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What is OS:B?

Operating System: Belgrade is a personal poetry collection disguised as code documentation. Or maybe it’s code documentation disguised as poetry. Either way, I’m treating my experience - living in Belgrade for the first time - as if it were a software system being logged, debugged, and understood. Each poem is formatted as a Python module, complete with class structures, timestamps, coordinates, and system metadata. The city becomes an operating system. My observations become function calls. My cultural confusion becomes error logging.

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Why?

I have two parallel learning processes happening here: Learning to write poetry - Free verse, specifically. I’m capturing raw observations without forcing them into traditional structures. Using line breaks for pacing, trusting specific details over abstract statements, finding the shape that each observation wants to take. Learning to read Belgrade - I arrived on September 30, 2025, unable to read Cyrillic, unfamiliar with the rhythms and rules of the city. Every day is new data. Every street corner is a new interface to understand. The technical format isn’t just aesthetic - it reflects how I experience this foreign city: as a system with unknown protocols, undocumented features, and surprising functions that only reveal themselves through direct observation.

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How I’m making it

My process:
  1. Observe - Take raw notes throughout the day. Specific details, not summaries.
  2. Find the shape - What’s the natural arc? Where’s the tension? What’s the pivot point?
  3. Draft in free verse - Let line breaks do work. Trust concrete images.
  4. Code it - Format as a Python class with appropriate metadata.
  5. Categorise - File into one of five modules based on thematic function.
My five modules:
  • Core Functions - Fundamental experiences, arrival moments
  • User Interface - Street life, human interactions, social systems
  • Background Processes - Ambient city life, unnoticed patterns
  • System Errors - Confusion, miscommunication, cultural glitches
  • Version History - Evolution, learning, system updates

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Who I am

I’m one person, learning both poetry and Belgrade simultaneously. No prior poetry credentials. No expertise claimed. Just honest observation and a willingness to document the process of figuring both things out. The technical format is my scaffold - it helps me organise observations when traditional poetic forms feel inaccessible. The coding metaphor makes the unfamiliar (poetry) approachable by framing it in familiar terms (systems, logging, documentation). This is a beginner’s project in every sense. That’s the point.

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The Warsaw Winter Theatre Company

OS:Belgrade is a Warsaw Winter Theatre Company intervention: belgrade02

WWTC

Investigating Cultural Simulation, Authenticity and Performance in Place.