readme.txt

"Tools Built by Anonymous Ancestors" builds on a series of poems written in the last month of 2002, in the early stages of the Bush administration's build-up toward war in Iraq. Using a composition technique I call "editation," I generated these poems from a variety of sources (text, image, and sound) compiled from a web search using the search words "tools built by anonymous ancestors," a phrase itself taken from Charles Goodwin's "Seeing in Depth."

On each tool board, the user has the option to "open source." Clicking this button will bring up a source code layer. In this "open source" domain, source-text materials are revealed and concealed based on the user's manipulation of framed objects. As with any poem, there is rarely a perfectly clear view of either "source" or "output," and my hope is that neither prevails in the reading of the poems.

Bill Marsh
08.07.03