Rob Seward - Four Letter Words

Four Letter Words from Rob Seward on Vimeo.

Seward works as an artist and programmer. He holds a master's degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and worked with composer Fred Lerdahl creating softwarebased on the Generative Theory of Tonal Music.

Four Letter Words is a robot that displays four letter words that are derived from a word association database. The algorithms used to generate the words take into account rhyme, letter sequencing, and association. The robot tends to display "dark" subject matter, which is influenced by different language and perception studies.

Essentially, the robot could be expanded to display any length of text, but the artist's choice to use only four letters sets a limit on how many words can be displayed. This influences the piece greatly - many of our most raw words are four letters long: love, hate, kill, hurt, etc. The piece also includes many swear words, possibly because of the many associations people make with these words. Overall, the simplicity of the piece is very impactful. The white fluorescent lights on the black background enhance the importance of the words being displayed and the associations with the words may or may not be what we expected, which can both allow us to relate to and feel alienated from other people.

Via Rhizome.