[spectre] Turbulence Spotlight: "Logozoa" by Robert Kendal

[Turbulence]

May 21, 2006
Turbulence Spotlight: "Logozoa" by Robert Kendall
http://turbulence.org/spotlight/kendall/index.htm

Words change everything. We create poems and stories to free the world from
itself, to reveal the many feral faces of life. But ironically these
liberating words are usually imprisoned on the page or computer screen. Out
in the "real" world of day-to-day activity, we use words more crassly. We
put labels and signs on things to tame them-identify, categorize, explain,
instruct, proclaim ownership. What if instead the labels could liberate the
everyday world from the literal, proclaim rather than cover up the
mysteries? What if they could become Logozoa-textual organisms that infest
the literal with metaphor and give impetuous life and breath to meaning?

Lo.go.zo.a n [fr. Gk logos word + zoia animals] (2005) 1 : word animals:
textual organisms 2 : a phylum or subkingdom of linguistic entities that are
represented in almost every kind of habitat and include aphorisms,
anti-aphorisms, maxims, minims, neokoans, sayings, left-unsaids,
proverbialisms, poemlets, microtales, instant fables, and other varieties of
conceptual riffs

Find out what happens when you let word animals roam your daily life.
Download Logozoa, print them onto your own stickers, and let them loose in
your home or neighborhood. Visit the Logozoo to see photos of Logozoa in
their natural habitat. To help ensure that these unique creatures do not go
the way of so many once-endangered, now-extinct species, photograph your
Logozoa and send them to the Logozoo. Explore the Soothcircuit, a unique
colony of Logozoa that responds to your questions with insights and
prognostications.

BIOGRAPHY

Robert Kendall has been writing electronic poetry since 1990. He is the
author of the book-length hypertext poem "A Life Set for Two" (Eastgate
Systems) and other electronic works published at BBC Online, Iowa Review
Web, Cortland Review, Eastgate Hypertext Reading Room, Cauldron & Net, and
other Web sites. His electronic poetry has been exhibited at many venues in
the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, and he has
given interactive readings of his work in many cities. Kendal's printed book
of poetry, "A Wandering City," was awarded the Cleveland State University
Poetry Center Prize, and he has received a New Jersey State Council on the
Arts Fellowship, a New Forms Regional Grant, and other awards. He has taught
electronic poetry and fiction for the New School University's online program
since 1995. Kendall runs the literary Web site "Word Circuits" and the ELO's
"Electronic Literature Directory," and is co-developer of "Word Circuits
Connection Muse," a hypertext tool for poets and fiction writers. He has
written many articles about electronic literature for national publications,
such as Poets & Writers Magazine, and he lectures frequently on the topic.

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