Computational approaches to typography (Schedule)
Important links: Syllabus, form for submitting homework.
Readings available in accessible format are included as hyperlinks below. Alternate methods of obtaining the readings will be discussed in class.
Session 01: Writing on the grid
Date: 2018-10-24.
- Introduction: Inventing digital text from scratch
- Syllabus and schedule overview
- Text on the grid
- Tutorial: The ANSI terminal
Reading assigned
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George, Alison. “Code Hidden in Stone Age Art May Be the Root of Human Writing.” New Scientist, Nov. 2016.
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Borsuk, Amaranth. “The Upright Script: Words in Space and on the Page.” Journal of Electronic Publishing, vol. 14, no. 2, Oct. 2011. quod.lib.umich.edu, doi:10.3998/3336451.0014.212.
Works and resources
- Jen Bervin’s work on Su Hui
- First Screening: Computer Poems by bpNichol (not ANSI but terminal-based)
- AppleSoft BASIC Quick Reference (for functions that were available when programming in BASIC on the Apple II, as in the case of First Screening)
- everything you ever wanted to know about terminals by Lexi Summer Hale
- Textfiles ANSI art collection
- Playscii, “an open source ASCII art, animation, and game creation program”
- sixteencolors.net (archived), an extensive gallery of ANSI art
- Blocktronics ACiD Trip, A Super Long Piece of Collaborative ANSI Art
Sketch #1 assigned
Due at the beginning of session 02. Using the xtermjs/ANSI sketch demonstrated in class as a starting point, make a text-based work on the grid. For this exercise, use only the display capabilities of the emulated terminal.
Session 02: Drawing letters
Date: 2018-10-31.
- Writing
- Tutorial: The digital letterform
Works and resources
- Kate Compton, So you want to build a generator
- Spline script and Lettres de ma mère
- Book from the Sky and Recurrent Net Dreams Up Fake Chinese Characters in Vector Format with TensorFlow
- Bury, Louis. “Mirtha Dermisache’s Writing Is a Rorschach Test.” Hyperallergic, 24 June 2018
- Writing (stroke) datasets: KanjiVG and Chars74k
- Golan Levin, Jonathan Feinberg and Cassidy Curtis, Alphabet Synthesis Machine
Examples from class
- Asemic experiment 1: 3x3 grid
- Asemic experiment 2: Random angles
- Asemic experiment 3: Recursive forms
- Working with Chars74K data example
- Chars74K cutups
Reading assigned
- Simonowski, Roberton. Concrete poetry in analog and digital media.
Sketch #2 assigned
Due at the beginning of session 03. Create a computer program that produces asemic writing. Your program should implement a system of rules that produce visual artifacts that imitate the motion of physical writing or suggest the appearance of written language.
Session 03: Composing type with machines
Date: 2018-11-07.
- History of machine-assisted and computational page design
- Experimental typography and concrete poetry
- Tutorial: Creative misuses of HTML and CSS
Works and resources
Some concrete poetry and experimental typography
- Solt, Mary Ellen. Concrete Poetry: A World View; Forsythia
- Ilia Zdanevich, Ledantiu faram
- Augusto De Campos
- Guests on vispo.com
- Anatol Knotek
- Jürg Lehni & Alex Rich, Empty words
- Alyson Provax
History of markup
- Brief History of Document Markup
- A Field Guide to the Teletypesetter
- TYPSET and RUNOFF, “one of the earliest text formatting programs to see significant use”
Code as textual material
- “Twitterwurking” by Mez Breeze
- Quines
- International Obfuscated C Code Contest
- Sharon Hopkin’s listen, a well-known Perl code poem
HTML, CSS, JavaScript references
Examples from class
- Letters in a circle
- Load random Google fonts
- Rotate with perspective
- Fernbach-Flarsheim homage
- Marc Adrian homage
Reading assigned
- Zotto, Ben. “Hidden Sheep and Typography Archaeology.” Ben Zotto, 19 May 2018.
- Lehni, Jürg. “Typeface As Programme.” Typotheque, 14 Apr. 2011.
Sketch #3 assigned
Due at the beginning of session 04. R.P. Draper says that concrete poetry “is the creation of verbal artefacts which exploit the possibilities, not only of sound, sense and rhythm—the traditional fields of poetry—but also of … the two-dimensional space of letters on the printed page.” Imagine a concrete poetry that also exploits the possibilities of computation. Constraints: Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create your piece, and create and manipulate all elements programmatically (i.e., no existing marked-up text).
Session 04: Fonts as data
Date: 2018-11-14.
- Overview and history of fonts as data
- Anatomy of the letterform
- OpenType features
- Tutorial: Fonts as data
Reading assigned
Ikonen, Teemu. “Moving Text in Avant-Garde Poetry. Towards a Poetics of Textual Motion.” Dichtung Digital, no. 4, 2003.
Sketch #4 assigned
Due at the beginning of session 05. Use opentype.js (or another library) to extract shape information (or other information) from a font. Use this information to render text in an unexpected way.
Session 05: Type on the move and in response
Date: 2018-11-28.
- Principles of interactive typography
- Type on the move: who’s done it before, how to do it yourself, and why
- Works and resources
- Tutorial: Interactive type. Examples.
Sketch #5 assigned
Due at the beginning of session 06. Make a typographic composition that changes over time and/or in response to user input. Theorize a connection between the mode of change/interactivity and the reading of the text. (Can the visual/temporal presentation of the work be separated from the “content” of the text? If not, why not?)
Session 06
Date: 2018-12-05
- Homework presentations and workshop
Session 07
Date: 2018-12-12
- Final project presentations