Net-poetry is a type of electronic literature that is not only published on the internet but also directly engages with the concept of "network", openness, and interactivity. The genre was born in the context of net.art and digital art avant-garde in various countries in the early 90s.
Some pioneer artists created different kind of net-poetry, as interactive environment on line including animated text and digital poetry: Ana Maria Uribe, Reiner Strasser (interactive video-sound poetry), Jim Andrews (vispo.com), Ted Warnell aka Poem by Nari (warnell.com). Other artists intend net-poetry as interactive hypertext poetry/narration that can be adapted for Internet, examples being Deena Larsen (Marble Spring, interactive poetry hypertext in CD ROM, 1993, Disappearing Rein, 1999), Robert Kendall (Frame Work, 1999, a Study in Shades, 2000), Mendi Obadike (Keeping Up Appearances, a hypertextimonial, 2001), Nanette Wylde (haikU, interactive haiku generator, 2001), and others.
Karenina.it (1998) was an Italian and international net-poetry project, conceived as a virtual happening and online network of experimental poets and artists who were active online in the 90s. Participants included historical performance artists, visual poets, theorists, sound poets, literary and art critics, such as Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Julien Blaine, Caterina Davinio, founder of the project, Marco Maria Gazzano, Philadelpho Menezes, Eugenio Miccini, Massimo Mori, Francesco Muzzioli, Clemente Padin, Lamberto Pignotti and new media artists. [1] [2] [3] [4] Karenina.it collaborated in participative projects in the context of the Venice Biennale.
A net-poetry event (the online happening "Parallel-Action-Bunker") was featured in the Biennale di Venezia in 2001. It was produced and curated by the digital artist and poet Caterina Davinio in the context of Bunker Poetico, a collaborative installation by the artist Marco Nereo Rotelli which involved 1,000 international poets. [5] The virtual happening “Azione-Parellala-Bunker" (Parallel Action-Bunker) was held online contemporaneously with real performances at Orsogrill delle Artiglierie, a real space of the Venice Biennale. [6] With this event, a relationship was created between real and virtual poetry events – a new connective and collective network of poetry, based on communication, and similar to some events and happenings organized by Fluxus, e-mail art and relational art.
Other net-poetry events, created by Davinio in collaboration with an open network of international artists and poets, were: