It might be of use to note here that for 10 years prior to1995 I earnt my living as a performance poet, had several collections of poetry published by UQP, OUP, and a children's picture book with Harper-Collins. In returning to University to undertake the MA in Creative Writing, I proposed the development of a digital poetry that would perform itself, in 3D spaces and along timelines that were not available in print, communications, screen and performance media. I was embarking on the creative research that has led me to where I am today. My Masters was submitted on a CD-ROM entitled Cyberpoetry 1995, and achieved what I had proposed could be done in this new multi-media format. The first examiner said:

The aim of the project overall is spelt out in the Critical Essay:

I wanted to create a new poetry that existed in 3 dimensions, in time, a poetry that performed itself, a poetry that evoked imagery and emotions, a poetry that told stories and allowed reflection and interpretation, a poetry that could be tampered with by the reader, a poetry that was more accessible to the electronic media, a poetry that was moving with the times, a poetry that could be digitised and transmitted, a poetry that had something to say, and a poetry that was well made. (75)

1996 examiners reports - MA CyberPoetry

The dissertation demonstrates the actualisation of all these aims most effectively (with the possible exception of how far the reader intervenes). There is clearly a publishing market for the cyberpoems; with some revision to tighten it up there would also be a possibility of the whole thing finding an audience.

(Masters Dissertation Report, Assoc Prof Carole Ferrier, UQ, April, 1996.)

The second Examiner wrote:

One is left asking what is the appropriate critical framework for viewing appreciating/assessing this work, combining as it does aspects of traditional forms such as poetry, film, graphic design, visual art, performance. Perhaps this hybridity is itself the issue. Perhaps one of the measures of what Komninos has achieved in this study is that he has produced a creative work which itself demands investigation and further theorizing. Another of the measures, however, is that this work is delightful, witty, cerebral; its concerns are immediate and its aesthetics sophisticated. It not only evidences the dynamics, bravery and originality of Komninos's own artistic practice, but also helps us to think freshly about the possibilities for/possibility of poetry in the contemporary world. (Masters Dissertation Report, Professor Rod Wissler, QUT Centre for Innovation in the Arts, April, 1996)

My examiners acknowledged that the creative product indeed made a contribution to knowledge in the field of contemporary poetry, and it also demonstrated new approaches to the discipline, investigated new artistic, literary and multimedia structures and methods, provides a significant contribution to cross artform interdisciplinarity, explicitly explores new means of presentation/publication/broadcast, and provides a significant contribution to overall theoretical advances in the discipline, thus satisfying the Strand criteria for research status of creative product.