POEM = WORK OF ART

Digital Francisco Carolinum (DFC) is proud to present POEM = WORK OF ART, a groundbreaking show of blockchain-based poetry that celebrates the art of language and explores what happens when text transcends the printed page. The digital exhibition—which opened April 1, 2022 at the museum’s virtual Cryptovoxels building and runs throughout April, US National Poetry Month—documents the early days of poetry on the blockchain and explores how new technologies are empowering language artists across many mediums, enabling collaborations, and unlocking exciting realms of writerly creativity.

Curated in collaboration with theVERSEverse—a literary collective and cross-chain NFT gallery, accessible at theVERSEverse.com—this metaversal museum takeover offers a brief survey of crypto poetry, an emerging genre that’s garnered serious interest in recent months from NFT platforms, collectors, and creatives alike.

The show is divided into three sections: “Algorithmic Authorship” probes the surreal, sublime outputs of human-machine collaboration, including AI language experiments powered by Sudowrite, a writer’s tool that uses GPT-3 to produce human-sounding text; “Crypto Conceptualism” expands our notion of poetry through literary and text-based experimentation; and “The Art of Poetry” illustrates the evocative nature of blockchain-based word-art creations.

POEM = WORK OF ART features 21 innovative poetic creations in various file formats, brought to the blockchain by renowned writers in partnership with a global selection of visual artists: Denise Duhamel, Julie Marie Wade, Christian Bök, David Hernandez, Nicole Tallman, Kevin Abosch, Sarah Ridgley, aurèce vettier, Nathaniel Stern, Layla Pizzaro, Pierre Gervois, Rose Jackson, Natalie Larrodé, Marlon Portales, Vanessa Coleman, Merchant Coppola, Johnny Dean Mann, Anna Malina, Joëlle Snaith, Ivona Tau, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Brook Getachew, Julien Silvano, Linda Dounia, Gisel Florez, Ana Maria Caballero, Kalen Iwamoto and Sasha Stiles.