The complete title for this multimedia poem is “Last Words (Ordinary People Speak at the Moment of Death / In or Around the New York City Area)” and it is both descriptive of the poem’s theme and suggestive of a key strategy. Organized around eight characters’ final words and the contexts in which those words were uttered, each one is represented by a brief “slice of death” narrative, and a poetic voice from beyond that provides an ironic counterpoint, full of Bigelow’s characteristic darkly understated humor.
For the author of over 25 Webyarns mostly produced in Flash, a proprietary multimedia authoring software now in decline since Apple excluded it from its iOS environment, this piece represents a major retooling because it was developed in HTML5, using JavaScript and the JQuery library. These open source tools follow standards that allow greater cross-platform compatibility, which means that this work can be experienced on personal computers and touchscreen devices running in iOS and Android. They are also more in tune with Bigelow’s creative process.
In addition to the English language (still free, community developed, and open source), Bigelow’s raw materials are multimedia objects legally available online (such as images, video, and audio files) all of which he edits and shapes them into parts of a coherent new work. With Flash, all of these objects, including the text, are wrapped up in a proprietary envelope and published as a single file, which helps integrate them but also denies users access to its components. (On a related note, this is why I had to quote Bigelow using a screen-captured image of his text. Webyarns.com is a Flash site, and I cannot even copy and paste the text.) HTML and JavaScript allow similar integration of multimedia elements and its materials are all available in the source code for the reader to explore, which opens his work to technical and critical code readings, remixes, and more— all in the spirit of democratization that Bigelow values.
“Last Words” is very strategic in its juxtaposition of elements. The short looping animated gifs of the characters’ faces speaking provide an iconic dynamic image for each. With one notable exception, the video clips are made from of old television footage and film documentaries, and serve as a background context that sets the tone, evokes a time and place, and represent an aspect of the characters. Other elements include textual narrative, center justified lines of free verse, audio clips of high-speed text-to-speech readings of the same lines of verse, dictionary definitions of an element of the narrative, and two images of fingerprints used for navigation of the piece, all positioned to enhance holistic readings. As you read each part and develop a sense of its patterns, keep your eyes, and ears, open to its variations.
Think also of the strategy alluded to in the opening paragraph of this entry, which I will only hint at by reminding you of the complete title of the work and pointing out the parallels between Lizzie Finnigan’s story and Emily Dickinson’s fascicles. Its juxtaposition with the final movement in the piece is a source of humor, tension, relief and thematic resonance.
