rEmiX MACHINA - Winnipeg, Aqua Books, Feb 24, 7pm

When Jonathan Ball published his first book, Ex Machina, he issued it under a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial, unauthorized derivations. On Feb. 24, 7:00 p.m., at Aqua Books, four artists will present their own creative work remixing or drawing inspiration from the book, in an event titled rEmiX MACHINA. The invited artists are GMB Chomichuk (writer/illustrator/publisher of Alchemical Press), John Toone (poet/children’s author), Colin Smith (poet), and Patrick Short (singer/songwriter for Softcops).

Ex Machina has been called a “very unique long poem . . . exploring the interface between man and machine” (Calgary’s FFWD) which “complicat[es] in a real and tangible way our relationship to the book” (Ryan Fitzpatrick, author of Fake Math). In an interview for Winnipeg’s Uptown (where he writes the “Haiku Horoscopes” humour column), Ball said that the book is about “how machines have changed what it means to be human.” Robert Kroetsch says "[Ball is] one of our most exciting young poets, and Ex Machina is a fresh, daring, original take on the us of us."

Ex Machina is published by BookThug, a Toronto press known for innovative, unconventional books. The book was launched at McNally-Robinson in January and spent two weeks as the only poetry book on the local bestseller list.