Howl: Elite Force Voyager Online

Online gaming performance/poetry reading, 2001

This work was my first online performance, occurring in the spring of 2001. I connected to "Start Trek Elite Force Voyager Online", choosing as my character, "Allen Ginsberg" - I then proceeded to recite/type, in it's entirety, "Howl" utilizing the in game text messaging system. The entire performance took well over six hours to complete. This was my first instance of acting upon the notion of internet based gaming existing as a new type of public space. The maps, territories and avatars of online spaces for competition, killing and dominance are here transformed into a venue for a poetry reading. This work is one of the first instances of a performative intervention into an online shooter - this is the work that led to so many others. I enter the game space as a neutral interloper, I do not shoot or interact with the other players, but rather, I stand and type the poem until I am killed - to be reincarnated at another location on the map to continue the performance, and so on…