Dora Vey Lives and Works in St. Petersburg. Russian Poetry Written by People and Algorithms

Abstract

The study deals with Russian electronic literature. It focuses on a project that was carried out by Pavel Arseniev and Michail Kurtov, two authors linked with St. Petersburg journal [Translit], who used texts written by algorithms (search engine spam) to introduce the poet-machine Dora Vey. This project enabled them to pose original questions about the transformations of authorship, the dialogue between the human and non-human principles that meet in the creative process, and the related questions about creative inspiration and imagination. The essay uses “the life and works” of Dora Vey to present leading tendencies in contemporary Russian poetic experiment, to show the connection between poetic practice and its theoretical reflection. It also positions the Dora Vey project within the broad context of Russian literary experiment connected with digital technology, juxtaposing the transmedia aesthetics developed and pursued by some authors connected with [Translit] journal with the multimodal experiment of “media poetry”.