ReRead:
Poetry Reading with Machine Learning

2020, Spring

This project is inspired by David Jhave Johnston’s works and the book, ReRites: Human + A.I. Poetry produced and collected by him. The book is a collection of poems generated by A.I. and edited, organized by humans. In my project, I attempted to have the machine analyze the text from the book, deconstruct them and label them, and have the result returned to us as readers. Human audiences will then read them again, perceive them along with the instruction given. Throughout this process, I created an unfamiliar context for poetry to exist, with the absence of either human authorship or agency of perceivers. By deconstructing the components of poetry, I want to clarify the role that has been played by human consciousness in the process of creating poetics and possibly explore the essence of poetics.