On Saturday evening, we went to see and listen to our friends Dario Costa and Jean-Louis Baille in “An Interview with Joseph Java”, a play directed by Lucie Gougat. The authors, and even more so the actors, asked this very pertinent question: ‘Is poetry meant to be nice and cuddly, or should it punch you in the face?’ Dario is Australian, but he has been living around here for ages. He is our neighbour too. His rendition of the interviewer was extraordinary, and so was the very simple setup in this incredible place near Place de la Nation in Paris.
Joseph Java: Can Poetry Exist Beyond Words?
This place was just incredible. Its name too, it’s called “Catch Palace,” even though I’m not sure they organise wrestling matches over there (Catch is ‘French’ for wrestling).
It is situated right after the Avron metro station in Paris, near Place de la Nation. We went through an ordinary end-of-the-19th-century building door and down a corridor. We then found ourselves in a little backyard. Across the backyard was a building that looked like a potato barn, right in the middle of the city. It’s incredible the kinds of places you’ll find in Paris and other big cities—places that, not so long ago, were in the remotest suburbs or fields, like Paddington in London. Or like that place right across my house in the 14th district of Paris, where there was a farm that only went out of business after the end of World War II.
We ended up in this potato barn, which isn’t a potato barn any more. Now, it’s a workshop where professionals design stage sets for theatre plays. There’s also a little theatre in the back of the building. The setting was absolutely fantastic. I wasn’t able to roam around freely and take pictures to my liking. But I was sitting right in front of the actors and took these pictures.
Very serious questions, not so serious answers
Dario asked very serious questions about poetry. The clown-like interviewee kept horsing around, showing very little knowledge about the subject, but at the same time retorting with candid questions that seemed completely out of bounds. These questions forced us to think clearly about the nitty-gritty of what poetry is and isn’t. Even though these questions seemed very easy, we realised that they weren’t.
Such as ‘Is poetry meant to be nice and cuddly, or should it punch you in the face?’ Or even: ‘Does poetry exist beyond words?’ These are incredibly poetic and relevant questions. This type of seemingly obvious question about issues so simple that we no longer pay attention to them is a nice thought exercise. It could apply to all of us in all sorts of situations.
And what about poetry when its author is ChatGPT?
In a world where generative AI churns out text at breakneck speed, this question takes on a particular significance. Can algorithm-generated words really be nice and cuddly? Or punch you in the face? Does poetry—and beyond, any authentically created piece of content—exist outside the strict combination of words?
These questions resonate strangely with our current debates on AI and where humans fit in a fully automated world.
To find out more about the actors and the play [in French]
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Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris
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