“In 1983 and 1984, bpNichol used an Apple IIe computer and the Apple BASIC programming language to create First Screening, a suite of a dozen programmed, kinetic poems. He distributed First Screening through Underwhich, an imprint he started in 1979 with a small group of poets. The Underwhich edition of First Screening consisted of 100 numbered and signed copies distributed on 5.25” floppies along with printed matter.”

By bpNichol, care of Jim Andrews, at vispo.com/bp + bpnichol.ca/archive/video/first-screening

First Screening reduces reliance on the codex to produce kinetic poetry with a simple colour palette (black and white), assertive negative space (reminiscent of Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés), and repetition (e.g., to construct a tower of letters with the word, “tower”). It was originally distributed in a small batch (100 numbered and signed copies) and has been conducive to remediation (e.g., from an Apple IIe DSK file to HyperCard to web-based JavaScript to screen capture). It was also written in BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), a programming language anchored in ease of use. —J.S.