Dominique Lowell » Uncategorized

Flarf

dominique — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:37:14 +0000

Recently I was introduced to Flarf, a concept which is difficult to define since it’s originators refuse definition. I think anyone who likes to dork around on the web, as I do, has probably gone there though. I once used a song title search interface to find all possible permutations of the words ants, pants, and dance, printed the titles out and called it a poem. Unfortunately that example is taped to another computer desk. So for kicks I ran the “About Me” text on the homepage of this site into Google translate for Russian and back again. Here’s what I got -

“My passion for communication has become the exploration on the Internet, and as the exchange of information and creative tools – a request due to my experience as a published writer, artist, and computer science student. I am intrigued by the possibilities of digital technology and new forms of communication and the creation of his inspiring.”

Endless hours of fun. For more on the Flarf community, as it were, visit the blog.
Of course random and semi-random text generation is nothing new. It really harkens back to “cut-up” and collage techniques. The advent of the database just heightens the experiment. There are all kinds of random poetry generators to be found (just Google it), but this Dylan Thomas-esque one from the BBC is kind of fun. And of course, a perennial favorite, The PostModern Essay Generator (be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page).
I’m being a little flip here, nothing wrong with that, but it is fascinating to consider the possibilities and implications of hypermedia and the web as a creative environment – as well as more serious work in that environment. Deconstructed perhaps, but a viable and valid art form. More as I explore…

in the 7th moon, the chief turned into a swimming fish and ate the head of his enemy by magic

dominique — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:33:47 +0000

Further adventures in the global community…
I came across an essay by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard called The Polyglot Internet in which he discusses the problems of machine translation (see previous post) and the danger of linguistic isolation on the internet. Despite the massive globalization of user generated content with more opportunity available to interact with people of your own culture there is less incentive to share across global barriers.
“This in turn may fulfill some of the predictions put forth by those who see the Internet acting as an echo-chamber for like-minded voices, not as a powerful tool to encourage interaction and understanding across barriers of nation, language and culture.”
I thought, wait a minute, so I couldn’t find Farsi (Persian) in Google Translator, I know they have Chinese. However it appears that unless you’re dealing with romance languages machine translation doesn’t cut it. A comparison of the English text provided on the site with the one Google Translate chugged out is, well, let’s just say it’s difficult. Zuckerman looks to peer generated translation. Peer generated is the Internet way…
Ahh, but there’s always music! The title of this post is the title of a CD I just picked up by Kasai AllStars, a group from the Congo who have a beautiful mishmosh of traditional instrumentation along with bizarrely distorted and amplified ones (due to amps constructed from abandoned car parts and such). It’s awesome. And who could resist a title like that?

Netvibes and Arabic

dominique — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:57:25 +0000

So I was stumbling around the web today like usual and came across Netvibes, an RSS/widget aggregator that lets you create a homepage of personalized favorites. As someone who got really RSS happy for a while I thought it was kind of cool to be able to see all my favorite feeds displayed at once and from any computer. Michael Wensch of Kansas State is using it as the Digital Ethnography homepage/portal, and what a wealth of info. (If you haven’t seen the Digital Ethnography YouTube project check it out) Started a Netvibes homepage but need to play with it some more…

Also got invited to join a Goodreads group called “Underground Thought” by someone in Iran who “friended” me (I don’t know what you call it for Goodreads). I like the title so decided to check it out. The first post was in Arabic. I plugged it into Google translator and this is a sample of what I got:

] اولین base: it’s the principle of time, the ghosts of بی خبری …. By Sraghtan می آیند broke Ha der Webster sleep, روزها der گوشه taking, warned باشید’s New آنها and even سایه These Ra جدی بگیرید. چرا که Roozbarha smuggled Annan Ra دیدار می below and your New NBA خبرید.

So I’m going to hold off joining the group. I kind of want to know what they’re discussing. I do find the books he reads interesting (the ones I recognize), and have learned about authors I didn’t know existed (like Abdolkarim Soroush) so it’s all good.

Geez, it just occurred to me that the post was probably in farsi, not arabic. Duh. What an American I am. Maybe I’ll try that translator again…