Some haiku news from Jim Kacian:
A young programmer (and Yale student), Luke Bradford, has created a haiku generator application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, called Haiku Time.
He has tried to improve on the somewhat nonsensical haiku created by truly ‘random’ generators (for example, the one at http://www.everypoet.com/haiku/default.htm). To accomplish this, he’s chosen a vocabulary which is meant to fit together seamlessly—lots of nature terms and overt techniques such as personification. Rather than use dictionaries of words he’s composed its vocabulary by hand, testing to ensure that each combination meshes appropriately. In this sense, it’s not so much a random generator as a set of chosen words and phrases, yielding tens of millions of possibilities, but all under the constraints of grammar, syntax, seasonal vocabulary and a specific aesthetic. The results are simple, neither as precise nor as varied as human-written haiku, but still pleasing if not completely original.
Haiku Time is certainly a limited tool but is interesting in the way it experiments with the notion of intentionality in art. Here are some haiku that Haiku Time has generated:
Snow by the meadow
Sighing gently with the stars
The voice of the clouds
Spring day on the shore
The night laughing to the sea
Tell me of the dawn
Rose in the sunlight
Writing love songs to the sky
Murmurs of the past
You can see a demonstration video of Haiku Time on YouTube.
There are also sample haiku, further description, and updates on the developer’s blog, Luke Bradford: iPhone Apps.
The Haiku Foundation will be in conversation with Bradford to discover the possibility of creating a haiku game, for iPhone and possibly larger platforms, though this is in the very earliest stages. We would welcome your input into what you might think would be fun and challenging in a haiku game, and will keep you apprised of our progress.
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Hi, Guys, I marvel at all the different artistic creations these new electronic devices can provide for those who are proficient in them. I have spent my life trying to explore the perameters of what my body does in eye/mind/hand sync. What to me would be ideal is if the electronic and the natural arts could complement each other – inform each other. I’m not sure I’m saying this properly, but if we all just express our own art in whatever way that calls us…and to try to understand the other.
I understand that there is now some concern in the US about the lack of creativity. So I am thankful for whatever creativity is nurtured. But all art has its own history and place in the human experience. What will last and be valuable will be that which resonates with human existance.
Hmmm. I must confess that when I wrote my last comment, I was thinking of a real or vitual room where graphic artists, haiku poets, and programmers would work together to develop a new . . . something: game, performance, haiku-chanting robot! Sorry, I’m a tech writer. My day job is showing.
My point was that in that setting, people with disparate skills and kmowlege would work together for the purpose of creating something. It would not be enough to have a position and stick to it. We’d still have our views, but in that context we would set some of them aide for a while to help something come into being that is inconsistent with any one view. Of course the results would often be forgettable. But something really neat might result.
The other ideas for a Sailings etc. sound good as well.
“So Dave, maybe at some point you can lead a “cross-cultural” discussion. ”
I would be interested in this too. Coming from Germany, a year in England and France and travelling extensively in Europa and later in Asia, expecially one year India (for anthropological studies) … then off to Japan in 1977.
I know very little about American culture, never been to America.
I guess for the appreciation of Japanese haiku it does make a BIG difference wheather you can speak and read the Japanese language or not.
No more now … grin…
Gabi
Dave and all concerned: for future Sailings I would very much like to invite blog participants who have a question they are keen to explore to act as “guest presenters”. This would primarily entail introducing the exploration and, as it progresses, to jump in and move it along if called for. So Dave, maybe at some point you can lead a “cross-cuiltural” discussion. Of course, despite our beautiful fleet of sailing ships, it seems that some discussions take off on their own, in subway cars and ski lifts, and maybe some in hot-air balloons…
I will discuss this idea with Scott and Jim and report back.
I just watched the lead segment on today’s CBS Sunday Morning (The Wellspring of American Creativity) . . .
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/10/sunday/main6078280.shtml?tag=contentBody;featuredPost-PE
Naturally MIT’s Media Lab was part of the story. I thought the following part of the story was relevant to this discussion.
“Nexie [a human-like robot] – and all other Media Lab inventions – begin with what Breazeal calls the “secret sauce” of creativity: getting people in different fields to share ideas.
‘It’s not just about multiple sciences and multiple engineering,’ she said. ‘It’s like you’ve got designers and artists and musicians. I mean, we’re all under the same roof.’ ”
I think the discussion of Haiku Time has gone well. My hope is that another kind of conversation is possible — not instead of, but in addition to – the kind of discussion we just had. This other kind of discussion would be focused on “how can we integrate our different perspectives and ccreate something new, or interesting, or a good splattlering failure that serves as an object lesson to others” (!)
I hope we can have more of these cross-cultural discussions. Perhaps some of them will develop into working sessions of the kind described above, where some differences are ignored for a while and others are blended into something new.
Hi Rachel,
I agree with you, and I had hoped that was clear in my early posts.
What is interesting is that we have all reacted to the iPhone app, and in different ways.
It is a move on from the old fashioned pointless generators, and I do agree with you, and that’s why I hoped that either on the current app or a later one there will be space to suggest a place to look at current published haiku, or a good current book.
Hi Merrill,
I’ll work on it! I’m trying to get more of haiku out again after having a quiet year on my own work.
Alan
http://area17.blogspot.com
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Hi, Tom and Alan, This may be off subject, but there are missing spots in the Haiku Registry just waiting for you.
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