Aside from the use of the newsblog itself, I've noticed that we rarely give Virtual Writers their dues in recognition here. It's all about "visual art" this and "music boxes" that. Where's the interesting journalism, poetry and prose news? Are we just going to leave our literary peers in the dust?
Of course not. We love ALL Virtual Artists here :] And so, as a tribute to all those voracious verbal vagabonds out there, I have found just the story for you!
In 1968, the first major exhibition for computer art was opened in London and artistically Christened "Cybernetic Serendipity". It was a groundbreaking exhibition in that it made the viewers question what it was that was making the art involved in the show- was it the computers ,calculating numbers and running code, or was it the mind that created the formulas and directions for the computers to follow?
Most of the art for the show was text-based (a lot of which has been recreated here for your chronocidal enjoyment). From the high entropy essays, to the simple and down-to-earth Haiku generating programs, 1968's technology is still as astounding and meanigful as it was when it was first made.
The Haiku-generating programs were originally created by Margaret Masterman and Robin McKinnon-Wood with its very simple and self-explanitory purpose. The program only gives you nouns and verbs to work with, and once you have selected your desired words, the computer fills in the rest for you- and presto! You've just collaborated with a computer to make a poem.
In 1968, the Haikus were pinned to a wall- today, you can submit them to a website and have them archived for... who knows what? In any case, it's fun to read what other people have compiled, and it's a great feeling to contribute to other artists' art, living or cybernetic.
No comments:
Post a Comment