Following our call out for innovative digital literature proposals, we are delighted to introduce the four creative teams that have been selected for commission: Mahboobeh Rajabi, Lerah Mae Barcenilla & Dinesh Pun and, Maya Chowdhry & Kooj Chuhan.

 

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1. Bringing Poetry into Code Generation – Mahboobeh Rajabi

A unique poetry sharing digital platform. The project will make the poems accessible to local people by using QR codes that will connect them to poets in Manchester. It will also create a wider network of poets and writers, by connecting them online and encouraging them to distribute their work digitally. All of the poetry will be using the hashtag #MCRPoetryCode to create links between locations, poems and different social media platforms. This sharing method will present an opportunity for poets to share their writing on a wider scale with a digital audience built from those who live in or pass through Manchester. It will also generate a space for conversations around themes in the work and to receive peer feedback. Bringing Poetry into Code Generation will create a space from poets and the general public to be connected and share their passion for poetry.

 

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2. Erebus and Aether: Twin Cities – Lerah Mae Barcenilla and Dinesh Pun

Erebus and Aether: Twin Cities is a visual novel (a narrative style gaming) where the storyline and endings are affected by the choices made by the player at certain points in the game. This world is divided into the City of Light, Aether, and the City of Darkness, Erebus. Players have the choice to explore either one, and depending on their choice, they will follow a certain story arc, and meet one of the four characters (Tala, Lalice, Kai or Cas) from either city. All story arcs intersect of course, and perhaps, along the way, they may just discover that both cities, despite their stark differences, share the same history… Maybe there used to be a time when both cities were one.

 

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3. Heritage Carrot – Maya Chowdhry and Kooj Chuhan

‘Heritage Carrot’ is a site-specific AR poem which takes place at Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester, and uses the audience’s own smartphone combined with a free app, Zappar, to navigate and view the poem. The augmented layers are activated using a trackable ‘Zappar’ code attached to a plant label and positioned next to the carrot plants, thus the actual plant is augmented via content on the audience’s smartphone. The poem is explored through a series of audio visual sequences that the audience interact with through the screen of their smartphone. Rather than a visual interpretation of poetic language, or an illustration of the poem, the experience will take the audience through the layers of the poem, for example, an animated sequence of a seed dispersed through time, transforming in the earth it finds in each new country. The poem will use the metaphor of digging in allowing the audience to both interact with the poem and their surroundings.

 

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