My interest in Brazilian poetry started with Concrete poetry. In general my poetry interest is in digital poetry. The Concrete movement from the 60s in Sao Paulo in many ways anticipates writing in the digital age. My aim is to see what the poetry being created today in Brazil looks like and in which ways it can be considered digital. Through out my research I will also try to understand what influenced the concrete poets to treat text as image and color and sound more seriously than ever before and why this marriage between poetry and art is just now beginning to happen in the United States. My research will also attempt to identify the differences between the poetry created in the various cities of Brazil. The Neo Concrete movement for example started in Rio because the city demanded that the aesthetic of the poetry and art from the rigid, grid-like, organized, static architecture of Sao Paulo and recognize the more fluid, organic, leaking, colorful, flowing bouyant structure of Rio. The poets and artists tried to make the shapes and letters move, in flux.
Word, language, writing Observations:
****Week 1:
Eduardo’s room is full of stickers. The walls, the door, the cabinets are covered with the words of surfing, skateboard and clothing brand logo stickers. Most of them are US brands. Some names are in English others are words created especially for the company.
Other words that line the home are those on electronics. The refrigerator is Electrolux, the cellphone is Samsung. I brought a laptop and a Furby for the family from the US. I helped them download the Portuguese language version of the computers software. The Furby still speaks in English but has learned a word or two in Portuguese. The furby is a work of interactive digital poetry.
Many of the children’s favorite songs are in English. Most of the lyrics they do not understand. They sing and enjoy the songs very much. Milly (Camilly), 7, sings along with headphones. It sounds funny. It sounds like sound poetry.
The father speaks English. A few words. He learned them from watching television. He and Eduardo want to learn English. On the television you can switch the language spoken in English TV shows and movies between English or dubbed Portuguese.