I'm Writing The World's First 5D Poetry Collection

Poems You Can See, Hear, Taste, Smell, and Touch

I have my ink. I have my notebook.
I use them to create new worlds the way I'd like them to be.
Then in I go.

That's what every artist is essentially doing with whatever tools allow for the shortest route between their heart and fingers.
Some use notes. Others craft theirs with paints instead.
Each with its own strengths, limitations, and audience.

And I guess one way to judge the quality of a work of art is by how wide the door’s left open to the observer.

I asked myself if I could aid this by using more than just words.
What if I made songs based on my poems?
What if I reinterpreted their feeling in a perfume or a taste?
What if I capture their essence in an object you can actually touch and use?
What if I were to use different carriers of the same emotion and blended them all in one single body of work?

Would this bring my texts to life?

As always, there's one way to find out.

And this is how my inksperiment began!

Enter "Hang That New Sun High"

I'm excited to announce something that's been in the works for the past 6 months and is just about done when it comes to the poems. But they're just the backbone.

This collection breaks the boundaries of words by "translating" or reinterpreting each poem into 5 different senses and packaging them in one single experience – a song, a painting, a perfume, a chocolate, and an object you can touch and use.

It tells the story of two characters starting over and taking a chance to fall in love once again. It’s about finding the courage to try, the healing power of love and the promise that a fresh start holds. Each piece reveals a fragment of their journey.

In a nutshell, it's a project aiming to bring love and poetry to life!

Here's an AI-generated mockup of what the final version would look like:

Has Nothing Like This Been Done Before, Really?

The concept of multi-sensory poetry is far from being novel.

In fact, in many early societies music and poetry were inseparable. Poems were meant to be performed with instrumental accompaniment (e.g. lyre, which is precisely where "lyrics" originates from as a word).

It's probably no coincidence that in Ancient Greece, Apollo was god of both these arts, among other things.

Nowadays, the default mode of creating and experiencing poetry has shifted toward focus on the text alone, for better or verse (pun intended).

Sure, readers might play some music in the background matching the mood. But neither was made around the other and so they aren't uniform.

There are some examples of such projects I've dug up, such as this one, where poets and perfumers created fragrances and texts corresponding to each other's poems and perfumes, received anonymously.

As cool as that is, these are the creative interpretations of different people between two senses.

Instead, what I'm doing covers 5 senses as each creative interpretation is at least guided, if not exclusively made, by myself.

It’s important to note that drafts of the songs and artwork will be made with the help of AI in order to materialize my idea. I will then try to finance the project to hire real musicians and artists to help me complete the project.

No AI is used for the texts, designs, recipes and scents.

So, What's The Plan?

Over the next three months I’ll focus on building an audience, putting everything in place for the launch and financing the project.

I'm beyond excited to see how this one unfolds and I invite you to join my journey!

Here's what you can expect between now and September:

👉 2 long-form posts per week here on Substack covering:
- Early access to the poems (+ the songs based on them)
- Research regarding multi-sensory poetry, including history, creative techniques, examples, etc.
- Updates on important benchmarks of the process
- Reflections on the creative process and the challenges I face
- And more

👉 Daily posts on Substack Notes + Regular updates on Instagram
– Behind the scenes, unfiltered photos, thoughts, insights, etc.

👉 A killer physical marketing campaign – You'll have to stick to find out more, but I promise it'll be something to remember.

So, shall you come in then?