Taroko Gorge Remixes

“Along the Briny Beach” by J.R. Carpenter

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Screen capture from "Along the Briny Beach" by J.R. Carpenter
Open “Along the Briny Beach” by J.R. Carpenter

For this generative poem J.R. Carpenter infused the Taroko Gorge source code with coastal language, and used the HTML marquee tag JavaScript marquee to insert other beach themed texts and images into the generated page (see the credits). What she assembles on the screen for us is an elegant pastiche of poetic and scientific texts, displaying on different schedules and layered to produce rich juxtapositions. The marquees allow for simple interactivity, such as pausing, speeding up, or reversing the flow of text or images— a blessing when one comes across an engaging snippet of text— that evokes the back and forth flow of water on the beach. But perhaps the most engaging part is the generated text cascading down the screen, providing us with an experience of a perilous coastline as the site of conflict between humanity and the sea, subject to tsunamis and riptides, where “quays pollute,” “gulfs disguise,” and “wharfs collapse.” This is not a romanticized beach designed to attract tourists, nor are the ones referred to in the texts she remixes to create this poem.

And for those who stand on the shores of cyberspace and wonder about the origin and shape of the texts that flow onto generated pages spaces, I recommend you dive into the source code (a right click on the poem should present the option): it’s more readable and fascinating than you might think.

Note (March 20, 2013): In my interview published at The Signal, I stated that J.R. Carpenter uses the HTML marquee tag prominently, which poses a potential digital preservation risk. Carpenter corrected me in this error, pointing out that she uses JavaScript for the marquee effect.

Featured in ELO 2012 Media Art Show, ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature

ELMCIP logo with text: "Read more about this work at ELMCIP."

“Taroko Gary” by Leonardo Flores

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Open “Taroko Gary” by Nick Montfort

Screen shot from “Taroko Gary” by Leonardo Flores. Light brown colored background of mountains, rivers and trees. Over the natural view there is a poem. The verses read: “Vague peak slip the streambed./ Forest clearing the torrent./ grind the leafy -/ Mountain climbing the water./ Outcrop climbing the water./ get along the broad slow damp braided -/ Mountain slip bridge./ Torrents floated/ Walls lost.” At the right corner there is a text as well with names in orange color: “Taroko Gary/ Nick Montfort/ Gary Snyder/ Leonardo Flores” Nick Monfort and Gary Snyder are crossed over with a line.

When I read “Taroko Gorge,” by Nick Montfort, something about the endless scrolling through a natural landscape made me think of Gary Snyder’s masterpiece Mountains and Rivers without End, inspired largely by Chinese landscape scroll paintings.

As a longtime reader and admirer of Snyder’s poetry this mashup arises out of deep respect for both Snyder’s and Montfort’s work. This is not intended to imitate or generate lines by Snyder: merely to gestures towards his poetry. “Taroko Gary” is a path through a digital landscape, built out of Nick’s trailblazing poetry generation code and using some of Snyder’s words from “Endless Streams and Mountains” as cobbles.

So I have to thank Gary Snyder for his amazing poetry, Nick Montfort for “Taroko Gorge” and for inviting me to actualize the affinity I felt between his poem and Snyder’s work, and Mark Marino for starting this discussion thread in the Critical Code Studies Working Group 2012.

“Taroko Gorge” by Nick Montfort

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Screen shot from “ Taroko Gorge” by Nick Montfort. Green background with part of a poem in white letters. Text: “The crag commands the ripplings./ Shape trails the rock./ track the tough objective clear dim -/ Brow commands the cove./ The crags hum./ Mists exercise the veins./ translate the rough objective clear dim - / Layers command the basins./ Shapes rest./ Mists trail the rock./ track the sinuous –“ In the right corner of the picture there are words that read “Taroko Gorge/ Nick Montfort.” The title of the work in light green and the name of the author in blue.
Open “Taroko Gorge” by Nick Montfort

The lines of this poem cascade down the screen, describing a peaceful natural scene. Its pacing is meditative, reminiscent of some Gary Snyder poems. Its rhythm is mostly iambic with abundant trochees at the beginning of lines and occasional spondees to punctuate moments in the poem. The pacing of the scrolling lines doesn’t let you stop and look away, but won’t be too demanding, and once a line scrolls past visibility it is gone: you cannot scroll up or down. Live the moment in this poem for as long as it lasts, until you reach the end or realize what’s going on… whichever comes first.

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