Editorials
ETHERPOETRY – The new literary movement on the blockchain
Tuesday, July 13th 2021
Written by Nitika & Sasha Stiles
Welcome to Poetry 4.0–Blockchain-based poetry known as Etherpoetry – crypto’s first dedicated NFT literary platform.
THE METAVERSE — Etherpoems is a groundbreaking literary venture that first minted a series of curated NFT poems directly onto the Ethereum blockchain.
The first edition launched in June 2021 and sold out overnight. The much-anticipated release of the second collection is a multimedia compendium of meta-verse that redraws the boundaries of poetry, publishing, and art.
“Etherpoems 2: Spoken Word” is a curated crypto-anthology featuring 711 new media poems by 21 internationally-based Etherpoets. All works are one-of-a-kind collectible tokens—minted fully on-chain through a collective deployed smart contract.
Conceived by Artchick and created in collaboration with a diverse international group of multimedia writers, artists, creative technologists, and developers, Etherpoems empowers poets and builds community among literary-minded creatives in the crypto space.
Starting with Artchick’s deliberate Twitter provocation—“It’s time for poets to get rich”—the project spotlights visionary text-based work in an area dominated by graphic crypto-collectibles and challenges the age-old paradigm of writers failing to be adequately compensated for their contributions to culture.
Leveraging cutting-edge technology in both the creative process and the back-end, and infused with poetic soul and the spirit of artistic innovation, Etherpoems represent an exciting new chapter in literature.As a collectively deployed contract, all proceeds from claimed Etherpoems and royalties from secondary sales are split among contributors trustlessly through blockchain technology—a revolutionary publishing model.
“Etherpoems 2: Spoken Word” presents media-rich poems that involve video, audio, and other multi-dimensional elements that go beyond the printed page. Exploring a wide range of themes and reflecting the unique styles and interests of the twenty-one Etherpoets, from spoken word to conceptual experiments to transhuman collaborations with natural language processing AI, these pieces evolve humanity’s fundamental technology—poetry—for the present and future audiences.
Part group show, part literary anthology, part technological innovation, Etherpoems cracks open the vast potential of the blockchain to both inspire and empower fresh approaches to language and is an entirely new way to create, publish, experience, and value literature.
***
Etherpoets
- Breanna Faye (Twitter: @_breannafaye)
They feature themes and visual art techniques compiled in multimedia video and audio, featuring animated paintings, raw spoken word, and custom-produced music.
- Margaret Corvid (Twitter: @MargaretLabour)
A mesmerizing mix between typography, animation, and real-life footage.
- Artemis Wylde (Twitter: @Artemis_Wylde)
Metaphysical, intimate poems rendered as captivating looped videos in the poet’s whispering voice.
- Poetic Artificial Intelligence / PAI (Twitter: @nfteye)
Mesmerizing wisdom from PAI, rendered in poetic motions and sound.
- Quill Drop (Twitter: @quill_drop)
Profound messages accompanied by unearthly visuals and music.
- Merzmensch Kosmopol (Twitter: @Merzmensch)
AI-powered poems that use GPT-2 trained on Avant-garde, English Historical Poetry, and other literary magazines and sources to explore human-machine collaboration.
He also writes about Etherpoems here.
- John Poch (Twitter: @jpoch)
Clever, poetic meme play with a metafictional perspective on our fictional reality.
- Kalen Iwamoto (Twitter: @KalenIwamoto)
Iwamoto’s Metaverse project cleverly combines Futurism, Dadaism, Fluxus, Postmodern, and more in a reimagining of various schools of poetry as they would exist in the metaverse.
- Sasha Stiles (Twitter: @sashastiles)
“Proof of Poetry: Ethereum Epic” is a cycle of 30 transhuman poetries that consider poetry’s role as humanity’s original blockchain. Co-written by Stiles, an award-winning artist, poet, and AI poet alter ego, Technelegy, with custom sound design by renowned music producer Kris Bones. Sashastiles.com
- Roxanne Darling (Twitter: @roxannedarling)
Hypnotic visual poems about being human, about self-reflection, and about being part of this
World.
- Ana Maria Caballero (Twitter: @theDSnotebook)
Poems accompanied by minimalist and Constructivist illustrative animations from an
award-winning author.
- Haley (Twitter: @dearesthaley)
Surprising and funny “first-person” poems present the narrator’s view, using visual and textual support.
- Louie C Rhymes (Twitter: @LouieCRhymes)
Powerfully voiced by Mysterious Louie, whose face is hidden behind an AR-mask, reciting
blade-sharp texts.
- Encapsuled (Twitter: @encapsuled_)
“People,” a collection of 33 poem-monologues representing diverse characters and truths.
- AnotherAnon (Twitter: @notanothernft)
Playing with stereotypes and zeitgeist, scrutinizing the NFT scene. Highly pixelated
“collectible”-alike “punk”-Esque characters ask, “what happens if I want to be fungible” and are seeking the autonomy of the author, viewer, and collector.
- A. L. Crego (Twitter: @ALCrego_)
Concrete poetry in motion, in cineast neo-post-retro style.
- Tengushee (Twitter: @Tengushee)
Dynamic visuals reminiscent of the Rayographs by Man Ray, surreal text about fears, hopes,
Desires.
- KZA (Twitter: @kzathe)
Concrete poetry that continually slips and distorts, inviting the viewer to read and decode them. An eternal suffocation.
- Nicci Attfield (Twitter: @at_thedam)
Poems about the past and its entanglement with the present, history, and every day.
- W.A.S. (Twitter: @Writing1thing)
Short, smart poems-animations that invite multiple readings and deeper digging.
- Digipedia (Twitter: @d3t3)
Fresh, philosophical reflections that fuse the authors’ voice with classical music accompaniment.
***
This month’s content is sponsored by…
MetaCast Group connects companies with creators in the NFT industry through a network of industry-specific platforms that have passionate audiences of NFT and metaverse enthusiasts. Hear or see your ad on platforms, just like this, to amplify your reach, connect with your target audience, promote your project, and convert views into action. Take the first step towards broadcasting your message across the metaverse by contacting www.metacastgroup.com and following them on Twitter.