Day 1 (10/10): Generative Text and Intro to the Web

Works

WordHack Anthology

• A number of readings for this class will be selected from the WordHack Anthology. This is a collection of work from a monthly language+technology talk series I curate here in New York. You can find a download code for the anthology here

Oulipo

• Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets by Raymond Queneau (image)
• A Void by Georges Perec
• Oulipo Constraints

Twitterbots

• Magical Realism Bot by Chris Rodley and @yeldora_
• @FellasBot by Darius Kazemi
• @the_ephemerides by Allison Parrish
• Thinkpiece Bot by Nora Reed
• Thielspotting by Todd
• Infinite Deserts
• Autoflaneur
• @bot_teleport
• Olivia Taters - by Rob Dubbin

Other Generators and Generated Texts

• Startup Generator by Tiff Zhang
• Dwarf Fortress by Tarn and Zach Adams
• NSA Haiku Generator by Grayson Earle
• Garkov - by Josh Millard (also Calvin and Markov)
• The Policeman's Beard is Half-Constructed by RACTER
• Word Camera - by Ross Goodwin
• Sunspring (AI-Generated Screenplay)[(text version)] (https://www.docdroid.net/lCZ2fPA/sunspring-final.pdf#page=5)
• Bot or Not
• House of Trust by Stephanie Strickland and Ian Hatcher in WordHack Anthology
• Tandem Hawk by Allison Parrish in WordHack Anthology
• A Noise Such as Man Might Make by Milton Läufer in WordHack Anthology
• Aeris Dies by Martin O'Leary in WordHack Anthology

Botnik Studios (Predictive Text)

• Botnik Studios
• Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash
• Bored with this Desire to Get Ripped
• Animal Facts

Readings

• Bots Should Punch Up by Leonard Richardson
• How to think about bots

Tools and Code Examples

Tracery and Twitterbots

• Cheap Bots Done Quick
• Tracery
• Tracery Editor
• Interactive Tracery Tutorial
• Tracery Template on Glitch

Markov

• Online Word Markov
• Online Character Markov
• RiTa.js - very cool js language library
• RiTa.js Code Examples
• Glitch Code Examples
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins (character)
  • Detective (word level, sherlock holmes + raymond chandler)
  • Ted Talks (word level, ted talks + The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster)

Predictive Text

• Voicebox
• Voicebox Tutorial (links are broken, but the guide is still useful!)
• Hugging Face Transformer

Places to find text

• Corpora (big lists of stuff)
• Project Gutenberg
• Canadian Project Gutenberg (the Pirate Bay of ebooks from the early 20th century)
• Transcripts (youtube vids, cspan, official functions, ted talks)
• Song lyrics
• Your email? Corporate home pages? Christian erotica? The output you get out is as good as the texts you put in
• Web Scraping, using code to systematically copy text from the Internet. I don't have time to teach you this but if you already know some coding feel free to take a stab at it. Here are some popular tools:
• WebScraper.io Extension
• Beautiful Soup Python Library

HTML/CSS Resources

• HTML Elements Reference
• Codecademy - HTML
• HTML-CSS-Javascript
• CSS Color Names
• CSS Fonts

jQuery (using Javascript to change HTML)

• jQuery
• Id Selector
• $(...).text()
• $(...).html()

Homework

1. Create a text generator. The generator can be a twitter bot, a glitch page or something else. You can use tracery or markov, or another method. The generator should be more about the process, and the stream of output rather than any particular result.

2. Collaborate with a computer program to produce a text. The terms of the collaboration are up to you: you can curate the output of a generator, algorithmically process your own writing, use predictive text or another method of your Print out the text or an excerpt form it (250-word max) and bring to next class. Be prepared to read it out loud.

3. Bring in some sound files (preferably mp3) to work with next week as we create language+sound instruments. Instrumental music and sound effects / samples generally work well.

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Day 2 (10/17) Text, Sound and Interactivity

We will start class with a reading of some of our prepared texts and a look at some student generators, then dive into working with sound and interactivity.

Works

Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries

• Main Website
• DAK0TA
• Samsung Means to Come
• Smash the Gang of Four Billion

Website Instruments

• Patatap
• Typatone
• Hacker Typer
• Oldschool Flash Soundboards
• Bla Bla - Vincent Morrisette
• Advertisement in my Dreams
• GifRapBot
• Pixelsynth

Poetry Instruments by Todd

• James Brown Gives Me a Poetry Solo, and I Realize That This Is 'My Moment'
• Yardley PA, 1997
• Judy Goldeneyes
• Letter Home

Tools and Code Examples

Syncing Text to Audio

• Code Examples
  • Simple Audio Playback (start with click)
  • Sync Text to Audio
  • Audio with Multiple HTML Text Elements
  • Timecode Tap Tracker (tap space on the beats/hits) (remix and put in your own song to get timecodes)
  • Text-Audio Sync with P5.js
  • Young-Hae Chang Simulator with P5.js
• Reference
  • HTML5 Audio/Video Reference
  • P5 reference
  • P5.sound reference

Keyboard Interactivity

• Code Examples
  • Sample Instrument
  • Typer Instrument
  • Video Instrument
• Reference
• jQuery Keyboard Events
• jQuery Mouse Events

Text-to-Speech

• Code Examples
  • Mespeak Instrument
  • Responsivevoice Instrument
• Reference
  • Mespeak.js
  • Responsivevoice.js

Where to get Mp3 Sound Files

• Your own music collection
• Buy an mp3 from Amazon or Google Play
• Freesound.org (for sound effects)
• Mp3 from Youtube
• I don't know, one of these royalty free music sites?
• Record yourself!

Sound Editing Software

• Audacity (great piece for free open-source audio software)
• Adobe Audition (if you already have Adobe Creative Suite)

Prompt / Challenge

• Create a language+sound instrument / interactive piece using your own writing. How does your experience of the text change moving through it this way? What does it mean to 'jam' with language? This isn't homework as you'll be starting with a new teacher next week, just a prompt to keep you going
• Present something at WordHack on the Open Projector (5 minute presentation). You can show a generator, read a text, or if you're feeling gutsy do a little performance on the poetry instrument you made today. Also whether you present or not, WordHack is a great show / community for language+technology work so I hope you can all attend if you're free!