Introducing Abra: A Living Text

At VICE's Creators Project: the story behind Kate Durbin, Amaranth Borsuk, and Ian Hatcher's interactive poetry app, Abra, which describes itself as a "living text." "Durbin tells The Creators Project [it] is a touch-based 'magical poetry instrument/spellbook' that creates a 'new way for regular people and poets alike to create and enjoy poetry in the era of the Internet and smartphones.'"

The project received an NEA-sponsored “Expanded Artists’ Books” grant, allowing the artists to create an artist’s book and the iPad app, "that may be read separately or together, with the iPad inserted into the back of the book."

More from DJ Pangburn, who spoke with Durbin about the app:

The trio’s app allows iOS users to touch words and watch them shift under fingers. Gestures “cast spells” to mutate text and set it in motion. “Write your own words and see them become part of Abra’s vocabulary,” the duo explain on the Abra website. “Read, write, and experiment to discover her secrets and make her poems your own.”

“Most people don't read books, let alone poetry—it can be a very alienating art form,” Durbin says. “With Abra, you can not only read but create poems right on your phone, using the language we all use every day (emojis, etc.), but you can then capture and share the poems you create on Twitter, Facebook, various other social media spaces with one button. You don't have to get editors or publishers to approve of your work.”

Read all about it at The Creators Project. And watch the video about Abra here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlwM1XlZa88