Paper and Technology Interaction in Production of Arabic Poetry: "Techno-Paper Poetry" Hypothesis as an Example

Since the emergence of the first signs of digital poetry in the early 1990s, a gap has been formed between two contrasting worlds: the physical (real) world and the virtual (digital) world. As time advanced with the advent of digital literature, the gap widened, leading to a profound intersection between individuals from both worlds, especially among the writers. Two contrasting tones, which are never converging, emerged: the tone of the traditional paper-based writer, who criticizes digital literature as a product of machines, claiming that those who believe in it lack the characteristics of true creativity and have escaped to the virtual world to hide their literary lack. On the other hand, the tone of the digital writer, who calls paper-based literature as remnants of the past, considering it inaccessible and it is impossible to interact with a defunct literature. These two tones had a significant impact on hindering communication with the digital literary system, resulting in its slow progress in the public cultural sphere and academic space. Thus, bridging the gap between the two worlds became essential by creating an intermediate transitional zone that represents a reassurance document for poets from the two opposing worlds, and serving that both forms of literature complete one another. The concept of "Techno-Paper Poetry" was introduced in 2019. It is based on two aspects: one being paper-based and the other digital. It involves a portion of the literature, which is written on paper, while the other is digitized and distributed online. Access to the digital section is achieved through the paper-based section by scanning the barcode or QR code using a dedicated application called "Aquarium Reader" installed on smart tablets. Based on the aforementioned, it becomes crucial to establish a literary roadmap to bridge the gap between these two worlds and legitimize this style of poetry as an active step towards pure digitization.