Artists:©Bots

 ©Bots  is and interactive website focusing upon copyright issues. The website claims that with the internet, corporations "compete for your attention, for access to your memory, fertile ground where they can install their memes." The user can create a ©Bot to protect the "valuable real estate" of their mind. a ©Bot contains pop culture references, but the user creates them into a contradiction, to get rid of entrenched memes and bring the subconscious thoughts and icons created by corporations to a conscious, alterable level.

I really enjoyed the interactive level of this site: pictured is a ©Bot that I created. But I think the website uses the interactive, fun game aspect of the creator to get across a message about the insidious use of logos and images copyrighted by corporations. There is also a sharing portion: a gallery allows users to save and share their ©Bots for others to enjoy.

April is national poetry month, so I thought I'd share this dorky poem.


The Symbolic Poem
by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese

< > !* ' ' #
^ " ` $$-
!*=@$_
%*< > ~ #4
&[ ]../
{,,SYSTEM HALTED

This poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

A poll conducted among readers of InFocus magazine, where it was originally published, established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters, though some held out resolutely for "norkie".