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ABOUT TWOLT

A Digital Writing Exhibition
author01 about video/image/text

New Directions in Digital Writing

How is this work literary?
author02 Background video/image/text

The Trajectory Cabinet

Interactive Digital/Robotic Poem
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Touch Screen Poetry

The Poetics of QLD Architecture
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MicroFilm Digital Writing

Cabinets for Narrative/Poetic Video
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Interactive Wall Fiction

The Spanish Swindle
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The Wonders of Lost Trajectories

About: A Digital Writing Exhibition


Video: Overview of the digital writing exhibition

During a digital writing arts residency at the Queensland State Archives, my project was to create an exhibition of interactive and screen based digital writing works (poetry, fiction, interactive texts) inspired by or directly informed from materials in the state archives.
The Trajectory Cabinet

The result of the residency was an exhibition that contained 7 different works of digital writing, each specifically designed for their display space. And most of these works re-used old library archive equipment, such as a card catalogue cabinet, microfilm readers or old work tables, transforming them into vehicles and interfaces for digital fiction and poetry. As the work was designed for and displayed in a physical space, this website is documents and discusses those works.
Interactive Writing using Physical Interfaces

Background and Literary(ness)


Video: How is this work literary?

Collecting and preserving all the documents produced by a society is a giant endeavour. Giant climate-controlled warehouses are filled with shelf after shelf, isle after isle of boxes and papers and books and letters and official decisions and unofficial directions.
The Trajectory Cabinet

An initial glance might result in disinterest. Why, after all, would an artist be interested in ledgers from the 1800s, or letters about changing land lines in the remote wilds, or the thousands (or millions) of other minor and major government decisions? Unless one has a very specific request, the idea of wading into this deep ocean archive is intimidating.

Yet, that is exactly what I did. And after diving into box after box, file after file, I discovered something inspiring, something that reached my artistic heart. Within most every paper, every decision or collection were signs of alternative histories, evidence of narratives and trajectories unexplored. Imagine a government official deciding on the location of a bridge. The paperwork for the decision is collaged with hand-written questions, doodles, mysterious phrases, unknown names and numbers.

And as I explored further these notes and seemingly unrelated writings and ephemera, became the start of new narrative, poetic engagements. They truly, and in a powerful way, gave life to the documents, and in turn the archive itself. The QLD State Archives is a place of alternative narratives, of secret trajectories, poetic asides that make even the most minor decision move towards beautiful.
The Trajectory Cabinet

As a digital artist and creative writer I wanted to reveal some of these poetic wonders I’ve found, these evidences of error and random thought. To do this I’ve created a series of interactive and video-based artworks. Additionally, I found a lost storeroom filled with dusty machines. For over half a century, Card Catalogues, MicroFilm Readers, Research Tables were the primary interface for us to discover these stories, to find these unknown and poetic trajectories.

And so we saved those machines, transformed them into interactive artworks, rebuilt them into fresh and exciting new ways to explore the lost mysteries of the QLD State Archives.

Go play and explore. Find your own secrets.

The Trajectory Cabinet


Video: About the Trajectory Cabinet?

Link to online version: PLAY/READ?EXPLORE THE TRAJECTORY CABINET

The Trajectory Cabinet transforms the 32 drawers of a library card catalogue into an interactive artwork. Pulling the drawers open and pushing them closed is how the work is read. And each drawer connects to a place on a map of Brisbane, triggering poetic elements. Overall, the Trajectory Cabinet tells the story of environmental destruction and consequences in Brisbane Australia.
The Trajectory Cabinet

In 2011 floods destroyed wide areas of the city, most due to developers capitalising on a "hot" property market and thus creating developments in flood plains and destroying natural waterways. The Trajectory Cabinet also invokes the physical and the idea that a digital poem can exist both on the screen and a physical object. It allows the reader to feel the movement of the poem and create their own combinations by the drawers they choose to open.
The Trajectory Cabinet

There are 32 drawers total, each with their own poetic/artwork element. And there are 10 hidden artworks, generated by secret combinations of drawers.

The Poetic Touch of QLD Architecture

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Video: The Poetic Touch of QLD Architecture

The Queensland State Archives is an odd place, filled with the wonders and oddities and detritus of government and society, aged over a few hundred years. Within those shelves and boxes is the poetry or architecture and the symbology of signage and advertising. My goal was to create a responsive digital poem allowing for the exploration of those odd texts that accompany our built environment.
Touch Screen Poetry

Microfilm Cabinet Poetry Theater

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Video: Microfilm Cabinet Poetry Part One of Two

After exploring the Queensland State Archive's basements and secret warehouse rooms I found some disused MicroFilm Projection Cabinets. After retro-fitting them for small handheld projectors, I created two video poems (which can be found here: LINK== Video Poetry for MicroFilm Cabinets ==LINK

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Video: Microfilm Cabinet Poetry Part Two of Two

Touch Screen Poetry

The Spanish Swindle

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Video: Interactive Wall Poetry

Touch Screen Poetry