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Melbourne Poetry Map

Guest Post by Eleanor Jackson September 16

At first, a map seems incredibly simple – paper, line, markings, the delineation of space and location. A way in which we show the relationships of geographical features in their respective size and position, a way to navigate the world by pinning it down.

Increasingly, however, the map is also the domain of sophisticated technologists and, some would say, a form of text itself, a way of writing the world by symbolising what is tangible and real. With technologies like Google Maps, we can blend traditional cartographic tools with statistics, analysis, databases and social media, to zoom voyeuristically about the globe, tagging our amateur photography, rating a new café or signalling the location of the latest must-be-seen-at bar.

For a group of Melbourne-based writers and performers, however, the map is also a way of charting a poetic geography, an old medium to reinvigorate the even older art of spoken word in new ways. Working to a deceptively simple brief – to create location-specific, spoken word recordings intended to be listened to on site within the Melbourne CBD – some twenty poets have collaborated to create six audio walks which guide the listener through some of Melbourne’s most unexpected geographies.

Supported by the City of Melbourne, the works are part-digital archive, showcasing some of the best spoken word writers and poets currently performing in Melbourne, and part-psychogeographical play pen. Using hand-drawn maps and sometimes deliberately imprecise directions, these poetic walks hope to lead listeners into new places.

The project hopes to reveal a new Melbourne – one that is both civic, commercial, beautiful, mundane, sinister and lovely, a Melbourne that is complex and shifting. The Poetry Map is also a place for experiencing poetry itself, off the page and out of the sometimes insular environment of poetry readings. As writers of all persuasions continue to debate where the digital age will lead literature, these maps embrace the web platform by offering work for free, enabling listeners to get their poetry at whatever time of the day suits them, in the privacy of their own headphones. Although not necessarily resolving the question of how and why the public will, or won’t, consume poetry in the future, the Melbourne Poetry Map seeks instead to breathe new life into the form by bringing it in into the urban vernacular.

One of the pieces in the collection, by Melbourne spoken word stalwart Steve Smart, is a poem marking the Wheeler Centre for Writing and Ideas (listen below). Capturing in many ways the essence of the project, the piece both marks the value of the Centre, pinpointing a new hub for literature in Melbourne, while also challenging writers and readers alike to remember that poetry has always been an integral part of the city: ‘Melbourne you are our work in progress, don’t let it be said you were not warned.’

Eleanor Jackson is a poet, performer and arts producer who lives sometimes in Melbourne. Two time winner of the Midsumma Festival Poetry Slam, her work has been featured in both digital and print journals although she always prefers poetry in person.

The Melbourne Poetry Map will be launched at Loop Bar tonight, 7.30pm as a part of the Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival 2010.

 

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