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Definitions – Computational poetry using MIT’s ConceptNet
Created by Bryan Ma at Parsons, Definitions is a computational poetry installation made up of 15 networked LCDs that searches MIT's ConceptNet to serve as a metaphor for the use of NLP in commoditizing human activity on the internet.
The LCD screens individually display seemingly random English words or phrases one at a time in sequence from the left to the right. When all screens have filled up with words, it restarts and displays a new sequence. Each LCD's word or phrase is connected via some semantic relationship to those adjacent to it - for example: "computer" -> "keyboard" -> "music"; or "cat" -> "water" -> "plant" (computers [have] keyboards and keyboards [play] music, and cats [don't like] water which is [required by] plants). These words and phrases are sourced in real time via an algorithm searching through MIT's massive ConceptNet semantic network, so the combinations are effectively endless, and occasionally highly amusing or unexpected - though with a degree of scrutiny it becomes apparent that the first and last LCDs always have the same two words: "person" on the first, and "money" on the last. The semantic pathway between them, though innumerably varied, begins and ends identically each time.
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