This animation by Elliot M. Smith operates directly on the text of a poem by Charles Bukowski. I’d never read the Bukowski poem before seeing Mr. Smith’s stunning adaptation of the original and, now, I’d probably not recognize the original if it leapt off the bookshelf and slapped me (which I hope it will).
This is the kind of “new book” that Florian Brody prophesied in his 2000 essay called “The Medium is the Memory” (in P. Lunenfeld, The Digital Dialectic). We’ll be returning to that essay (and that volume) further in subsequent posts.
Meanwhile, what do you think of Elliot Smith’s presentation of Bukowski’s poem? What, if anything, would you have done differently in animating that poem? If you would do something differently, does that divergence reflect a difference in your memory of this poem, even (especially!) if you’ve never experienced it before viewing and listening to Mr. Smith’s adaptation?
