sob o signo da devoração (PoemAds)

By Rui Torres

Stimulated by assumptions from Guy Debord, Fernando Namora, and Banksy PoemAds is a set of combinatory and generative texts that promote the creative deformation and subsequent transformation of advertisements and slogans. This poem was programmed using Poemario and the resulting code-poem was inserted into an HTML page with four (4) banners surrounding it, which follow the Core Standard Ad Units proposed by IAB- Interactive Advertising Bureau: The Leaderboard Banner (728 x 90 px) at the top andbottom of the page, and the Wide Skyscraper Banner (160 x 600 px) on the leftand right columns. In these banners, individual slogans are generated from thousands of advertising slogans, both commercial and institutional, and mixed with graphical elements which parody the visual design of current advertising industry. The central poem of PoemAds was created, subverting the original context of the selected slogans.

Taking on corporations and consumerism with combinatorial poetry may seem an odd enterprise but that is just what Rui Torres is attempting with PoemAds. By appropriating the slogans from various banks and other institutions, and remixing them algorithmically, PoemAds produces a text that is not singular but transitory, morphing over time. The outcome is a sort of mashup of promises taking the form of critical poetry. By clicking on a word in the displayed poem, the user may publish a particular outcome to Torres’ blog at telepoesis.net.