POSTPONED TO AUTUMN 23: Poetry in the Digital Age

Based on current discussions in media studies and interdisciplinary literary theories, the research project examines how poetic works circulate in various media. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube take on key functions in this context, as they present, document, and distribute poetry as well as poetry performances (readings, live performances, etc.). The concepts of format and interface will serve as methodological starting points for exploring these new media constellations of contemporary poetry. A format is generally understood as something that is agreed upon and standardized by the media industry and designed to make it easier to distribute works. According to Jonathan Sterne, however, formats also include a model of the recipients. Even more important is the question of what influence formatting has on how recipients aesthetically perceive poems and their performances: What do (re)encodings and file compressions mean for a genre like poetry, which deals strongly with the materiality of written and spoken language, and in whose performances corporeality, particularly that of the voice, plays an important role? Is it smoothed out by making technical adjustments (such as post-processing/the removal of sound variations and noise) – or does some material or corporeal resistance remain? For example, do these disturbances perhaps even have specific functions, especially with regard to authenticity effects?