David Moscovich
Listen to: Captcha Poem
The Captcha Poems are a series of poems automatically generated through the anti-spamming software known as CAPTCHA. The concept for this project derives from a fascination with the randomness, chaos and indeterminacy. The author is not the author, but simply a button-pusher. Performance is the only moment possible for human authentication. So in a sense the artist’s will is subtracted from the equation, leaving only the notetaking to formulate the poem, which consists of an automated list of two words digitalized then reproduced for the Captcha software. For every two words I wrote them down and compiled a list until I felt each poem was finished. I simply hit the reload button and recorded the randomized words the software produces, then read them aloud through electronic effects which I manipulate myself. Some words or combination of words were repeated, echoed, reverberated, bounced, or delayed in actual time. The track was composed and performed solo in one take, with no overdubs. Performed live and solo, recorded with care at DJ Radio Ruido’s studio in Brooklyn, NY, originally for TXT/FST, curated by Tamara Yadao and Kurt Gottschalk and posted on the wonderful and quirky audio blog XTriangulationX, by DJ Radio Ruido.