Centrality

Graudate Student

2014

Github

Description

Meaning often lies in seemingly random events, in the chaos and messiness of life. Yet when we read, we try to get to the heart or center of the author’s message. This poetry generator let's you explore the edges of the meanings of verbs.

Stack

Python, Heroku, Natural Language Toolkit

Contribution

Developed a procedural poetry application that took a verb as an input and utilized Natural Language Toolkit data to measure the distance between its different meanings or senses. The application the synthesized poems using definitions and synonyms mediated by nonsense words placed mathematically close to the central point of the different senses. The goal was to ask readers to look for meaning in the long tail and overlaps between senses.

Performed poetry at NYU in May 2014 at a reading of procedural poetry organized by Allison Parrish, at the NYU ITP Spring Show 2014, and at a Fall 2014 reading organized by Ross Goodwin.