Morfill, S., Cavic, A., Michailidis, T., 2021.

I am not listening: the poem object as hybrid publication

I am not listening is an interactive artwork in which the interpretative spaces between the aural, visual and haptic are exposed and activated. A chain of translation processes begins with simple drawing gestures from which a "kit" of material lines is developed. The lines, translated into a material form (adhesive vinyl), are reconfigured as a poetic text or 'sculpture poem' that in turn provides the content of a spoken-word audio recording. The adhesive vinyl remnants left over in the process of developing the kit of lines provide a second translation, as their spherical sculptural form is interpreted into an object-interface - incorporating vibro-haptic technology - through which the audio recording can be manipulated. In this work, therefore, literature (as a translation of the drawn line) is mediated by technology. The inclusion of alternative sensory formats to support the listening/reading of a text both augments the experience of the audience and underlines its incompleteness within a chain of signification. I am not listening proposes the interactive "poem object" as a new form of publication, that aligns with the concept of post-digital hybrid publishing. The authors' aim to prioritise process over product and challenge the expectation that publication is necessarily associated with a state of fixedness.