Presented at conference or festival

At this stage we shall report on a program which the author recently executed on the electronic mainframe ZUSE Z 22 at the T.H. Stuttgart computer center. The machine was used to generate stochastic texts i.e. sentences where the words are determined randomly. The Z 22 is especially suited to applications in extra-mathematical areas. It is particularly suited to programs with a very logical structure i.e. for programs containing many logical decisions. The machine's ability to be able to print the results immediately, on demand, on a teleprinter is ideal for scientific problems.

(Source: Theo Lutz, "Stochastische Texte", in: augenblick 4 (1959), H. 1, S. 3-9)

50 years ago a calculator generated a literary text for the first time ever. And this was in Stuttgart my hometown.
Theo Lutz wrote 1959 a program for Zuse Z22 to create stochastic texts. On the advice of the Stuttgardian philosopher Max Bense, he took sixteen nouns and adjectives out of Kafka’s “Schloss,” which the calculator then formed into sentences, following certain patterns. Thus every sentence began with “ein” or “jeder” (“one” or “each”) or the corresponding negative form “kein” or “nicht jeder” (“no” or “not every”). Then the noun, selected arbitrarily from the pool of sixteen, was linked through the verb “ist” (“is”) with the likewise arbitrarily chosen adjective. Then the whole assembly was linked up through “und,” “oder,” “so gilt” (“and,” “either,” “thus”) or given a full stop. Following these calculation instructions, by means of this algorithm, the machine was able to construct such sentences as:

EIN TAG IST TIEF UND JEDES HAUS IST FERN
(A day is deep and every house is distant)
JEDES DORF IST DUNKEL; SO GILT KEIN GAST IST GROSS
(Every village is dark, thus no guest is large)

For the performance of “free lutz!” I use a web conversion of Theo Lutz’s program which I wrote in PHP. The Web interface generates stochastic texts on the basis of Lutz’s algorithm but permit additional word input. The nouns and adjectives of the original vocabulary can be replaced by the audience at the performance through a terminal.
In 1959, computer texts were connotated as literary texts twice over, firstly through the “Kafka” vocabulary, and secondly through corrections carried out by Theo Lutz. In an edited print out of a selection of stochastic texts, Theo Lutz corrected minor grammar errors and punctuation omissions by hand, and thus, out of keeping with the programming, he acted as a “traditional” author. In the performance, reference is made to these literary features (or one could almost say “human failings”) of the first computer-generated texts in two ways. The first is through the co-authorship of the listeners, the second is the literary production of the computer texts by a professional speaker reading off the screen and performing them as they were generated.

sniff_jazzbox creates an audible city. it converts the wlan-waves into sound waves. the wlan conversion uses a streamsearch algorithm which was also used in streamfishing and searchsongs. the extended version for iphone will let the user control instruments and speed of the melodies.

sniff_jazzbox captures the wlans in the immediate area like a wardrive-tool and produces a stream of wlan-names. this stream of words might be understood as a subconscious expression of the presently existing communication networks. sniff_jazzbox renders private data visible, translates it and makes it audible as a melody of yearning for contact and exchange.

the names of the captured hotspots contain playable tones of the musical notation system (c, d, e, f, g, a, h, c, fis, ces ...). as you walk, ride or drive through town you will inevitably encounter loads of hotspots which are accessible for your little machine. sniff_jazzbox.audible_city is made for the iphone, it registers all the hotspots and turns them into music. through a set of instruments and different speeds for the tunes the user can interact with the tunes and adapt the music. Try it out! Walk through your neighbourhood or any town - preferably in the evening - and hear the wireless and invisble communication around you!

Rules of the game.

An international epitaph is to be created in honour of Gertrude Stein, who died on 27 July 1946.
The subject prescribed for this international epitaph is the last (No. LXXXIII) of the Stanzas in meditation ("Why am I if I am..."). We are looking for textual, audio and grafic elaborations of the theme.

The texts should, like the prescribed stanza, consist of fourteen lines/verses. The last verse must read: These stanzas are done. It is left to the individual author wether he/she follow the structure of the prescribed stanza by Gertrude Stein (diminishing/increasing length of line, rhymes, etc.) or react to other texts of the Epitaph in free association. The text should at any event be written in the author's mother tongue and if possible accompanied by the rough translation or a free version in German.
The audio creations must for technical reasons be noted in letters. Graphic contributions should not exceed to format 30 x 30 cm.

Fabrikverkauf [www.fabrik-ver-kauf.de] takes the affirmation of community and e-commerce as an opportunity for the user to create the art-performance of the [walking exhibition]. To do this the customer has to order a t-shirt (on which I printed self-designed artmotives) via www in the e-shop of "Fabrikverkauf". On delivery the customer at the same time gets a password that takes they on the site of "Fabrikverkauf" and there he/she can publish when and where he/she will wear this specific t-shirt, i.e. where the body-worn art, the exhibition he/she gives , the date of the walking exhibition can be looked at. So far the walking exhibition has 120 exhibition dates worldwide.

While concrete poetry in print combines linguistic and graphic qualities of words, in digital media time and interaction are two additional ways of expression. Words can appear, move, disappear, and they can do this all in reaction to the perceiver’s input. [...] If a still can progress into a movie, the worm of course can eat the apple as in Johannes Auer’s digital adaptation worm applepie for doehl.

Source: Simanowski, Roberto. "Concrete Poetry in Analog and Digital Media."