Comments on: On Caroline Bergvall and Visual Poetry http://bigi.org.uk/cochrane/2009/09/04/on-caroline-bergvall-and-visual-poetry/ Rich Cochrane's Blog Mon, 03 May 2010 14:08:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robert Kingham http://bigi.org.uk/cochrane/2009/09/04/on-caroline-bergvall-and-visual-poetry/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Robert Kingham Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:35:37 +0000 http://bigi.org.uk/cochrane/?p=22#comment-5 When poetry is used as an architectural feature - say, Ben Okri in the GLA Building, Tennyson in the British Museum, or in Hadley Learning Community in Telford - it strikes me how huge the difference is between it and the same poetry rendered as 'plain text'. You are forced to consider the building itself (and usually, the political significance of the capital investment made in it) as the cultural backdrop against which to 'read' the poem, and - unless you have an issue with that political significance, or the poem is pants - the effect is usually profoundly inspiring, and more so than the 'plain text' version. (Warning: changing the formatting of a poem from Architectural Element to plain text requires removing all the current formatting, including any structural elements you may have included. Are you sure you want to do this? Yes | No) When poetry is used as an architectural feature – say, Ben Okri in the GLA Building, Tennyson in the British Museum, or in Hadley Learning Community in Telford – it strikes me how huge the difference is between it and the same poetry rendered as ‘plain text’. You are forced to consider the building itself (and usually, the political significance of the capital investment made in it) as the cultural backdrop against which to ‘read’ the poem, and – unless you have an issue with that political significance, or the poem is pants – the effect is usually profoundly inspiring, and more so than the ‘plain text’ version.

(Warning: changing the formatting of a poem from Architectural Element to plain text requires removing all the current formatting, including any structural elements you may have included.

Are you sure you want to do this?

Yes | No)

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