“WIFI-POET” is a project by artist Northy Chen, first performed at Basement 6, Shanghai in 2017 with participation of around 200 poets. Through proprietary router and editing interface, participants assigned themselves pen-names and contributed to an ever-evolving poem comprised of Wi-Fi networks, by consistently naming and renaming them. The “WIFI-POET” book encapsulates over 2000 lines of verse through the 4 hours of collective creation, accompanied with photographs and luminescent ink overlay for the cover as well as several spreads inside, inspired by the “black box” nature of this new media art project.
《WIFI诗人》是艺术家Northy Chen的同名作品的诗集。作品首次发生在Basement 6艺术空间，当晚近200名诗人通过登陆手机端口对WIFI信号名称编辑修改，进行了诗歌的联合创作。以作品黑匣子的特性为灵感，诗集封面及内页局部以夜光油墨印刷。
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“WIFI-POET traces back to the short story I wrote for NERVEMILK. In the story, an organization called ‘WIFI-POET’ broadcasts poems through the lines of wireless network names by tampering with public routers. After writing the story, I have been haunted by the idea of setting up the organization for real. With the help of my good friend Edward, we debuted the first iteration of WIFI-POET at Basement 6, Shanghai in 2017.
Basement 6 is a former air-raid shelter in Shanghai in which cell reception is impossible. Through our proprietary router and editing interface, participants of the workshop assigned themselves pen-names and contributed to an ever-evolving poem comprised of Wi-Fi networks, by consistently naming and renaming them. Everyone is entitled to create, edit, and delete the lines.
In early 2019, I invited Shanghai-based design studio Related Department to materialize the outcome of the workshop into a physical volume. The WIFI-POET book encapsulates over 2000 lines of verse through the 4 hours of collective creation, accompanied with photographs and luminescent ink overlay for the first chapter.
I am curious how this peculiar anthology would be perceived. It can be seen as the documentation of a single evolving poem, or the compilation of a thousand unique poems. Of course, to some, it is probably a tome of nonsense.
WIFI-POET will continue to evolve. Find me via Wi-Fi for if you are interested in a conversation.”
Northy
Spring of 2019
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About the Artist
Born in Zhoushan Island, Northy Chen currently lives in New York. She graduated from RISD and started the collective writing platform NERVEMILK with XY Feng.
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120 x 180 mm
228 pages
Softcover
Luminescent Ink
2019
Limited edition of 300
