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Back in 2001 revolutionary performance artist Joseph DeLappe performed a dramatic reading of Allen Ginsburg’s famous poem HOWL (1955). However, this was no ordinary reading of the poem. By intervening and occupying the popular video game Start Trek Elite Force Voyager Online DeLappe made us question whether a video game could be a stage for perfoming poetry. By recontextualizing a space meant for competition, power struggles and violence, the artist forces the audience/players to reevaluate their actions in the game, do they also reply? Do they contribute their own poetry? Or do they simply go on and enjoy the bonus of a free kill in their path to the top of the leaderboard? Each of these options requires us to make a decision that can be analyzed through the lens of own policies and approach to poetry. At the same time, DeLappe infringes into the clearly delineated game space disrupts the rules and goals of the game and asks: In a world ruled by combat is the pen truly mightier than the sword? The answer depends on us and our perspective on where poetry can exist.

Twenty five years later, DeLappe took the ZKM’s stage on June 4 2026 to reenact this foundational experience in its totallity. Held during the Chaos Computer Club’s Gulaschprogrammiernacht, the performance, now running in modern hardware but using the free-to-play multiplayer client of the game, was performed twice, on the day.