What lures the crowd
to hang in the zero-black vault
rock at the flashing faucet
snort the fluorescent picture stream
down a pill as blue as the b of rgb
Not the frozen moment
of the concept shattering the wind
spread-eagled above its fluttering tag
on the bone blank cube white wall
But liquid time’s secrets
teased through four views on void
rastered as needlepoint neon
signed along your retina
by eyes that calculate
the world’s anguish and absurdity
in thirtieths of a second
What is this art where mimicry wrestles simulation
burlesque confronts the antiseptic
the key position waits an uncanny part-second long
the monkey teases the physicist teases the cybercreature
in a strange merry-go-round about the y-axis
When virtual time congeals in almost forms
gestures sleep vivisected in wire-bright splines
particles strobe in slo-mo tiptoe atop
the Boolean pot of tea
in the throat of this cousin of dance
this war tool
this algorithmic play tank we call
computer animation
Sonya Shannon
Union Square, New York
Spring 1996
Leonardo 29, No. 5, Special Issue “The Fourth Annual New York Digital Salon,” (1996), pp. 441. Published by The MIT Press, ISSN: 0024-094X.