These two poems are from an evolving ecopoetry project currently entitled, An Act for the True Melting which explores how we are part of larger systems (our culture, the environment, literature) and as such must navigate the relation between data signal and noise. We are surrounded by related and unrelated information, by interference and distraction but also by stimuli that connect through something like quantum entanglement. To me our ability to negotiate information and experience—to filter and sort, to attend and ignore—is an integral part of contemporary life and of the physical and lyric world. Of Writing and consciousness. All of the poems in the project are filled with the signal/noise of connection. The process of parsing our experience involves considering which connections are meaningful, which are noise, which are significant yet belong to a parallel stream.
Each poem is made of multiple streams of information, both textual and visual, woven together into a single complex entity.
Gary Barwin is a writer, multimedia artist, performer and musician and the author of 32 books including the just released Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984 (Assembly Press) and, with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts, Muttertongue (Exile Editions). He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com