Cybernetic Loops and Fermented Technologies of Participatory Poetry
Margaret Rhee · 2022
As a response to “bookless” libraries, The Kimchi Poetry Machine is a new media art installation that reimagines how tangible computing can be utilized for feminist participatory engagement with poetry. Instead of kimchi, the machine produces small pieces of paper inscribed with poetry. When the jar is opened, instead of the pungent smells of fermented cabbage filling your nostrils, your eardrums are lulled by the luminous readings of poetry written by a variety of invited feminist poets. The small “kimchi twitter” paper poems housed inside the jar each have an invitation to tweet a poem back to the machine handle. Eight original feminist “kimchi twitter” poems were written for the machine by invited women, non-binary, and transgender poets. The machine is powered by open-source electronic prototyping platforms and reimagines how poetry can be written, listened to, and interacted with now and in the near future. The project speaks to the haunting qualities of these experiences and what Tara McPherson writes as “a dream to intervene in technological legacy systems that often route our machines away from our feminist desires.” Drawing from McPherson, The Kimchi Poetry Machine explores how machines can be feminist, poetic, and participatory for impactful change.