First video poem by E. M. de Melo e Castro. [Video. Text. Storyboard. Links]
Description > Video poem by E. M. de Melo e Castro. Original version date: 1968 | Date of reconstructed version, available here: 1986.
Note: «Roda Lume», from 1968, was Melo e Castro’s first video poem. Lost or destroyed in 1969, the author created, in 1986, a reconstruction of the poem based on the photograms and storyboard he had saved, entitled «Roda Lume Fogo». This is the version available in the PO.EX Digital Archive.
Translation of the transcription of text by E. M. de Melo e Castro published in the catalog *O caminho do leve* (Serralves, 2006, p. 202)
Roda Lume: first video poem
In January 1969, an experimental animated poem titled Roda Lume (in black and white) was broadcast on Rádio Televisão Portuguesa, lasting 2 minutes and 43 seconds. It was created by me in the RTP studios in December 1968. The soundtrack was a phonetic poem, improvised by me, which consisted of reading animated images made up of geometric shapes, letters, and some words, in a dynamic sequence that invited me to participate, suggesting the creation of an original experimental poem. A brief explanatory and theoretical presentation of mine, previously recorded in the studio, introduced the broadcast. I was warned, somewhat threateningly, that I would be speaking to “two and a half million Portuguese”!…
Today, this small animated visual poem is considered, for example by Eduardo Kac, as a pioneering manifestation of *Telearte* and perhaps as the “first video poem.” In fact, video poetry would only develop as a new poetic genre from the 1980s onwards.
It is also Eduardo Kac who, in the chapter “The Poetry of the New Era” of his book Luz & Letra, states: “The video poetry of Ernesto Melo e Castro, in turn, incorporated the evolution of images over time as a constituent factor of his process of poetic creation. Contrary to what was broadcast by some Brazilian broadcasters—’clip-poems’, which were limited to showing videos of writers reciting verses—video poetry creates a new syntax based on television’s audiovisual resources.”
The original Roda Lume was probably destroyed by RTP, because when, after April 25, 1974, I searched for it in the RTP archives, I only found a reference to the broadcast, but not the original or a copy of the poem itself. However, in 1986, I reconstructed the poem using the frames and storyboard that I had saved. This reconstruction is what is shown here under the title Roda Lume Fogo, to distinguish it from the lost original. The soundtrack was once again improvised by me and recorded anew, following the original instructions, but it is obviously different.
E.M. de Melo e Castro
2005
E. M. de Melo e Castro, Storybaords of “Roda Lume”
See Also >
- E. M. de Melo e Castro in a 2012 interview, explaining the videopoem ‘Roda Lume’. [Video]
- ‘Roda Lume’ [Review], by Álvaro Seiça
- Videopoesia: Produção poética híbrida em língua portuguesa, by Pedro Reis
[We thank E. M. de Melo e Castro for the authorization to make this work available in the PO.EX Digital Archive]