The fifth issue of this year contains various encounters between poetry and sound art, probing of everyday technological vocabulary and videopoetry in the landscapes of remembrance.
This issue opens with Neljä koetusta pysyä | Four Try-outs in Staying, a work combining Milka Luhtaniemi´s poetry and sound art by W. There are four audio players embedded in the poem, you can read and listen the work as you like.
J.P. Sipilä, one of the pioneers in Finnish video poetry has released a new work and we´re glad to present it in this issue. Nykyheti ja minulla on mahdollisuus had its first screening in the exhibition for experimental poetry Paino in Kuopio, Finland in August. Sipilä´s hypnotic work addresses questions of remembering and alternative ways to relate to something almost gone, not with nostalgia but as something still worth fighting for. The work, with sounds by Bereen Ondo is part of a larger series to be released in 2020s.
Nature and remembrance are present also in the video poem by Tuula Sipilä and Harri Sundell. Ennen kuin hän menettää muistonsa guides the reader along the sea shores and woodland paths, in the landscapes between remembering and forgetting. A. D. Harper takes us to a dive in the linguistic world of data analytics and search engines. Unknown search terms performs a poetic exhibition of the phrase. Harper´s poem was first released in Strange Horizons, a magazine for speculative fiction.
Our sound poetry smorgasbord in this issue also brings you the latest works of Taneli Viljanen, author and sound poet whose works jäljet, aurinko and jäljet: miten asioiden kuvaileminen muuttaa niitä, niiden jättämiä muistikuvia, sinun suuhusi unohtuneita huoneita are first two parts in the growing series called Jäljet. The first work had its first presentation at the Helsingin Festival and the latter one in the aforementioned experimental poetry exhibition in August, curated by Lauri Hei. Viljanen´s work has previously been published in Nokturno as part of the guest curator issue of 2018, compiled by Nokturno´s previous editor Marko Niemi.
Over the years Nokturno has every once in a while released recordings of poetry performances. Now there´s one available from the sound poetry concert of Pentagonic Order, a group formed by poets Mikko Mankinen, Saara Metsäranta and Juha Rautio with Lauri Hyvärinen. The performance was recorded at Arteground Viljandi in Estonia.
Our next issue will be guest curated by Matti Kangaskoski, a poet and PhD in Literature Studies, who has studied digital literature and digital textual environments. The issue is coming out in December.
Ps. Our Digital Residence of Fall 2019 has started! Kathryn Hummel´s Sunset Cento begins with an open call to participate in the collaborative project on the topic of sunset. More information and instructions on how to participate you´ll find here.
(image: Nykyhetki ja minulla on mahdollisuus – J.P. Sipilä & Bereen Ondo)