[Sigia-l] Interactive Alice

[celia romaniuk]

On Mon, 15 Apr 2002, Tom Burke wrote:

> You're going to want to read today's NY Times for the
> article on textarc.org, a site featuring software that
> maps the content and structure of literary classics
> such as Alice in Wonderland, turning a linear
> narrative into an interactive map.

Tangentially related is something a friend of mine made a few years ago. I
wondered aloud what would happen if you translated some mailing list
traffic patterns into music, and within a few days he'd answered the
question.

http://www.generative.net/papers/MIDI::Realtime/

"Hmm. Emails into music, weird. But hey, in previous lives I've hacked
perl to turn databases into spreadsheets, and specification docs into C
code, so why not mail into sound? ....

"We dreamed up some more detail, and came up with two reasonably workable
ideas about what the music should be. The first was that you should be
able to hear each thread separately, so you could hear each one appear,
intermingle with the others and die. The second idea was that the music
should show how the list traffic changed over time; not only rises and
falls, but also changes in texture. Different people post in different
patterns, and over time, people from a wider range of timezones joined the
list." 

Celia