We R What We 8: Consumerism: Reshaping Thought

The aleatory literary technique used in this book stems from the Dadaists. The cut-up technique gained notice when used by writers and artists such as William S. Burroughs and David Bowie.

This collection of aleatory poetry excerpts found material from an image. This act of anti-poetry literally expresses how words can reshape thought. Just change the order.

On Alonna Shaw’s Consumerism Series. When family values became processed slogans, we lost personal validation generating consumers instead of citizens. Consuming equals validation. A hopeless equation. What hole in society’s emotional makeup creates empty calories?

Her Consumerism Series consists of poems, images, video poetry, a workbook, an annotated workbook, and this book.

There’s something magical, alchemical, when you approach aleatory chance methods with a certainzeal, a certain will and intent, that creates results that otherwise would not be as interesting. I think Alonna’s sequence exhibits that kind of alchemy. I enjoyed the movement of the lines.Each remix felt like its own individual work, but the echo - the echoing fragments - makes it cohere.
-Joseph Massey, author of Illocality