this is no longer entertainment: A Documentary Poem - Paperback

by Christodoulos Makris (Author)

'this is no longer entertainment' is formed entirely out of untreated anonymous or pseudonymous text found in the open comments sections of media websites and other digital platforms. It was composed by filtering this un-authored writing through a process of immediate, instinctive selection and reframing, which is inevitably modulated by the author's interests and emotional temperature. The poem's composition roughly covers the period 2014-2017; a period marked by a range of notable social-political shifts and events.In its use of avant-garde compositional methods as parallels with experimental documentary filmmaking practices, 'this is no longer entertainment' borrows from and extends the documentary poetry tradition. It is a poetic exploration of public-private language and multiple/shifting personas enabled by digital technologies and communication, and their effect on social discourse and the broader political climate. Cumulatively, the juxtapositions of the primary material consider mutual influences and intersections between themes like (mis)-information and error, the diffusion of authority, pop/celebrity culture, identity politics, the rise of nationalism, and others.