manipulated by the service providers (and their stakeholders) of social media platforms. Nevertheless, I do see mainstream consumption habits leaning in that direction and want to address that trend as head-on as possible.

To me, the written word was already a departure from a "purer" form of poetic expression through the oral tradition. Some parts of normative grammar (such as articles, possessives, past and future verb tenses, and the verb "to be") also seem like symptoms and catalysts of a "fall from sense" that I think humans instilled in our collective consciousness long before we started using hieroglyphics and alphabet systems.

I think VR experiences will become exponentially more "life-like" and addiction-forming within the next 20 years. I think the experiences will be more beloved than music videos are now. What if there's a way to ride that wave and turn the tides? Could Whitman have changed the course of pop music if he'd applied himself in that arena? He was definitely capable of writing catchy, rhyming lyrics, like "O Captain! My Captain!".

Jim and Aaron, Glad to see a little bit more openness to the idea that multimedia arts aren't necessarily lower or adulterated. I've heard some great lyrics and turns-of-phrase across the spectrum of pop music. I remember seeing one of Billy Collins' illustrated poems years ago, when I was still a young teenager. I personally gained a greater appreciation of his work through that experience (though I'm still not a big fan), and can still remember some of the visuals of mice running through the walls of the house and striking matches.

Martin, thank you for sharing your Cow VR poem! I sent you a pm about it already, but wanted to say that I think it is a fun and pertinent contribution to this conversation

-LS

[Aaron Novick]

There's a certain class of poet that I'll never be able to really enjoy, no matter how good some of their poems are, and Billy Collins falls into that class.

That class is, of course, poets (≠ Emily Dickinson herself) who for some godforsaken reason felt it would be a good idea to write a poem involving Emily Dickinson's sex life.