FERNANDO AGUIAR
THE POETIC IN(TER)VENTION

At a time in which images, sound, information and acelerated rythm are the crudest realities of our ever-changing society, exploring new paths in Poetics rapidly makes us aware that traditional poetry is not sufficient to transmit, in an active and efective form, everything that we think, what we feel, everything that we want to express.
Writing is becoming an insufficient means of expression not only because of the wearing out of certain vocables (words), worn and torn by usage, but principally, due to the lack of visual communication of wrinting.
A message should be transmitted in such a way that its format as well as its contents contribute towards a rapid and profound apprehension of what is meant to be transmitted. Due to a question of aesthtethics and also due to a practical reason.
Thus, it became necessary to increase the value of letters, syllabies and words, visually so that the act of reading could have another rnotivation and result in a more stimulating experience.
There were poets that began to set words into motion, and to create new structures for them on the page, in a way that they had different possible interpretations. This multiplication of the meaning of words made possible a change in the relationship poet/poem/reader and this change resulted in another understanding of the reading, seeing that there was a more creative interpretation of the contents of the poem, on the contrary to the relatively passive result in the reading of the linear and sequential, lirical poem.
In the sequence of such a search for a greater visual expressiveness of writing, some experiences were carried out where the images appeared associated with the words, which originated an even greater intensity of reading and of the transmitted message.
lt so happened that no longer was only the content of the poem important, but also the form of that content, that is, the form of the individual poem. More: the form also became the content and began to constitute a part of the poem, in such a way that it became impossible to (and neither was it very important to) distinguish one from the other, seeing that the two, in conjunction, contributed to the transmission of the message.
But all of this investigative work placed the traditional method of writing: the book, in check. This method became limited, unable to permit a larger plastic and informative expressiveness.
lf the book, as a medium of a text, accomplished its function on a contents level, it soon revealed itself insufficient as a medium of transmission. The communicative process demanded more. As much in relation to the contents and its form, as to the medium of the form of that content.
In books, the poem continued limited by the margens of the pages and reduced to the bi-dimensionality of the surface of the paper. For this reason other processes of transmitting poetry started being used. Different methods of diffusing different signs, such as the object-poem, the installation, video, the computer and the performance.
The most accompiished of these media, the performance, began through its specific characteristics to transform the traditional concept of poetry and modify the entire relationship between the poet and the reader.
Using the performance as a medium to transmit the poetic message, the poem received a new expressive fiberty and adquired other components such as movement, volume, colour, light and sound, which in their turn definitiveiy altered the ideals of space and time in writing. Thus, what before was static in the poem, became profoundly aesthetical.
The performance, or more concretely the poetical Intervention - noting that while in the performance ,he body is the main element in the formulation of the work, in the poetical intervention the body functions more as an instrument of writing, being the writing itself the most important - has as a main feature, in relation to other media used in poetry, the physical involvement of the poet himself as a performer and factor of consecution of the poem.
The direct intervention by the poet, usina his body as a means of poetical transmission and as a manipulator of the relative objects on stage begins, for the very first time, to turn poetry truly interactive in all levels. Be it in the aspects of notions, materials techniques and media (because other means can be used simultaneously such as diapositives, the taperecorder, the computer or the video) be it, also, in the way of creator/user relations.
As the author and the reader" are present during the elaboration of the poem, the reaction of the reader" is given simultaneously with the action developed by the author. Therefore the interaction between action and reaction assumes an important part in the unfolding of the poem, which completely alters the classical image of poetry.
Dissected by the performance, the poem cannot be defined as a finished work, static and immutable. The poem presents itself -live-, and the poet becomes the producer of situations and emotions which continue to write his poem, departing from a determined intention.
The spectator as an onlooker and, eventually, in reacting to the development of the poem, has the possibility to influence the poem, sometimes concluding by altering its final form. Apart from peculiar, this aspect is important for the comprehension of the interactive poem, and turning it more abie to accomplish its communicative and informative functions because it offers us two paths creator/ /spectator and spectator/creator.
Having the performance as a medium, the poem stops being limited by the page and begins to occupy all of the surrounding space, which alters the notion of space and spacial structure of the poem.
In the same way, the notion of time is significantly altered. In traditional poetry the poem is presented to the reader as a finished work, inalterable and maintaining that form infinitely. With the poetical Intervention, the idea of the immortality of the poem is perfectly surpassed. The poem exists only as it begins, progresses and terminates. lt starts to have its own life with a beginning, middle and end, and stops being a sacred and untouchable object. And because the performance is unrepeatable (it's impossible to repeat it totally), the summary of the poem stays only in the memory of those that enjoyed it.
Still, for a complete comprehension and assimilation of the poem to exist, the user should decodify, at the same time, the whole multiplicity of related items, signs and feelings which compose the poem, and should know how to relate them to himself.
And so, because the poet intervenes actively and physically in the execution of the poem and because the different signs are presented simultaneously, because there exists an inter-relationship of the meanings in each moment of the poem, because various notions, techniques, and media are used, because the notions of time and space are significantly altered, because the relationship between the poet/reader are transformed in a radical fashion and, still, because it is in the performance that the notion of interaction is best applied, we may consider that , the poetic Intervention, at this time, as poetry raised to its highest exponent.

Lisboa, 1987