4-2017

Handmade poems and morphoses in Nokturno 4-2017

Nokturno is back from summer holiday! This years fourth issue brings you hand-made visual poetry and poetry videos animated, with music and with sharp social criticism. And, Nokturno.fi, the 2.0 version of Nokturno.org celebrated it’s one year birthday this month!

Poet also known for aphorisms Virpi Alanen has created a series of four Poetic animals for Nokturno. Alanen’s poems combine visual and textual elements and stem from her poetry blog Peilit. Handmade poetic creatures suggest familiar gestures but represent unknown species. Their verses are thick with meaning – and colors convenient for the time of the year.

Known for their intensive live performances, the duo J.K. Ihalainen and Sándor Vály combine Ihalainen’s poetry to Vály’s music and visual visions. In this issue Nokturno presents a work from their other field of collaboration, video poetry. Eripari-ihmiset was born in the midst of the refugee crisis in Finland in 2016 and addresses social questions related to the situation.

MEN is a series of headline collages born from Detroit-based, artist and educator Scott Northrup’s long time work with the form. Black and white series explore mascilinity through colliding different discourses. MEN is first of two series to be published from Northrup in Nokturno.

Ulla Laisi is a visual artist also working with video poetry. In video poem Morfoosi a character moves around questions of selhood and otherness. Laisi’s animated poetry videos entailing music present a world full of warmth and kindness. Poems Aina kun liikkuu lentää and Koivu ja baobab are also suitable for children.

We received plenty of applications to the first digital residency in fall 2017. Several of the project ideas brought together different art forms and the concept of a virtual residency space invoked open-minded aspirations. The poet-in-residence is now selected, more information soon…

Please continue to send us your digital and experimental poems, or anything poetry related that finds it’s home in the digital world! Deadline for submissions to Nokturno 5-2017 is 6th of October.

(Image from Scott Northrup’s series MEN)

Works