"The Walk" by Tony James
An experiment in how we as a culture view video on a computer screen
[read the intro] [see other chapters in this e-book]

Can the electronic feel?
Silence said, “Yes”
Are you a techno pagan?

Do you design literature daily?
Do you read the text of the screen?
How is the news on your end of the stream?

Message me back
O secret lover
Message me…
Electric words filled with love
Steam…

A walk through the nature of a city
An Electric cry
A power over…
A power within

Do we walk?
Do we harm the ground?
Do the stars go out for us?

Prepare for the future using the bliss of the now!

Power over the moment only makes you over indulged.
Power over the system makes you free…
Taste my blood
Go ahead and journey down that fine road
It’s lovely…
It’s divine…

I’ll walk to your moment
Only if you come to me
Love shadowed in video

Funk me once, shame on you
Funk me twice, shame on me
Funk me 3 times?
F… YOU!
Thrust fame upon me…

Grant me greatness
Work power…
Work it with the moon
O
Séance
Mind
Swoon

Most importantly
As I reflect a narrow provincial viewpoint
You will learn
This walk is meant to be nothing

Something you stumbled upon
A hyper real moment made for your viewing
A want-to-be Hyper-text dream
With no knowledge of the stream

A high heeled lap dance
Slipping on a fine ice floor
A text injected blur

I’m am artist
Why explain myself
When everyone else will give me their peer review in the end

Why demonstrate my talents
For a small reward of sarcasm
It changes nothing about me

It makes the screen grow bigger
It makes the mind grow keener

This moment is only that
A moment
To make art
Would be
Lame

A note from the artist: This piece is an experiment! How does a video being filmed by a video camera change how we experience the screen? Does the originality of the moment get lost or is this just another way to view something that is meant to be abstract? Does it make a new moment out of the original? Or does it become abstract because the audience’s trained modern eye isn’t used to this kind of viewing experience? Theses questions are not meant to be answered. Perhaps they are meant to guide you. Perhaps it helps my intentions become clearer. Would this piece change if the audience didn’t know my intentions?

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