RiTa† is an easy-to-use natural language library that provides simple tools for experimenting with generative literature. The philosophy behind the API is to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still providing adequate flexibility for more advanced users. The download comes in two flavors: 1) the ‘core’ package, containing the jar files and documentation, and 2) the ‘TTS’ package that adds text-to-speech support. Additionally, statistical models for tagging, chunking, and parsing are available for more advanced users (see ‘Stat-Models’). RiTa optionally integrates with Processing and is both free and open-source. Continue reading

The Body Electric: An Evening with Jesse Malmed :: July 20, 2011; 7:00 pm (reception to follow) :: Whitsell Auditorium, The Northwest Film Center, Portland Art Museum.

Whip smart, blissfully dense and multipronged cinema and performance; conceptual poetics, direct address, participatory movie song. Jesse Malmed presents a fascinating and manifold mix of conceptually rich video L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetics, process-intensive bi-fidelity abstractedelia and participatory installations such as the multiple iterations of CONVERSATIONAL KARAOKE!! (in which audience members perform dizzying, strange and incisive texts of the artist’s design). Continue reading

Other Sights for Artists’ Projects is pleased to announce Digital Natives, a public art project on the electronic billboard at the Burrard Street Bridge, in Vancouver, Canada from April 4–30, 2011.

Located on Skwxwú7mesh territory in the heart of the city, the digital signs, facing north and south, flash a static advertisement every ten seconds. Their scale, and their proximity to the bridge makes for an assertive relationship to the pedestrians, cyclists and motorists entering and departing downtown, and this occupation of visual space has been the subject of considerable controversy.

For Digital Natives — curated by Lorna Brown and Clint Burnham — the billboard becomes a space for exchange between native and non-native communities in an exploration of language in public space. Continue reading

Afflator — by Nick Knouf — breathes upon the conditions of today’s robotic creatures that are pulled into the muck of mimesis. To have a robot that is spoken to in natural language, that walks in a bipedal fashion, is the research that is valorised. Afflator deforms these conditions to suggest that the robotic form does not need to resemble anything we have seen before, that the means of engagement with a robot can be something other than traditional language and movement. Draping from the gallery ceiling and extending along the floor in a wave of fabric, Afflator unfolds onto contemporary robotics research to suggest other ethico-political options for engagement with the robotic other.

Extending from Afflator is a tube with an attached mask, worn by the gallery visitor to create a machinic assemblage of human and creature. Continue reading

Scripting Writing and Reading in Jim Andrews’s Digital Poems by Manuel Portela (University of Coimbra, Portugal) :: Moderator: Noel Jackson (MIT) :: July 14, 2010. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: Les Belles Infidèles by Ethan Ham:

Les Belles Infidèles consists of a short story — written specifically for this project by Benjamin Rosenbaum — that has been translated and retranslated by more than 40 translators into 15 languages. The project is an exploration of the story’s compounding mutation as the translators attempt to make it work in different languages and cultures. The term “les belles infidèles” comes from a 17th century quip by Gilles Ménage in which he compared a set of translations to an acquaintance of his: beautiful but unfaithful. The phrase has come to express the tension between making a translation seem natural in the target language versus keeping it as close as possible to the original text. Continue reading

KØS: Museum of Art in Public Spaces presents: OSLOO by FOS :: until August 29, 2010 :: Strandgade 27, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The piece Osloo by Danish visual artist FOS is a floating social pavilion where 12 ’situation-compositions’ will take place over the course of 12 nights. Each event involves a mixture of genres that creates an alternate view on a chosen subject, in this case ‘Language’. The aim of Osloo’s events is to explore the way in which language functions as a social tool.

The pavilion is open every day from 4-12 pm and functions as a public space on the harbour. The platform consists of three “stages”: a Bar, a Stage, and the Internet radio station Grotta Nuova. Continue reading

[Image: Two Textual Instruments by Noah Wardrip-Fruin with Brion Moss, David Durand, and Elaine Froehlich] From the Page to the Screen to Augmented Reality: New Modes of Language-Driven Technology-Mediated Research :: July 12, 2010; 9:00 am - 6:00 pm :: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Rooms JG3002 and JG3003, John Galsworthy Building, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE.

Keynote Speaker: Jay David Bolter — Elite and Popular: Digital Art and Literature in an Era of Social and Locative Media: The relationship between digital literature and the literary mainstream has always been complicated. Despite a growing body of creative work, digital authors still have difficulty attracting the attention of traditional readers and critics. Continue reading

Imprint II – Henry Daniel and Owen Underhill :: June 17-20, 2010 :: San Francisco.

Imprint is a daring, site-specific work for dancers, large music ensemble and telepresence technology. It explores the resonance of cultural artifacts and stories as transmitted from place-to-place, time-to-time, and person-to-person. Music by Owen Underhill is paired with Henry Daniel’s spectacular combination of modern technology and movement.

The Imprint project began when Curator Jill Baird approached Henry Daniel to create a new work for the opening of the new Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC. Henry approached Owen Underhill who in turn brought in the Turning Point Ensemble, and a complex journey was begun. On January 23, 2010, the first project, Imprint I, was premiered at the MOA. Extensive assistance with this project was provided by Chief Robert Joseph and William Wasden, both of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation. Continue reading

Huis Clos | No Exit - On Translation — Telematic performance with 6 performers :: May 29, 2010; 8:30 pm :: Netherlands Media Art Institute, Keizersgracht 264, 1016 EV Amsterdam. (Part of the Performmikka Internettikka event curated by Petra Heck)

6 Netartists will challenge one another into collective actions. What will happen when they will only use their mother tongue and code to communicate? — Annie Abrahams in Amsterdam (NIMk) will only speak Dutch :: Ruth Catlow in London will only speak English :: Paolo Cirio in London will only speak Italian :: Ursula Endlicher in New York will only speak German :: Nicolas Frespech in Montélimar will only speak French :: Igor Stromajer in Hamburg will only speak Slovenian. Continue reading