interpretative grammar engine

"Utter is a new interactive performance work that employs computer speech recognition, motion sensing and digital memory to create an adaptive linguistic palimpsest. The system records speech and the location, movement and orientation of the speaker, using this data to create a dynamic display of texts that can interact with one another" (author-submitted abstract). Older utterances appear darker, smaller and further away whilst recent utterances appear larger, brighter and closer. The actions of the speaker determine the behaviour of the texts. Recorded utterances can recombine with one another, employing structural grammars to create new texts. Grammatical elements can migrate through the emergent 3D ecology of texts and thus through time. Utter engages the performative through the transformative power of language and suggests a system of Chinese-whispers constituted as textual recombinance and migration" (author-submitted abstract).

Oracle is a voice recognition and interpretive grammar based interactive performance artwork. The performer's speech, a series of questions posed by the audience, is acquired and presented in a digital projection. The computer system reads the acquired and collective texts, as they are layered upon one another, and generates answers to each question using a word from each of the prior questions.