SHOCKWAVE HAIGA I:
Using Online Games and Widgets for Haiga
We've heard about 'haikai humor', that sense of lightness and child play that is so important for giving haiku its lift. In 2001, when I was first becoming interested in haiga, there was a delightful e-zine called Haijinx that proclaimed, 'There is no hai- in haiku without humor and lightness.' It is no longer published, but I learned from editor Alan Summers that it may be accessed through http://www.archive.org. As I was browsing, it reminded me that 'hai' is, or course, the root of haiga too. A timely epiphany, since our next issue was to be dedicated to play.
At WHChaikumultimedia we've experimented with making haiga from images created at online interactive art sites. A few of these, made with the ArtPad at Art.Com were published in Haigaonline (issue 6-1, Dec. 2005). Others are collected under the rubric 'Anything Goes' on our exercise pages at Carol Raisfeld's HaikuBuds site. Meanwhile, I've been delighted to see that Karina Klesko and Gerry Bravi have published haiga using the Collage Machine at the National Gallery of Art's Kid's ArtZone (Sketchbook, Dec. 2006), and Billie Dee has made exquisite haiga using the Kid's ArtZone.
I've long planned to share some of the other online games and widgets that we've used at WHChmm, and I'm especially pleased that Billie has given us some of hers for the feature. Among them are two collaborations with Jane Reichhold and _kala (Kala Ramesh) that come from a haiga capping contest on the AHApoetry Forums.
Links to the sites may be found at the bottom of this page. We hope you'll be inspired to try a few yourself!
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RE-MOVE by LIA |
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NGA KIDS' ART ZONE |
MONDRIMAT |
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Carol Raisfeld |
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| . . . .and a few images (no haiku) from more sites to inspire you: The Artist's Toolkit, Mr. Picassohead, PBS's Push and Pull, Matisse, Manetis Pollock and Keith Haring |
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NGA KIDS' ART ZONE HAIGA
BILLIE DEE, with JANE REICHHOLD and _KALA |
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CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE SITES IN POP-UP WINDOWS
If you try any of these sites, or know of any others, we'd love to see your haiga. Send them to us by
1 August 2009 for our Late Summer Gallery
(see Submissions page for details).
Coming in our December issue. . . APP HAIGA!
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