This generative poem extracts words from a text, whether it is the Octavio Paz poem dedicated to Roman Jacobson upon his death, or one you provide. Several algorithms act upon the text: one to select three words from the text and search for synonyms that the reader can select to replace the original word, one to determine the font color, another to perform a Google image search for a background image that uses the font color predominantly, and a text to voice program that reads the words aloud. The reader has some control over some of these algorithms and display features, but the most important one is the ability to save a screen-captured image of the generated poem, which offers a tangible reward for readers to become content creators with this work. It is also a fascinating tool for textual analysis because its “deconstructive” qualities bring out new word clusters from the original text that allow reader to reexperience it with new eyes.

Featured in ELO 2012 Media Art Show