English versions of the nY-web workshop project on i-literature by Dutch poet Jan Baeke and visual artist and graphic designer Alfred Marseille (2012). Translations by Willem Groenewegen.

The others did it is a series of four poems whose content and presentation change under the influence of online data on dynamic events that occur elsewhere in the world. The internet is here used as a real living canvas for the poem, not only publishing and ‘transporting’ the work, but actually determinating and producing it along with the author, while both him and the readers stay in touch with a specific offline, live reality.

The texts have a thematic kinship with these data, but the relationship is not uniform, not one-dimensional. The reader has no influence on their content and presentation.

1. Channel of the North grows and shrinks as a function of the tide in the Westerschelde river on the Dutch/Belgian border.

2. Mood Exchange Rate is determined by the percentage the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Index rises or falls relative to the opening price.

The right person depends on the time of the day at four different places in the world. This poem is not yet translated, but a Dutch version is online.

A fourth text is in preparation.