Ahh yes — a Ted Nelson image — that was Ritz Bitz‘ suggested “make” for the week.
I’ve posted before about the iconic clenched fist of “Computer Lib. So instead of an image, I went with a poem (inspired by the eulogy noted in an earlier post) — a computer assisted poem, compiled from my tweets. This is one of my favorite “daily connects” from CCourses last fall. All you do is go to Poetweet here, enter your Twitter Handle, choose a type of poem (sonnet, rondel or indriso), hit enter and let the algorithms cull harmony from an assemblage of your Tweets. The results might not be prize worthy, but they are intriguing. It might not be the “wonderful place” Nelson thinks we deserve, but it’s a pleasant place to reflect and unwind. Here’s what my “sonnet” looked like. If you go to the actual Poetweet and hover over the lines, the Tweets from whence they came appear in the margins. Pretty cool.
Thanks for pointing the Poetweet site out – it is very cool! It reminds me of taking the notion of word clouds (like the tags on the right of this post) and actually making something out of them. I also wonder how much the poetweet might reflect the author, and whether this reflection differs from their self-perception.
I had fun with Poetweet! Yes, lots in common with Wordclouds, although the syntax and generic conventions of the sonnet definitely compound the interaction between tweets. Most of my tweets are publicity tweets for blog posts — many of them not written by me. I had to remix this a couple of times to get a decent balance of humor and “meaning.” I wouldn’t say the poetweet reflects me, but it is an interesting lens on the kinds of phrases I’m drawn to.
I love this! The dissertation mention is especially hilarious.