The Renewable Sonnets of William Shakespeare (Volumes 1 & 2)
Volume 1 is inspired by and developed from files originally created by Jim Andrews. See http://vispo.com/StirFryTexts/about.html for more info.
Volume 2 is further inspired by the work of Nick Montfort, particularly https://nickm.com/memslam/
The larger project is my first foray into digital poetry that uses a relatively large data set, in this case, the complete sonnets of William Shakespeare.
I used Python to prepare and properly format the poetic content for the JavaScript engines.
In Volume 1, the user has the ability to stir lines from Shakespeare’s original 154 sonnets into their “own” creation and to render a screenshot of any particular stirring by pressing the “collect the ephemera” button. The user also has the option to “defeat the ephemera” and return the text to one of Shakespeare’s originals.
In Volume 2, the user does not have the ability to stir Shakespeare’s texts into their “own” creation as the texts are generative or “self-stirring.” Instead, the user has the opportunity to “read the ephemera” by pressing the “Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die” button
rendering a screenshot of any particular stirring. “Thou shouldst print more…” is the last line of Sonnet XI.
In terms of timing for Volume 2, I’m trying to create the impression that the lines are bubbling to the surface of the screen.
For both projects, because different poems are being stirred together–as many as 14 at once–it is impossible to preserve the ABAB rhyme scheme of the originals. This results in a (vast) collection of blank verse sonnets: 14 lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter.
There are 15414 possible combinations in both volumes.
The rendered screenshots will be slightly blurry. It pleases me that the rendering is clearly a degraded duplicate, more permanent but not as crisp as the ephemeral original.
Looking ahead for this project, I imagine an installation where the user will have the opportunity to print the screenshot onto a sticker. This way, the new stirring will be even more permanent, a tacky takeaway token from the experience, like the souvenir of a smooshed penny.
Currently, I am working on the The Renewable Sonnets of Emily Whitman, which will combine the complete works of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman into stirrable and/or generative sonnets.
