parody

By Rui Torres, 21 February, 2021
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Abstract (in English)

In this speculative text some cyberliterature works are presented in a pedagogical perspective located in an uncertain future (this: 2029). Parodic fiction, it results, on the one hand, from experiences in teaching electronic literature seminars, courses and workshops and, on the other, from creative practice involving digital poems. It starts with the hypothesis that in the scope of electronic writing there is no essential difference between pedagogical and creative practice, rather explorations or creative investigations: writing and reading activities that use the means of communication available in their time to understand their limits and potentialities in the light of a reflective didactic perspective. Therefore, a future is envisaged in which the Portuguese National Reading Plan 2027 finally comes into play.

Description in original language
Abstract (in original language)

Neste texto especulativo apresentam-se alguns trabalhos de ciberliteratura numa perspectiva pedagógica situada num futuro incerto (este: 2029). Ficção paródica, resulta, por um lado, de experiências na docência de seminários, cursos e oficinas de literatura electrónica e, por outro, de prática criativa envolvendo poemas digitais. Parte-se da hipótese de que no âmbito das escritas electrónicas não há uma diferença essencial entre prática pedagógica e criativa, antes explorações ou investigações criativas: actividades de escrita e leitura que usam os meios de comunicação disponíveis no seu tempo para entender os seus limites e potencialidades à luz de uma perspectiva didáctica reflexiva. Imagina-se por isso um futuro no qual o Plano Nacional de Leitura 2027 entra, finalmente, em vigor.

Description (in English)

by rt to pt, with advertising soundbites speeches + - slogans advertisements jingles. constellation ?! Combinatory

Description (in original language)

por rt para pt, com propaganda soundbites discursos +- slogans advertisements jingles. constelação ?! Combinatória

Description in original language
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Contributors note

Rui Torres: txt, xml, html, snd; Nuno Ferreira: js, html

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Description (in English)

Hiperpopeia consists in a effort to transform in verses (with a epic intention, but in a free format) posts found in social media. Now almost with 10.000 verses, writting in a spand of a year, the acumulative, daily atualizations, aim to the same number of verses of the Iliad (15.693). With internal restrictions to the composicional method: names as the subjetc of the sentence; the verbs in the past perfect (the narrative and action-descretive conjugation); the vague, or overdescribed yet intencionally ambiguous, objects; and the intend to ignore the mediation of cellphones or cameras and even the social media as the medium - making the action be described as concret action. In that way, an effort to produce a machinal writing, to be reproduce in some form by algorithimic writing.

Description (in original language)

Hiperpopeia é uma obra literária que consiste em um esforço de transformar em versos (com intenção épica, mas em formato livre) postagens encontradas nas redes sociais. Com quase 10.000 versos, escritos no período de um ano, as atualizações acumulativas e diárias tencionam chegar ao mesmo número de versos da Ilíada (15.693). Com restrições internas ao método composicional: nomes como o sujeito da frase; os verbos no passado perfeito (a conjugação narrativa e da ação-descritiva); os objetos vagos, ou superdescritos mas intencionalmente ambíguos; e a intenção de ignorar a mediação de celulares ou câmeras e até mesmo as redes sociais como o meio - fazendo com que a ação seja descrita como uma ação necessariamente concreta. Desta forma, um esforço para produzir uma escrita maquinal, a ser reproduzida de alguma forma em uma escrita algorítmica.

Description in original language
Pull Quotes

Fabiano passeou com sua cachorra no primeiro dia do ano

Milena andou de patins

Juliana comparou a virada do ano com dois momentos de um filme

Description (in English)

