Transitional Materialities and the Performance of JavaScript

Abstract

This article approaches questions around materiality in digital writing practice in terms of performance, sound, and sound-poetry. Using Alan Golding's term 'Transitional Materiality' as a kind of model which connects my own practice-based project 'Sounding.js'. The article also considers the practice of the Language Poets and their exploration of materiality, performance and the sound of language in relation to the propositions of the Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Other works discussed are Steve McCaffery's 'Carnival' and Christian Bok's 'Cyborg Opera'.