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Yucef Merhi
Atari Poetry IV, 2004
VCS Atari 2600, data cartridge, TV screen
Collection of the Orange County Museum of Art; Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Lois Outerbridge

Venezuelan born artist Yucef Merhi has been manipulating Atari consoles since 1985. To create Atari Poetry IV (2004) Merhi reprogrammed a classic Atari 2600 video game system, using binary codes and assembler language, as a means of exploring the creative connections between technology and language. The program he developed turns a TV screen into a site for the presentation of his short poems. Having studied both poetry and art, Merhi writes: �One of my firmest convictions is that poetry transforms objects into art in the same way that it converts noise into music. The physical object in my work is an extension of the poem, which expands the potential of words and extends the limits of language; and the poem becomes a prolongation of the object, providing an emotive but meaningful presence.