----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Stephanie's site is indeed amazing, particularly the comments on the Python use of "is" and speculations on identity.
(I try to end either a cyborg class or a transformations of the book class with a creative project--, as you say, that is the pedagogical aim. Received some great cyborg collages, choose-your-own adventure narratives, metafictional children's books, and a DNA translation code, though no robot or code poetry yet.) The robot cinema course sounds wonderful--would love to hear more about it. Do you ever do Ginsberg in conjunction with Metropolis? ________________________________________ From: empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au [empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Margaret J Rhee [mr...@uoregon.edu] Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 4:34 PM To: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] What is robot poetics? How/why should we teach it? ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Reading through Mike's student Stephanie's site, I am struck by her process section...such a wonderful project, more thoughts, but for now, I wanted to point us to this direction, and especially thinking of the pattern, possibilities, and the limitations of the poem: "Writing poems exclusively using keywords from programming languages was an interesting process. By the time I finished the poem written in C, I realized there is a pretty distinctive pattern of word types that crop up (in any language) when consulting a list of keywords. True, false, throw, catch. If, for, new. So many of the phrases available represent conditions or states of being and duality. After a while it felt trite to play with the throw-catch dynamic or use the word “new” too many times. In this sense, programming keywords are quite limiting when it comes to poetry, and rightly so." https://keywordpoems.wordpress.com/portfolio/reflections/ On 2017-05-03 13:30, Margaret J Rhee wrote: > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- > also, queer robots: https://vimeo.com/43444347 > > On 2017-05-03 13:24, Margaret J Rhee wrote: >> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- >> Hi Mike and all, >> >> This is really generative organization of an exciting course! The >> texture of exploring poetry on code,"traditional poetry," and code >> poetry, and your framing really speaks to some of the threads that >> have developed in this week. Many of the threads have not necessarily >> culled together yet, and I feel your pedagogical approach really leads >> us in exciting directions of inquiry, and creation. >> >> Thank you for bringing up WCW and this quote, as I've love to discuss >> this in terms of poetry, and pedagogy, and machines. >> >> Because I find it more interesting to explore synergies and >> collectivities, rather than defining. I think robot poetics, resists >> that kind of categorization, or perhaps it is poetry that resists. >> >> "There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small >> (or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing >> sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is >> redundant. Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matter like a ship. >> But poetry is a machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy. >> As in all machines, its movement is intrinsic, undulant, a physical >> more than a literary character." >> >> It also reminds me of a quote on the sonnet, by Ed Hirsch, >> >> "There must be something hardwired into its machinery--a heartbeat, a >> pulse--that keeps it breathing." >> >> I most often turn to Emily Dickinson, for 'defining poetry' which is >> >> "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know >> that is poetry." >> >> If we go back to Dickinson, poetry really doesn't have a definition, >> more of a gesture to physicality, the body. Both WCW and Hirsch, speak >> to the fleshy, messiness, but "perfect economy" of poetry... The poem >> as a machine. >> >> Your point on Morgan Parker's new work is exciting, the ways Black >> artists and poetry have utilized the robot and machines in generative >> ways of racial resistance. Which may not always be taken up in these >> discussions on new media or electronic literature. I have also taught >> Douglas Kearny's The Black Automaton: >> http://douglaskearney.com/blackautopo/ >> >> Your student's Keywords Poetry is absolutely stunning, and >> demonstrates how the course opened up the possibility to create poetry >> as well as learning about it. >> >> Perhaps that is the pedagogical aim, right? Not to have students >> memorize lists of electronic literature, nor new media poetics, and >> not about defining but rather being able to hold the idiosyncrasies of >> code poetry, robot poetics... alongside questions of identify, racial, >> sexual, or otherwise. Your gesture to Whitman really reminds me of >> this, and excited to hear more. >> >> Sean, and Sunny how did your classes go? What is your approach to >> teaching about cyborg poetics? >> >> best, >> >> Margaret >> >> >> On 2017-05-03 10:16, Michael Widner wrote: >>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- >>> >>> >>> Hello all, >>> >>> The context in which I taught Margaret's poems was a course called >>> "Programming && Poetry" in which we attempted to find the >>> convergences/divergences between code and poetry. The readings >>> included Margaret's poems, some by Neil Aitken (examples here: >>> http://www.thecossackreview.com/supplement4/neil_aitken.html), >>> machine-generated poetry, and code poems. We also read many more >>> "traditional" poems by authors that included Elizabeth Bishop, Walt >>> Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Louise Glück, William Carlos Williams, >>> Charles Simic, Wallace Stevens, Hayden Carruth, and quite a few >>> others. >>> >>> I only recently discovered that Morgan Parker, in her latest book >>> "There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé", has a poem >>> "RoboBeyoncé" that I'm currently mulling. It starts: "Charging in the >>> darkroom / while you sleep I am touch and go / I flicker and get >>> turned on / Exterior shell, interior disco / I like my liver steeled >>> / >>> as a gun, my wires / unbuttoned to you". Had I known about this poem >>> when I prepared my syllabus, I would have put it alongside some of >>> Rhee's poems like "Beam, Robot", "Light, Robot", etc. I think it >>> would >>> be really productive to discuss the different ways in which the robot >>> can represent marginalized figures. For example, I've always read >>> Rhee's robot love poems as a type of queer love poetry. In Parker's >>> case, her poems deal regularly with issues of black femininity. What >>> does it mean that the robot--an ostensibly unfeeling, hard-shelled, >>> potentially dangerous creation--gets imbued by these poets with >>> sexuality and love? >>> >>> Critical readings included 10PRINT (Nick Monfort, et al.), "Screening >>> the Page / Paging the Screen" (Marjorie Perloff), Introduction to >>> Expressive Processing (Noah Wardrip-Fruin), "The Time of Digital >>> Poetry" (Katherine Hayles), Metaphors We Live By (George Lakoff and >>> Mark Johnson), Cognitive Poetics (Peter Stockwell), and several >>> articles/pamphlets on text-mining of poetry and genre classification. >>> >>> I divided the course into several themes; while code & poetry was >>> the >>> first, we also discussed electronic literature, critical code >>> studies, >>> distant reading, and cognitive poetics. The last topic, for anyone >>> unfamiliar, concerns the application of cognitive psychology to the >>> understanding of poetry: that is, if the current metaphor for mind is >>> computer, then the poem must be a type of program that gets executed >>> in that space. If so, what are the mechanisms that create meaning, >>> emotion, etc.? My students found this a productive line of inquiry as >>> they continued to use these concepts to analyze how the poems we read >>> worked on the mind. One of students also put together this exhibit of >>> "Keyword Poetry": https://keywordpoems.wordpress.com/, poems that she >>> wrote using only the reserved words in different programming >>> languages, along with her reflections on the process. >>> >>> We also discussed WCW's description of poems: >>> >>> "There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small >>> (or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing >>> sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is >>> redundant. Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matter like a ship. >>> But poetry is a machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy. >>> As in all machines, its movement is intrinsic, undulant, a physical >>> more than a literary character." >>> >>> Combined with our readings in cognitive poetics and our examinations >>> of code poems, algorithmically-generated poems, and poems about code, >>> Williams's idea reinforced the idea that a poem is like a program >>> meant to create a certain state of mind, albeit one far less >>> predictable or replicable than a computer program. Another aspect of >>> Williams's thought here that I find particularly effective when close >>> reading is the sense that every word, every punctuation mark, has >>> meaning, contributes to the motion of the poem, and must be weighed >>> in >>> any analysis: much like a computer program, where (unless there are >>> logic branches that go nowhere) every bit of code has an effect. >>> These >>> ideas required a balancing act in which, while providing different >>> tools to decompile (so to speak) how poems work, I needed to keep the >>> students aware of the ambiguity and variability of a poem's meaning >>> and effects. I was regularly reminded of these lines of Whitman's: >>> >>> Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? >>> Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin >>> of all poems, >>> You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions >>> of suns left,) >>> You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look >>> through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in >>> books, >>> You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, >>> You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self. >>> >>> Best, >>> >>> Mike >>> >>> On 5/2/17 12:20 PM, VANDERBORG, SUSAN VANDERBORG wrote: >>> >>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- >>>> >>>> A definition is challenging! Terms such as robot poetry, cyborg >>>> poetry, or machine writing might potentially include a huge variety >>>> of poetic practices: speculative poems about robots, poetic >>>> alterations or palimpsests from texts in robotics, code poetry, >>>> hypertext poetry, poetry produced via search engines (such as Darren >>>> Wershler and Bill Kennedy's _apostrophe_) and other digital poetry >>>> experiments. Poems using email or tweets. Poems that reenvision >>>> collaboration between programmers and poets. >>>> >>>> There is already a rich scholarly tradition for many of these >>>> robopoetics--_Fashionable Noise,_ _New Media Poetics_, _Digital >>>> Poetics_, _Prehistoric Digital Poetry_, and Hayles's _Electronic >>>> Literature_ and _Writing Machines_, and essays by John Cayley, Talan >>>> Memmott, Stephanie Strickland, Ian Hatcher, Florian Cramer, Matt >>>> Applegate, Steve Tomasula, and others, invaluable for teaching >>>> digital, code, and machine poetics in a special topics seminar I'd >>>> like to propose. Matthew Kirschenbaum's thoughtful "Machine Visions" >>>> details texts whose styles truly enact Haraway's idea of cyborg >>>> writing; Gregory Betts, too, discusses cyborg poetics in his article >>>> "I Object," and Christian Bok's "The Piecemeal Bard Is >>>> Deconstructed" traces "robopoetics" to its roots in RACTER >>>> algorithms. >>>> >>>> Increasingly, robopoetics doesn't only reflect a world saturated >>>> with technology but a forum where print and digital cultures >>>> interact productively. In "Noise in the Channel," Wershler talks >>>> about prose-poetic print books, including Drucker’s _The Word Made >>>> Flesh_, whose page layouts anticipate digital formats. _Writing >>>> Machines_ also juxtaposes experimental artists' books and digital >>>> poetry. >>>> >>>> I've enjoyed teaching texts from Shelley Jackson's _Patchwork Girl >>>> _to Brian Kim Stefans's _The Dreamlife of Letters_ and Jason >>>> Nelson's _Game Game Game and Again Game_ in grad and undergrad >>>> poetry or postmodernism classes; they raise provocative discussions >>>> about what constitutes a book or a poetic collage. But I've taught >>>> robopoetics most frequently in an undergrad literature survey class >>>> called "American Cyborgs." Larissa Lai's "rachel" poems in >>>> _Automaton Biographies_ pair magnificently with both _Blade Runner_ >>>> and Haraway, Susan Slaviero's "Consider the Dangers of >>>> Reconstructing Your Wife as a Cyborg" humorously (and menacingly) >>>> complements our cyborgs and gender unit, and Margaret Rhee's ": >>>> Trace" from _Radio Heart_ introduces "Race," in the title's >>>> wordplay, as a social construction already-already present even when >>>> it hasn't been "programmed yet." The "robot" in her book's subtitle >>>> pays homage to Asimov stories in which robotic identity is linked to >>>> race and discrimination such as "Bicentennial Man" and >>>> "Segregationist." And there is the short film for the lyrics of >>>> "Many Moons,'" set amid an updated slave auction, where Janelle >>>> Monae presses a button at her neck to change the skin color of her >>>> android character. Studying robot poetics and robot subjectivity >>>> becomes a way of talking about fights for civil rights, human >>>> rights--and the interpretation of documents from the Declaration of >>>> Independence to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. >>>> >>>> I'm very eager to hear how others in the forum have taught any form >>>> of robopoetics, and in what contexts, or with what results... >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> -Susan >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> empyre forum >>>> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au >>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu >>> >>> -- >>> Michael Widner, Ph.D. >>> Academic Technology Specialist >>> Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages >>> Stanford University Libraries >>> Pigott Hall, Room 108 >>> 450 Serra Mall >>> Stanford, CA 94305 >>> t: 650-798-9485 >>> _______________________________________________ >>> empyre forum >>> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au >>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu >> >> -- >> Margaret Rhee, Ph.D. >> >> Visiting Assistant Professor >> Women's and Gender Studies >> University of Oregon >> _______________________________________________ >> empyre forum >> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au >> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu > > -- > Margaret Rhee, Ph.D. > > Visiting Assistant Professor > Women's and Gender Studies > University of Oregon > _______________________________________________ > empyre forum > empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au > http://empyre.library.cornell.edu -- Margaret Rhee, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor Women's and Gender Studies University of Oregon _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
