Poems by Mr Gee

Adrian Philpott and Mr Gee 2014, 2018

Ticket to Fly 2014

Poem performed on film, duration: 1 minute 36 seconds
Words and performance: Mr Gee, Film: Red Earth Studio (video top left)

Just Data 2018
Meet the Data 2018
The Open Hand 2018

Three poems on posters
Words: Mr Gee, Graphics: Philpott Design

Documentation of poetry performance, duration: 4 minutes 49 seconds
Words and performance: Mr Gee, Film: ODI  at ODI Summit 2018 (video bottom left)

Mr Gee’s poems draw on histories of human relationship, offering us a way through the blur and noise of overwhelming volumes of data, and putting ‘the machines’ in perspective. In Ticket to Fly, Mr Gee is looking forward to his holiday. But his dark skin and hair raise questions at airport security. Might a resemblance to someone in their database lead to an unwelcome encounter with Guantanamo? The question of ‘who’s judging who’ is further explored in Just Data. The poem prompts us to consider which of our past, present, or predicted online identities we might be measured by. The Open Hand considers the trust that is embedded in a human handshake. Mr Gee riffs on how the qualities at the heart of the open data movement – openness, trust and sharing – have always allowed different groups of people to extend ideas and connections across borders. Meet the Data explores where we find truth and friendship in data that reflects our world, and also takes on our obsession with quantification. The poem ends with an appeal for us to think of the living people behind the likes.

Commissioned by ODI Data as Culture for ODI Summit 2018

Materials

Spoken and written word, 3 x posters, dimensions variable, digital video

Exhibition

Copy That? Surplus Data in an Age of Repetitive Duplication
2020 online and at the Open Data Institute

Data Types

Open, Social

About the Artists

Adrian is a strategic creative thinker, brand expert, graphic designer and visual artist who has been focusing on sustainability since the 1990s. His work is reinforced through listening, observation, conversation and collaboration. At ODI he is…
Read more

Mr Gee (UK) is a veteran of the UK’s spoken word scene and a BBC radio presenter. Gee champions promoting unheard voices in society, in part through his extensive rehabilitation work in prisons. He has delivered…
Read more