Oculophilo is a bilingual digital poetry (French and English) programmed in HTML5 with CSS3 and a gif image as a background using Manipulating Computer Code Composition Method (MCCM). It is read by clicking on each green text verse moving from top downwards. Or it can also be read from the bottom upwards by clicking on the red verses. All verses are interwoven to indicate link between me and her beautiful eyes. Every verse clicked displays an extension of white text connected to green text as singular stanza. It also displays a distinct face of an African woman with eyes turning 360 degrees to denote seduction as one clicks on each of the five green verse.
Oculophilo is a therapeutic poem inspired by the beauty of my wife's eyes that gave me hope to marry her. Her eyes were the power of attraction to me. However, all beauty has its end: when one becomes old, one dies and absconds from marital reality. I was shocked that this same woman whom I loved, being married to her for three years disappeared to unknown location. This is the metaphor of beauty fading away.
For better viewing also available here: https://yohannawaliya.github.io/oculophilo.html
The project is part of the subthemes Technological innovations in literature, Mental health narratives in poetry, and Literature as a tool for social equality.
Author
Yohanna Joseph Waliya
Yohanna Joseph Waliya is a Nigerian digital poet, distant writer, ludokinetic writer, novelist, playwright, python programmer, winner of the Janusz Korczak Prize for Global South 2020, Electronic Literature Organization Research Fellow, UNESCO Janusz Korczak Fellow, Creator & Curator of MAELD and ADELD [2022 Emerging Open Scholarship Award: Honourable Mention, C-SKI], Executive Director of AELA& ADELI (https://africanelit.org ), International Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference on Web and Social Media [ICWSM ] Scholar 2021-2022, Scrimba Scholar 2022-2023, and Hastac Scholar 2021-2023. He writes in English and French. Among his works are: La récolte de vie (play), Monde 2.0 (play), Hégémonie Disparue (novel), Quand l’Afrique se lèvera (novel), Homosalus (digital poetry), Momenta (digital poetry), @TinyKorczak (Twitterbot-poetry), Climatophosis (digital poetry: The best use of DH for Fun 2020), Inferno 2.0 (ludokinetic poetry) etc. He is also lecturer at the Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, University of Calabar as well as a postgraduate student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. His research interests cover distant writing, Distant Reading, Digital Poetry, Metaversal literature, Twitterbot-poetry, Twitterature, Digital Humanities and Language Discourse.
