Uncreative Writing

Two weeks ago as a class we were introduced to an idea of transcribing various video clips that were chosen by each tribe member in the class. This was inspired by Kenneth Goldsmith, who made various methods to show the concept of authorship. Most of the pieces we looked at were self generated poems which included a variety of works put in a code and then controlled by AI to construct it as their own poem. Which then brings up the question, is literature becoming digitally modern as we move on through time? We are further reflecting on a future where the definition of a Arthur might be changed. Referring back to the article from Goldsmith, the art of transcribing was shown as he made his students watch project runway and then turn what was typed into a poem. This was shown to

Then came time for our tribe to transcribe various videos that were chosen by our tribe and other tribes in the class. In order to record each line of transcription, all tribe members were invited in a google chat. Here is a screenshot of what we were doing when the videos were playing. As you can see each tribe member were typing whatever they were hearing. No matter the typos or repetitiveness, it's all a part of the art form. As most can see, a lot of funny things were recorded and each tribe member enjoyed this activity.

The ending result was the product of what was transcribed. We put it in a google doc and editing various lines to construct a poem. Overall, actually working as if we were text generators, gave us a new point of view. Although it seems impossible, a poem can be made from a AI text generator but for now it can be highly difficult to make it look believable.

Generative Text

In Digital Humanities, we have been looking at works of generative text and bots. The pieces bring up many controversial questions that humans as a whole have difficulty answering. Before we look into these questions, here are some examples of text generators that we have looked at in class.

Sea and Spar Between by Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland is a poetry generator that includes digitized words and phrases from poetic works of Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville's Moby Dick. To explore the piece, you may type in two numbers, representing nautical coordinates, or move your mouse to explore the vast collection of generated poetry. This work brings up many questions about authorship and meaning.

Another piece of generative text is Evolution by Håkan Jonson which takes the artwork of Johannes Heldén and mimics his music and literature. The algorithm uses similar words, spacing, and dreary music as the musician/writer had created. The ultimate goal of Evolution is to pass the Turing Test, a test that looks for artificial intelligence.

In my personal opinion, Sea and Spar Between’s code has very specific phrases that are to be ran in the work. These phrases are directly taken from Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville so their credit should not be taken away. Though the programmers created the visuals and decided where to put the phrasing, Dickinson and Melville are still the authors. Evolution, on the other hand, is a little more complicated. The algorithm requires more knowledge of coding to understand. Instead of simply randomizing phrases by Johannes Heldén, it is mimicking his work to create something very different and even unique! The algorithm is essentially creating it’s own work! Does this mean the coder is the author? It is very hard to come to a conclusion and everyone has their own thoughts on this question.

Image Corruptions

Today in class we learned how to corrupt images. These are a few that I thought were neat.

Image Corruptions

Today in Digital Humanities, we learned to corrupt images. Its super fun! Here is a before and after of an image of Dan, our very own tribe member :)

Observing Multiple Elements Of E-lit through Various Works

Electronic Literature gives readers a way to interact with our literature. Before the time of computers, writings could not include animation, sound, or any sort of interaction. This changes the way a reader experiences pieces of literature and is very significant to the advancement of creative communication.
The following are examples of various pieces of Electronic Literature. 

One example of Electronic Literature is e-poetry. “The Sweet Old Etcetera” by Alison Clifford and “Puddle” by Neil Hennessy are two great pieces of e-poetry. “The Sweet Old Etcetera” was full of poems by e. e. Cummins. By moving through the piece, more and more of a beautiful landscape are revealed as well as phrases by the poet. This was an example of how we can advance on static poems. A more simple approach was “Puddle,” which creates an animation with solely words. Both “The Sweet Old Etcetera” and “Puddle” show how original poetry can be built on to create beautiful animations. These works made me see more of what poetry can be.

In one of the weeks of readings, pry’s unique take on loss and secrets was something intriguing. Just the trailer kind’ve tells you how impactful of a story this is. It has all the interactive elements like touching the screen and swiping up and down. Pinch the screen to make text in the passage large or viewing multiple clips through the piece. Although the access to it was limited, I was able to access a link to the description and view a demo of the work (http://tenderclaws.info/sheet.php?p=pry). As it seems in the work, the reader will get the protagonists point of view. For example, the main character is a war vet who lost his sight or close to losing his sight. The piece shows this as every image or every video will be from the main character's point of view.

A very interesting depiction of electronic literature is “Tailspin”. The piece tries to give you an insight on what it is like to live with tinnitus. The piece uses sounds to show the perspective of a war veteran that used to work on aircraft.  It tells the story from the point of view of a mother that has to deal with the issues of a father that refuses treatment and rowdy kids at the same time. It was interesting to me because it showed the struggle of living with tinnitus and being a caregiver to someone that has it.

This week we took a look at Pieces of Herself. I found this that this interactive piece was oddly satisfying. I liked the idea that you could choose things (pieces), that create a type of self image. It gives you private and public environments to explore and collect pieces. I felt that exploring this interactive piece, somewhat empowered me.