There were poems written as chains — Renga (連歌), Japanese collaborative poetry. There were also poems being minted as NFT. But with the new project Etherpoems, digital innovator and artist (Digital)ArtChick (artchick.eth) created something innovative and non-existent till now.

(DISCLAIMER: and I write these words, not because I took part in the project (I did). Following the NFT art scene, I can admit — it’s indeed a novel approach.

The project democratizes poetry writing and is a beautiful example of collaborative creativity.

So how does it work?

1. DigitalArtChic asked several authors to write poems and to design them visually.

Some poets delivered humanly written works…

My father was a professional writer and photojournalist. He documented (1950ies-1990ies) the life and culture of the USSR and Russia. As we came to Germany, he hadn’t stopped. He photographed and wrote about Germany till his last days. He left me a huge photo archive after he passed away some years ago.

Revisiting his photo archive, I realized one thing:

A photographer takes pictures of places, persons, and situations he or she had experienced at that moment. This photographer shares memories with a beholder, who’ll contemplate these photos at a particular time in the future.

Shared memories.

Probably fathers’ profession became my…

Title: Beyond the Wall of Reality: Japanese garden 
Exploring ontological boundaries
Nr: 025
AI models in use: 3D Ken Burns
Unlockable content:
* Essay
* Original image 
* Video File
* Animated image as .gif 
Status: Unsold
Owner: N.N.
Platform: Opensea.io

if you ask me,
my [favourite!]poem:is.
sayingly:it is!by e e cummings — his a.b.s.o.!lutely

when faces called flowers float out of the ground

with:out a title but; with sense!love!feeling!)

so I asked? ‘art’ificial+‘intel’ligence to ‘inter’pret and per‘form’ the second verse: of,the,poem.

when every leaf opens without any sound
and wishing is having and having is giving —
but keeping is doting and nothing and nonsense
–alive;we’re alive,dear:it’s(kiss me now)spring!
now the pretty birds hover so she and so he
now the little fish quiver so you and so i
(now the mountains are dancing, the mountains)

You. Are. Welcome! (my…

Dadaism in Japan was a powerful movement. It’s a pity, it remains unknown, in opposite to European, French, or American Dada. Japanese Dadaists — and Avant-Garde in general — is precisely researched and elaborated. At least in Japan: I’ve written about bookshelves full of Avant-Garde books in Japanese bookstores.

One of the most prominent Japanese Dada poets was Takahashi Shinkichi:

“the only Zen poet in modern Japanese literature”,
like poetry critic Makoto Ueda once said (Makoto Ueda Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature p.335 Stanford University Press, 1983)

Lazy Minting is an ex excellent thing if you have no hurry and publish your art passively. To showcase, forget, and be remembered when your NFT is occasionally found and purchased. OpenSea is perfect for this repository. Nevertheless, an artist's life consists of creating for a silo and continuous communication, co-inspiration, and ideas exchange.

And then there is that alarming environmental factor, which gives you headaches with every new-minted NFT (even if OpenSea is still the best Ethereum-running platform compared to Foundation, Rarible, and Co. with their high gas fees, etc.).

All those considerations brought me (and many other creators)…