Hyperrhiz 29

Reconstructing Poetry in Web3: An Interview with Ana Maria Caballero

Ana María Caballero

Interview by
Merve Güven Özkerim

Citation: Caballero, Ana María and Merve Güven Özkerim. “Reconstructing Poetry in Web3: An Interview with Ana Maria Caballero.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, no. 29, 2025. doi:10.20415/hyp/029.int01

Abstract: In this interview with Ana María Caballero, we explore how poetry intersects with technology and Web3—highlighting its potential to redefine creative expression, challenge power dynamics, and enhance the cultural relevance of poetry in the digital age.

Keywords: transdisciplinary, poetry, Web3, blockchain, generative art, AI based art.

Interview

Merve Güven Özkerim: How do you ensure communication and transitions between forms by incorporating many disciplines, technology, plastic and performative arts? How do you manage to stick to the essence of poetry while doing this?

Ana Maria Caballero: My work always begins with text—the book, the poem, with verse. Even my digital work, or the work in which I incorporate artificial intelligence or other forms of technology, always starts with a pen and paper and a poem or a book.

I add other elements to expand the ways others might experience, think about, or interpret my work. I also feel that these new forms and disciplines help bring new audiences to poetry, which can only prove positive for both ends.

Merve Güven Özkerim: How has the development of electronic literature influenced your work?

Ana Maria Caballero: It’s truly been expansive to engage with networked and digital forms of expression. At the end of the poem, we still return to the emotion, to the moment of quiet, of creation, of composition. But now there are so many more ways to bring this verse into the world—out of the notebook, out of the drawer in your office, and into existence. Each new option, I think, adds different layers.

While holding a book in your hands is incredibly special—nothing quite compares—it’s also fantastic to incorporate voice, body language, or performance into a work, bringing it to life in a new way. It’s also great to animate it, to visualize it, or to have it engage with artificial intelligence, which I believe raises highly interesting questions. For instance, what is the state of a work when language can now become literal via the visual?

Merve Güven Özkerim: Have you encountered any challenges or limitations in integrating code based techniques and blockchain technology into your poetic practice?

Ana Maria Caballero: Yes, definitely! Especially when it comes to blockchain the UX UI of Web 3 is MetaMask Mod. It’s really clunky. It’s hard to explain. There’s a lot of hair pulling. I think it’s definitely Achilles’ heel in terms of expanding and onboarding new users. It’s really difficult to get the swing of things once you do. Of course it’s worth it, and it’s exciting. but the learning curve is quite steep.

Merve Güven Özkerim: Do you think generative art and blockchain technology can be a tool in shaping discussions around gender, identity and representation? What effects do you think all these technologies will have on society and culture?

Ana Maria Caballero: I mean, it’s all what you do with the tools. Unfortunately, a lot of the true success cases in generative art—even though p5.js, the program most JavaScript was developed by two women, one of whom is Lauren Lee McCarthy, of whom I’m a tremendous fan—are mostly white Western males who stood to benefit from this technology and its expansion in the arts. And, you know, the collectors also tend to be male.

So I think that Web 3 will deliver on its promise. It really needs to engage with other forms of art, making to support these forms. And to engage with works that raise difficult and complex questions and are not just, perhaps pleasing to the eye.

Merve Güven Özkerim: In your opinion, have art and technology developed historically within power relations, and have their basic principles been shaped by this dynamic? So, what position did poetry take within these relations?

Ana Maria Caballero: Everything develops within power, relations. We live in a society that is patriarchal. It’s just a fact. You look at who’s in power and it’s just absolutely self-evident. I mean, men have been the President of the United States since the United States was founded. I speak to that, because that’s where I was born and I also was raised in Columbia, where there hasn’t been a woman President. We’ve  reached levels of, you know, high levels, mayors, senators, etc, but not the top office. And it’s a struggle.

So I think all our technology is developed within power struggles within power, relationships that exist, you know, in offices, in the home, which is why a lot of my work is about the unequal division of labour in the home. Even now in our current society. You know, it’s the woman who has to do it. Really, to be at home at the end of the day, to raise the children, to answer questions like, “When is dinner ready?” It’s the woman who really has to do that. No matter what level of economic privilege or education you may have. These realities do not change and they only get worse. When the economic levels go down, for example in Colombia. You see how widespread it is.

I would call it a disease of men who have abandoned their pregnant wives or their young wives with children, and then these mothers are forced to raise women alone. It’s a wildfire there, in my country, and I can speak to it, you know, with my hand in the flame. All technology develops within the reality of our world, which is a world of deep-rooted, deep-rooted, existing gender inequality and socio-economic inequality.

Merve Güven Özkerim: In an interview with Morgan Meaker (2023), Cory Doctorow highlights that major technology platforms lock users into their systems to maintain control and emphasises that interoperability is the solution. He sees interoperability as a crucial step that will allow users to leave the platforms and regain control of the internet. Do you agree with this view ?

Ana Maria Caballero: I just don’t know if it’s enough, to be honest. Because ultimately we need a host, don’t we? We need to meet somewhere and it’s hard to imagine a world or a reality where that wouldn’t be a need and wouldn’t end up being centralised and dominated by what are the existing systems of power?

Corresponding with each other on social media all day is ultimately bad for the heart or bad for the body, back, bad for the brain. But it’s what we have, and until we find other solutions. Artists, poets who hope to gain visibility, which means viability in their artistic practice, have to be present. The artist has to be present on social media.

Merve Güven Özkerim: On the other hand, do you think that artists who produce work that is more suitable for display within the limitations of Twitter, Facebook and other major technology platforms have an advantage?

Ana Maria Caballero: Artists who excel at communicating their work via social media, condensing their message into 240 characters, undoubtedly have an advantage.

Merve Güven Özkerim: In an environment where software and hardware are developed centrally, is it possible to completely eliminate these platforms and achieve the kind of interoperability that Cory Doctorow talked about? Do you think Web3 has the potential to develop new perspectives on these issues?

Ana Maria Caballero: I want to believe it—but I suppose I’d have to see it to truly believe. I’d love to hold onto that belief, but so far, it hasn’t materialized. It’s still early, in the grand scheme of things. And yet, we remain quite far from witnessing the emergence of truly decentralized, interoperable networks. In that sense, there is hope for a new kind of platform—but whether it will genuinely fulfill its promise remains uncertain. We will see.

Merve Güven Özkerim: Do you want to add anything else?

Ana Maria Caballero:  I would like to add—just, you know, how important it is that we see poetry as a fine art, that we truly value the work and craft of the poet. To view poetry books perhaps as solo exhibitions, and to review, engage with, and delve into them as such—not relegate them to a couple of paragraphs in the back pages of a literary review, but bring them to the front page. So many poets are working tirelessly to give voice and meaning to what remains unsaid in our society, and it’s crucial that we recognize that effort and give it the attention it deserves.