N a n o g e n m o

Nanogenmo: 50,000 words of computer generated text.

This is my second time writing this post.  Blogger has a nice auto-save feature, which has cursed me into writing this all over again.  Also, I'm still using Blogger, which I started 10 years ago.

So again....

Academic papers were painful.  The length requirements made me cringe and procrastinate until I floated through the halls of school like a maple leaf passed its prime.  One day, during my sophomore year in high school my lit teacher was passing back our assignments.  When she dropped mine off at my desk, she sternly proclaimed I increased the font size to make my text appear longer.  To my defense, I only changed the size of the punctuation marks but I was ignorant to the fact it would alter the spacing as well.

The next year, I took a creative writing class because it had an allure to it.  All the quirky, down-to-earth teachers taught classes like that and I wanted an environment where I could explore.  At the time I was actively rebelling against my parents urge to pursue computers as it makes "good money and I'll have a stable future".  I took the computer courses to make them happy and creative courses because I enjoyed them.  You could say my introduction to coding, design, and expression started to bud then.

After many years in dabbling in the driest of computer courses and the eccentric arts I've arrived here.  A course that seems familiar but there is still a learning curve.  It took me over week to find something I could mash together through a computer to crank out a novel.  The length requirement started to rekindle both fond and traumatic memories of school.  I decided to use my past works as creative food.

Python is a programming language I wanted to become familiar with next.  After being able to flex my personal perspective into JavaScript and C++ it felt like the next logical step.  I re-watched part 1 of the Jupiter Notebook tutorial over and over until it sunk in.

Starting with setting global variables I tweaked the example code to:

line = int(random.randrange (4) + 2)

It's simple, but learning where to put the int prefix was an accomplishment for learning the syntax.

I wanted to use this variable to create variation in how many words there would be in each line.  So rather than it being only 3 or 4 words per line, the randomness could induce a better rhythmic quality.  I tried using the variable in a for loop and it to worked in the 'selected' field.  However, when I put it in the range to accurately make 50,000 words it drew an error requiring an integer.  This is when I made the variable into an int.

for i in range (50,000/line):

It drew the same error.  I was getting remainders with my random line generation of 3's and 4's.   I wanted 3 and 4 word lines because it looked better than other number combinations.

I conceded and went with 4 words per line to make the math easier for me.

This text is generated from my fiction works written back in 2008-09.

 Nanogenmo

Lab 2

Going off of sequenced effects.  I wanted something you can hit hard, like a drum pad.  I build up layers of felt to give a more structural integrity.  Once I put the Velostat in, I don't think the conductive thread was prominent enough to create a circuit and made the circuit even harder to activate.  I ended up removing the Velostat because I liked feel of the switch without.  I think it'd be good as a "stomp" sensor for your foot.  Maybe a punch sensor?  I could rework the Velostat to give an "impact velocity" value.

Lab 1

This was my first intro into building soft circuits.  I wanted to play with the structure and design to see what different interactions I can create.

Battery and LED demo:

To play more with the structure, I wanted to create a sequence that would play/activate something every-time the circuit was complete.  Here is my multi-meter ping composition.

Touch Interface

For my interface I wanted to create give a musical aesthetic associated with the controls.  Ideally this would be used in a serial interface with a midi program such as Ableton.

This would be the virtual bass.  By selecting the bass clef you activate the instrument, and there would be notes that would correspond with midi notes on a musical staff.

The bass clef was really responsive.

I found out later that the LEDs were wired inverse of each other. So only one goes on depending on how it is wired. This is good for debugging the polarity.  The velostat was a variable resistor so the LED brightness can be controlled as way of haptic feedback.  Maybe can be used for setting tempo or rhythm.

The second switch was troublesome.  I'm not sure if it was the connection or the arduino but it wouldn't register off easily once it was turned on.  I checked for shorts and the multimeter wouldn't beep, rather it would show the resistance go lower.  Even after rebuilding the contact points and making them smaller so they wouldn't short I still had some issues.

NIME staging

Commentary

[i didn’t realize how much I rely on spellcheck till I put the code into a word doc.  It’s surprisingly sad.]

[A monster is a creature in the outside. //breaks code]

[A mirror is in the Bedroom.  //doesn't make sense because i turned exercise verbs into nouns]

[Looking is an action applying to one touchable thing.   Understand "look[something]" as looking. // applying to one touchable thing, breaks code]

[How would I create a condition that you have to carry out all three exercises before you go bald?]

[How can I put a marker in after you complete all 3 exercises that "a year has passed of you doing these exercises everyday" ?]

[Report looking:

    say "You look in the [the noun].  You have [if work out]you've trained so hard you went bald![else] a beautiful head of hair[end if]." ]

   

[error console says, "violence isn't the answer to this one" is this program being coy?]

    

    [This programming language is not like traditional writing and it's not like coding.  It is a weird syntax in between that. I've had countless compilation errors for small spelling and grammar mistakes.  The error console feels condescending. I enjoy the possibilities but this not agreeing with me like a day old burrito that is difficult to digest.  I wanted to re-create a mundane, absurdist superhero story but it turned into a regurgitated mess staining my brain tissue. I need to take a saline nasal spray and fill my entire head cavity. As the dark matter painfully drips slowly from my face holes I will try to suppress a nightmarish sleep tonight.]

Twining

Visual programming is a nice, but I still have an aversion to Max and TouchDesigner interfaces.  Perhaps it was all the academic brainstorm formats that haunt me.  The time of my life when I had to do my homework because my parents will be happy if I get good grades and will know if I Photoshop them to look better.

Twine was nice because of the immediate gratification.  You write a story point and it's there.  You can add on or it can stand on its own.  In the previous sketch, I mentioned it changed the way I thought.  I've always found dialogue to be the easiest thing to write.  Scenes are not always held responsible to carry the weight of a narrative. It's like banter with an old friend after a few beers on an empty stomach.  Twine enforced a rule-set to connect scenes.  If I can have any form of organization that promotes clarity in my work i'm a happy banana.

There is a draw to structuring my work.  I usually go by feeling and it is much harder to organize feelings since they are so unstable.  Also, I noticed in writing this way, I was able to move the story faster. Once you finish a container, you can leave that idea there rather than re-working it to a soggy page of eraser marks.

Twine html doc

Generate me

Tracery Generated Story - Sketch #1

This was my first experience of programming generative text.  It encouraged thinking in a modular way –like a puzzle but each piece had multiple functions.

The form or structure had to be hardcoded unless you really wanted to tweak your brain with the code.  This structure did not promote new ideas of narrative arcs but new outfits for the story to live in.

I enjoyed how the code told its own story of the narrator.  It was a new way to look at the language instead of the usual, linear sentence structure.  The thought process and the organization methods are unique to each person in our class.  It was fun to see the internal dialogue between human and computer during class presentations.

Code Link