September 7, 2004
Regime Change
I’ve been talking quite a bit recently (e.g., in the Dichtung Digital interview) about the idea of playing (with) text — specifically, about textual play that operates via logics that are more linguistic than they are graphical. Not detecting collisions with graphical words, but, for example, interactively moving along chains of words that exist in bodies of text.
My first experiment in this direction — conceived and created with collaborators Brion Moss, David Durand, and Elaine Froehlich — has just been released. Regime Change is the first of two “textual instruments” that were commissioned by Turbulence. We’ll be releasing the second, News Reader, later this month.
September 7th, 2004 at 8:22 pm
i don’t know if i like that program.
probably been here, it’s a better cut-up engine
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gary.leeming/burroughs/cutup_machine.htm
whatever works at scrambling the word-virus. text-to-noise erases it completely http://www.wizardmaster.com/bludgeonsoft/texttonoise/ttn_v2.swf
el hombre invisible’s electric typewriter is gots lots of electrical shock
September 7th, 2004 at 9:52 pm
Zombie, thanks for the links. I agree that batch-mode processors can be cool. I’m particularly fond of prate, though it’s true The Cut-up Machine also creates some nice text.
However, with these new projects, starting with Regime Change, I’m interested in involving the player/reader in the process of creating the alterations — in moving along, cutting, and rejoining the word lines, rather than just reading the results after a program has done it. I think there’s some intriguing territory to be explored.
September 8th, 2004 at 9:44 am
Oooh, now I wonder if the program learns what *kinds* of text I like clicking on, and modifies the text it presents to me accordingly.
I like this toy, Noah! In that chilling, subject-matter-makes-me-shudder way.
September 9th, 2004 at 10:22 am
I’m glad you like it, and that the subject matter’s a bit disturbing. Hopefully that’s part of what this “composition” for our n-gram instrument gets at — how strange the cheerful reporting of presumed assassination was, back when this war began.
As for learning based on reader/player choices, that’s not one of this instrument’s features. But our next piece will probably expose to the player a few more of the tuning options it does have.
September 9th, 2004 at 8:02 pm
A few of the items I have noted over on the Textologies Weblog, copied and pasted here, for your cross-posted convenience. 1) A hot item bouncing around the Web today is a piece by Paul Graham, entitled The Age of the Essay. A polemic, a history, a gui…
October 8th, 2004 at 3:36 pm
Regime Change was the topic of yesterday’s Net Art News — “Hacktivist Intertexts” by Nathaniel Stern.