“'WIFI-POET’ originates from a story written by New York-based artist Northy Chen for NERVEMILK. In the story, an organization called ‘WIFI-POET’ broadcasts poems through the lines of wireless network names by tampering with public routers. The project was first performed at Basement 6, Shanghai in 2017, and around 200 poets gathered together for this collective writing project during that evening. Basement 6 is a former air-raid shelter in which cell reception is impossible. Through proprietary router and editing interface, participants of the workshop assigned themselves pen-names and contributed to an ever-evolving poem comprised of Wi-Fi networks, by consistently naming and renaming them. Everyone is entitled to create, edit, and delete the lines.
The ‘WIFI-POET’ book encapsulates over 2000 lines of verse through the 4 hours of collective creation, accompanied with photographs and luminescent ink overlay for the cover as well as the first chapter. Designed by RELATED DEPARTMENT in Shanghai.“
— Page Bureau 书局