The Making of a Xenotext
By Barbara Aulicino, Dianne Timblin
Christian Bök’s ambitious project combines poetry, cryptography, and bioengineering.
June 22, 2016
Science Culture Art Biology Chemistry Microbiology Poetry
In our July–August issue, Michael Leong reviewed conceptual poet Christian Bök’s most recent book, The Xenotext: Book 1.
Bök is known for setting herculean poetic tasks for himself, and his latest volume emerges from a 15-year project that blends poetry, bioengineering, and cryptography.
For more about the book itself, check out Leong’s review.
Here, we offer some background on how Bök is carrying out his Xenotext experiment. Our understanding of it is partial for the moment: The project is still ongoing, and Bök, understandably, will be waiting to release some of the details in The Xenotext: Book 2. We expect the second volume to reveal the experiment’s outcome as well.
(You can find a full-size version of the backgrounder included below, "The Making of a Xenotext," here.)
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