自動化 | Automation

"Andrew Campana is a Ph.D. Candidate in Japanese Literature at Harvard University." 

"A generated poem written by Campana in Japanese (自動化) and English (Automation), this piece is inspired by the automated announcements that are produced, seemingly endlessly, in Tokyo's train and subway stations. While highly situated in a particular city, this work also has international qualities: Automated train announcements are not, themselves, unique to Tokyo, and the odd, disjointed world that these generated texts evoke could resonate with the novels of Márquez as much as with those of Murakami. As simple as these automated statements are, they are consistent with the discourse of magical realism by announcing bizarre, unreal occurrences with complete nonchalance. They also ask the reader to participate in the curious projected world by making requests, politely giving (impossible) instructions. The text generation in both versions is accomplished by a simple JavaScript program which can be studied and even modified by the intrepid reader of code; the addition of text-to-speech output provides an experience similar, in terms of media channels, to that in the station." -- from Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3