=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1628/Creative_paper3
|storemode=property
|title=None
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1628/Creative_paper3.pdf
|volume=Vol-1628
}}
==None==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1628/Creative_paper3.pdf
Generative Stein Poems
Everardo Reyes-Garcia Samuel Szoniecky Jean-Pierre Balpe
Paragraphe Lab. Parargraphe Lab. Parargraphe Lab.
University of Paris 8 University of Paris 8 University of Paris 8
2 rue de la Liberté 2 rue de la Liberté 2 rue de la Liberté
93526 Saint-Denis, France 93526 Saint-Denis, France 93526 Saint-Denis, France
ereyes-garcia@univ-paris8.fr sszoniecky@univ-paris8.fr balpe.jp@gmail.com
ABSTRACT 2. DESCRIPTION OF ARTISTIC GOALS
Stein poems are short fragments of text that refer to life in Our artistic goal is to experiment and provoke unexpected
general. They evoke emotions, past, present, and future situations behaviors of conventional computing in order to challenge
through a rich vocabulary, putting special attention to syntax and cultural and perceptual habits. Artistic hypertext and hypermedia
semantics of phrases. We present a hypertext implementation of systems are relevant because they do not ascribe specific forms of
Stein poems. Our piece can be described as a series of rules for representation to data, they rather allow for the exploration of
creating poems, but it is also a web-based authoring tool that interrelationships between the system components.
produces simple text poems and makes them available as API. In out work, hypermedia artworks are based on systems generally
Finally, it is also a group of graphical interventions on generated comprising three components: an input interface, a processing
text. engine and an output interface. There is no strict similarity
between signals at each component. It is the processing engine,
CCS Concepts together with its design and algorithmic capabilities, what is in
• Applied Computing ➝ Arts and Humanities • Media Arts.
charge of transforming the signals from one component to another
• Applied Computing ➝ Document management and text [2].
processing • Hypertext / hypermedia creation. The authoring tool for generating novels and poems has been used
. by Balpe to create several kinds of texts: lyrical, erotic, surrealist,
haikus, rock songs, and more recently Stein poems. They have
Keywords been deployed in around 20 blogs signed by different pseudonyms
Text Generator; Hypertext Poetry; Generative Poetry; Graphical and a web site (http://www.balpe.name/); together they form a
Interventions. hyperfiction ecology by establishing a network of links between
them but challenging the notions of linearity, departing point, and
1. INTRODUCTION final end. Indeed, because each fragment is automatically
Stein poems are short fragments of text that refer to life in generated, readers always see a new version and thus generate
general. In early 2015, Jean-Pierre Balpe started creating such new readings.
structures as part of his extensive research and development in
automatic literary text processing since the 1980s. Because the 3. TECHNICAL DETAILS
first text generators developed by Balpe were created on 3.1 Text Generator
Hypercard, it was necessary to migrate the dictionaries and rules The automatic text generator supporting the Stein poems was
into more recent technologies. In late 2014, Samuel Szoniecky designed with theoretical aspects of semantic technologies in
developed a complete authoring tool for generating texts using mind [3], as well as its role in the production of educational
Flex and made it available through the web. resources [4].
One of the main advantages of such environment is that generated The generator works with dictionaries that organize, from textual
texts can easily be distributed as simple text via an API. In this fragments, the description of formal and semantic coherence of a
respect, Stein poems can be embedded in blogs and CMS, but language. The author of a generative text writes these fragments
they can also be seen as raw input for designing and speculating indicating the parts of the text that can be replaced by multiple
with graphical interventions. choices. Then fragments used for the composition of other
fragments follow a fitting fractal logic. The generation of a work
consists in browsing through these interlocking choices at each
level of a possible fragment.
The editing and diffusing interface of the tool facilitates the
creation of generative work through import and export of
dictionaries in CSV format. It helps authors to reuse existing
fragments by writing grammatical rules of agreements and
conjugation. Finally, it offers models for webcasting works either
as raw text, html page or iframe elements.
3.1.1 Editing and diffusing tool
Figure 2. Stein poem API rendered as SVG text interface.
Figure 1. Editing and diffusing tool for generative text.
The text generator is available at http://gapai.univ-
paris8.fr/generateur/ However, an identification access is required
to use the interface. The simple text can be called at
http://gapai.univ-
paris8.fr/generateur/services/api.php?oeu=37&cpt=158370nb=1
from any web browser.
We have produced tutorials of the text generator
(https://goo.gl/ieZ5Ne) that show the basic uses of the tool. The
source code is available on a collaborative development platform
(https://github.com/samszo/generateur).
Figure 3. Stein poem API rendered as bitmap image interface
3.2 Graphical Interventions with Processing.js.
Balpe’s generative poems have been the subject of diverse output
interfaces. For example, the piece ‘Moments carolingiens’ was an Several simple online visualizations of Stein poems are available
ambitious installation where visitors could generate short passages at http://brooom.org/poemesStein/ They can be viewed with
describing the life between years 800-924. The graphical Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. No sound requirements are
rendering of texts was in form of parchment and printed on paper needed.
at every text generation. This passage from screen to paper was
also an attempt to ironically reflect on boundaries and limits. This
4. REFERENCES
[1] Balpe, J.P. 2015. Hypertexte et littérature : actualité de la
installation was part of the 2014 exhibition ‘Europe before
générativité. Les objets hypertextuels, C. Angé, Ed. ISTE,
Europe: The Carolingians’ presented at Saint-Riquier Abbey in
London, 99-119.
France [1].
[2] Reyes-Garcia, E., Balpe, J.P. 2015. Hypertexte / hypermédia
More recently we have been using the generator API to produce artistique. 100 Notions pour l’art numérique. Veyrat, M. Ed.
graphical interventions in the web browser. The idea is to exploit Les éditions de l’immatériel, Paris. 131-133.
plastic properties of text through recent graphical web
technologies. Because Stein poems are short fragments and [3] Szoniecky, S., Hachour, H., Bouhai, N., 2012. The role of
combine vocabulary from multiple domains, they can be semantic topology in sensmaking processes : adressing
‘experienced’ and ‘touched’ as visual images and user interfaces. challenges of indexing with metalanguages. 22nd European-
Figure 1 shows an output interface rendered as SVG text and Japanese Conference on Information Modeling and
Figure 2 uses the same API but is based on Processing.js. Both Knowledge Bases. Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 244– 257.
applications are interactive. While the first one randomizes [4] Szoniecky, S., 2013. Dictionnaires de catégories pour la
position and allows to drag&drop each individual letter, the latter génération automatique de proverbes : vers une économie
handles the web page as 2D matrix and applies rotation and sémantique de l’interprétation. La Néologie, Les Corpus
translation transformations with a GUI. In the end, both tools Informatisés et Les Processus D’élaboration Des Langues de
create patterns and textures of text from the Stein poems. Moindre Diffusion. Ghardaïa, Algeria.