CAPTCHA Poem@

"CAPTCHA Poem@" belongs, says the artist Tina Escaja, "to a larger 'oleatory' poem/project titled Mar y virus / Virus and the Sea, in which humans, poetry and technology intersect to address the COVID pandemic.

"The multimodal components of this poem@ CAPTCHA [sic] include QR codes inviting [the user] to 'share your COVID story'" which the artist posted around cities in both English and Spanish "to collect testimonies for this project. Hence, QR codes blended with COVID paraphernalia that became oddly familiar, such as used gloves on the ground and requests for masks to enter buildings, etc. In a way, the city became an eerie 'installation' involving humans, codes and the virus." -- From the Artist's Statement, New River Journal