The Experimental Turn

From 2012 to 2017, I Collaborated with the Visualization Scientists Miriah Meyer and Nina Mccurdy and the Poet Julie Gonnering Lein to develop Poemage, a computational tool that identifies and visualizes complex sonic relationships in poems. The scientists sought problems that would allow them to develop breakthrough computational strategies, frameworks, or paradigms. Lein and I, the poets, realizing that much digital humanities research at the time was driven by technology and the desire to extract data from texts, remained committed to engaging the qualitative, aesthetic, close-reading experience that is central to our work.