Between Waves and Words: Mykhail’ Semenko and the Poetry of Media Technologies

• In Event: Radio, Television, Social Media: The Art of Transmission as Liberation

Abstract

This paper examines Mykhail’ Semenko’s 1921 poetry series “Kablepoema za okean” (“Cablepoem Across the Ocean”) and traces the influence of telegraphy and radio on the work’s typography and visual-verbal synthesis. I argue that Semenko’s attempts to define the functionalities and mechanisms of media technologies drove him to develop new forms of verbal expression. My analysis also shows that Semenko’s treatment of radio is inextricably linked with a leftist political vision, and draws parallels with other Ukrainian Futurists in order to situate their techno-utopianism within the broader context of the Soviet avant-garde.

Author

• Ana Cohle, Princeton U