Keith Obadike's Blackness for Sale was an eBay page advertising the sale of his blackness. The general format of eBay includes only the basic information about the product necessary to make it desirable for purchase. An item for sale typically includes a title or name of the product, a description of its uses, a starting price, and a photograph. In the case of Blackness for Sale, Obadike abided by this same format but replaces the description with a litany of pros and cons of blackness. Obadike focused on the selling points of blackness but then juxtaposed it with “warnings” of the drawbacks of owning a black identity. Although Obadike’s warnings were legitimate aspects of blackness, they were only issues of concern when inhabiting black flesh. Blackness for Sale Blackness for Sale furthered the notion that black people have been homogenized to the point where their experiences have become indistinguishable; to the outside world and the buyer, there is one black experience. Part of a person is advertised and valued much higher while systematically omitting the other elements that define their personhood. The most profitable aspect of black people is no longer their physical body but rather everything that encompasses their existence. Black culture becomes a new form of capital and the internet is where it is exchanged. Black culture can be taken from the internet without having to interact with or acknowledge the black body, thus erasing black people. Whereas before black people were only valued in capitalist societies for their physical abilities, they are now more so valued for their cultural capital.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendi_%26_Keith_Obadike)

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Blackness for Sale screenshot
Description (in English)

In “Flight of the CodeMonkeys,” you play a servile programmer who must correct code for a tyrannical AI.  In this futuristic dystopia, the AI System has control over everything — everything, that is, except its own code. To make necessary corrections or changes to its code, it needs an army of codemonkeys following its directions to the last bit.  However, as you sweat, attending to its many requests, you begin to wonder if the code you are correcting is all that benign.  When you are contacted by the Resistance, an anonymous faction poised against the System, your suspicions grow.  On the other hand, all you really want is to finish your code work so you can start your vacation with your romantic interest: marta. With each coding error you make, your vacation moves further and further away. It has been said that code holds deep meaning for its readers. This code is as meaningful as it gets, for it holds the fate of its protagonist codemonkey.In this interactive story, readers change the outcome by changing the very Python code upon which it runs, choosing whether to follow the dictates of the System (and more quickly reach a much-needed vacation) or to follow the instructions of the Resistance and attempt to bring down the System.

“Flight of the CodeMonkeys” runs on Google’s Colaboratory, which is an instantiation of Jupyter Notebooks. The code of the story is “live,” meaning it can be compiled and run. You can also download the Jupyter Notebook to run it locally. Though no programming background is required to read the story, a little literacy might just mean the difference between a life of mindless servitude and making the world anew.

(Source: Author's description on The New River)

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Description (in English)

Lede is a text generator that produces absurdist lede lines describing narrative situations.

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Screenshot from Lede
Description (in English)

You Suck at Photoshop is a series of tutorial videos on YouTube hosted by Donnie Hoyle. In the process of teaching Photoshop techniques, Hoyle's back story is revealed.

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Description (in English)

This diptych or bi-fold work presents readers with two re-workings of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky:” on one hand, a fixed, cyclical hypertext in seven parts (Ouroboros), and on the other, an endless generative deformation that refigures the mock-epic as tennis game in Hell (Jabberwock). Both options are available at the start, but only in faint, translucent lettering. Letting the cursor dwell on one side or the other activates a sound track -- on the O side, a poetic voice whispering words of wisdom; on the J side, various monstrous re-mixes of Thursday, July 2017.This diptych or bi-fold work presents readers with two re-workings of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky:” on one hand, a fixed, cyclical hypertext in seven parts (Ouroboros), and on the other, an endless generative deformation that refigures the mock-epic as tennis game in Hell (Jabberwock). Both options are available at the start, but only in faint, translucent lettering. Letting the cursor dwell on one side or the other activates a sound track -- on the O side, a poetic voice whispering words of wisdom; on the J side, various monstrous re-mixes of those words. Dwelling on one side or the other will also cause the favored side to become more fully apparent while its opposite fades toward blankness. If the reader pursues this process to the end, which takes only a few minutes, she is invited to complete her Observation by filling out a brief survey asking reasons for the choice of monsters. Dwelling on one side or the other will also cause the favored side to become more fully apparent while its opposite fades toward blankness. If the reader pursues this process to the end, which takes only a few minutes, she is invited to complete her Observation by filling out a brief survey asking reasons for the choice of monsters.

(Source: ELO 2017 Book of Abstracts).

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Technical notes

Uses HTML5 and Java, recommended to use a browser updated not earlier than in 2017.