214 contemporary poetry
once activated by a pointer, trigger different images and sounds in
varying combinations. As the poets explain:
In this process the experience of remembering and loss of
memory can be re-created in the appearance and disappear-
ance of words, pictures, animations and sounds. Memories
(readable with a general metaphorical meaning) are unveiled
and veiled in transition at the same time, arranged by or using
your own memory.^20The network of materials created by the random patterning of
dots in this electronic text is not dissimilar to the pulsating of
synaptic ends. An initial quotation ‘guides’ the exploratory text:
‘Just a whisper at least of the persistence of this memory, this
forgetfulness.’^ This linking of reminiscence with forgetfulness is
an overarching momentum of the work. We are shown images of
interiors to houses we cannot quite navigate, seascapes which fade
and words which appear, shift and refuse to be captured. An image
of sunrise has a loop of recurring text upon it: ‘a sunrise is a sunrise
is sunrise’.^ Another click on a dot leads to a blurred image of a
passing train with a successive display of words: ‘pass by / passed
by / past’.^ The possibility of simultaneously accessing and viewing
these images and words makes for a densely textured interactive
poem. These processes of encountering memories reinforce the
complexities of mnemonic patterns which guide life histories. As
the text itself asks, ‘we build our history thru the experience of our
life / do we lose our history when we lose our memory?’
ELECTRONIC EXPERIMENTATION AND LANGUAGE:
PETER FINCH AND TREVOR JOYCE
Poets whose work is read in conventional print format often engage
with electronic media as a way of enquiry, experimentation with
form, and collaboration. Peter Finch’s poetry is engaged with an
inventive rewriting of the Welsh cultural landscape. There is often
something distinctly uncanny about the spaces that his poetry
creates. Psychoanalytically, this sense of cultural defamiliarisation