DAVID DANIELS' 200+HUMAN BEINGÈD
HYMN TO HUMANITY
The American poet David Daniels
(1933-2008) has always amazed me, not only because of his
kindness and wisdom but also the ingenuity with which he crafted his
shape poems with a computer program like “Word for Windows.” It is
impressive to note the quality/innovation of the shapes he obtained with
his texts/poems/animations using software that was not designed for that
purpose. Not only that, but the ease with which he worked and played
with the language is enviable. Reading and observing his poems is always
a process of rediscovery, because they contain a dual semiotic system,
one for writings and the other for imagery.
I followed the creation of
his 200 + Humans with a sense of enchantment, thanks to the vast net
that enables artists to exchange experiences in an international
context. This series is fascinating, not only because of its undeniable
artistic value but because of its anthropological aspect. Daniels
constructed his poems by asking many different kinds of people from
different countries some very simple questions. As a result, these poems
reveal similarities and differences, while demonstrating what humans are
like at the beginning of the 21st century. I can’t help imagining what
it would be like if someone read these poems in the next century, and
have fun imagining that person’s (?) response.
It is also interesting to
underscore that, mixed in with the human beings mentioned in the
previous paragraph, there are some familiar famous figures, such as
Shakespeare, Edith Piaf, Mozart, Marx, Charles Dickens, Fernando Pessoa,
Kafka, Freud and even Jesus, all of whom are eternally human and
recreated through Daniels’s imagination.
As a result, it is very moving to present the “Humans”
series by David Daniels, which I have produced in DVD format. This will
be one more way of attempting to preserve his Poems.
To know more browser at: http://arteonline.arq.br/humans/
