Track #8: Five Seven Five

This project takes its inspiration from the “cut-up technique” of slicing up existing texts to create poetry, as popularized in the 1950s by the American writer William Burroughs. Here, captions in the form of haiku accompany a collection of 100 images. These pairings are displayed individually on five-seven-five.netlify.app, wherein clicking on a text or image generates new, random compositions with each line of a new haiku having been randomly selected by the website from previous captions. The vagueness and ambiguity that result from this element of chance suggest how meaning may be derived without a singular, definitive interpretation. Viewed in sequence, one after the other, the combinations of non-specific images and text begin to create their own, apparently intentional yet ambiguous fictions. It is then up to the viewer to piece together and interpret the suggested narratives for themselves.

An object for stop,
flattened into the sidewalk,
it gets the job done.

Made only of stones,
in an old gymnasium,
nobody notice

Gathered together,
wedged in between floor and door,
every vote matters.

A structural shell,
amongst a killer virus,
it gets the job done.

A bottle for all,
on days when the wind picks up,
both inside and out.