The document discusses machine-generated and algorithmically produced texts. It provides examples of literary works generated from log files, social media posts, images and metadata. It also discusses tools and methods for analyzing and visualizing texts, such as social network analysis of character relationships in literary works. The document suggests the potential for human-machine collaboration on text generation is large and emerging areas include customized e-books and interactive digital literature.
8. ma·chine, noun: an apparatus consisting of interrelated parts with
separate functions, used in the performance of some kind of work.
Sometimes used to refer to digital technologies.
cre·o·liz·at·ion, noun: mixing of different cultural elements that lead to an
unexpected and original outcome different than the sums of its parts.
ma·chine cre·o·liz·at·ion, noun: mixing of cultural elements in which
algorithms played a role in the hybridization process.
9. what’s the
equivalent for
texts?
this is not an exhaustive presentation of the existing work on this topic
just some pointers and signals that i find intriguing
11. Of course, there’s... “Narrative Science, an innovative technology company, turns data into
stories. Narrative Science has developed a technology solution that creates rich narrative
content from data. Narratives are seamlessly created from structured data sources and can be
fully customized to fit a customer’s voice, style and tone. Stories are created in multiple
formats, including long form stories, headlines, Tweets and industry reports with graphical
visualizations.”
12. “Having a computer write poems for you is old
hat. What’s new is that, like Wershler and
Kennedy, writers are now exploiting the
language-based search engines and social
networking sites as source text.
[...]
At first glance, armies of refrigerators and
dishwashers sending messages back and forth
to servers might not have much bearing on
literature, but when viewed through the lens of
information management and uncreative
writing—remember that those miles and miles
of code are actually alphanumeric language,
the identical material Shakespeare used—these
machines are only steps away from being
programmed for literary production, writing a
type of literature readable only by other bots”
Uncreative writing, Kenneth Goldsmith, 2012.
14. “‘Diff in June’ tells a day in the life of a personal computer, written by itself in its own
language, as a sort of private log or intimate diary focused on every single change to the data
on its hard disk. Using a small custom script, for the entire month of June 2011 Martin Howse
registered each chunk of data which had changed within the file system from the previous
day’s image. Excluding binary data, one day’s sedimentation has been published in this book,
a novel of data archaeology in progress tracking the overt and the covert, merging the legal
and illegal, personal and administrative, source code and frozen systematics.”
15. Diff in June, Martin Howse, 2013.
logfiles, a form of object-centered perspective
16. 42 attempts to save the Princess ^^, Near Future Laboratory, 2013.
it’s basically a set of hexadecimal logfile that corresponds to the saved games
17. 42 attempts to save the Princess ^^, Near Future Laboratory, 2013.
it seems cryptic, it is, but players who spent lot of time changing this kind of code (reverse
engineering) know the meaning of certain portions. it’s a book written the console program,
readable by the console program but understandable by some
26. The descriptive camera, Matt Richardson, 2012.
crowdsourcing image description (Amazon Mechanical Turk) as a new form of text production
27. machine-like
Another option is to give a “machine-like” aesthetic, a “networked realism” as might describe
James Bridle afterwards
28. Hamlet Facebook Newsfeed Edition, Sarah Schmelling, 2009.
Of course, you have project remediating classic literature. Like Sarah Schmelling’s humorous
Hamlet Facebook Newsfeed Edition.
29. Ghosts in the machine, L. Polansky and B. Keogh, 2012.
Ghosts in the Machine is an anthology of 13 original short stories that each look at the imperfections of
life through the imperfections found in videogames, be they bugs, exploits or design flaws, love, loss or
death
38. “many people have either a fascination with
computers or merely a curiosity to see them
cough up poetry. An introduction and invitation to
binary speed for the operator’s lasting benefit. A
roll of the dice endlessly resumed. Systematics
simultaneously stitched together, synthesized, and
derived. But missing throughout will be the vivid
contrast among the languages of the world. Which
constitutes the desiring flesh of a poem.
[...]
a computer scientist but also Rimbaud
”
Edouard Glissant