↜ oral history

Markov chain poetry reading

A poetry reading during part two of the class Computational Exploration of Magical and Divinatory Language taught by Allison Parrish. Before reading the poem, participants generated a markov chain with Python based off of a divination deck compiled in a data spreadsheet by participants which took place on January 13, 2020 at School for Poetic Computation, 155 Bank St, New York, NY 10014. The reading is narrated by Allison Parrish, Adina Glickstein, Alonso Castro, Amber Officer-Narvasa, Andreas Jonathan, César Neri, Char Jeré, Char Stiles, Christina Entcheva, Cy X, Eliseo Rivera, Elizabeth Perez, emma rae norton, Holly Meadows-Smith, Ladipo Famodu, Lina Chang, Mehrnaz Rohbakhsh, Melanie Hoff, neta bomani, Shea Fitzpatrick, Sophie Kovel, Tina Nguyen. Transcription by neta bomani.

Allison

I reduced the order of the markov chain, so they’re a little bit more, uh, weird, I guess, um [laughs]
Where should I put this? I’m going to paste this into the Slack, maybe? So people can scroll along with it.

Melanie

Um, sure, yeah. But also, but keep it on the screen too.

Allison

I just don’t want to be responsible for—well, I guess I’ll have to be. Okay. [Laughter] I will scroll along [...]

Melanie

Thank you!

Char S

Should we read it?

Elizabeth

How do we start? Just one person–

Melanie

Allison can start, and then—

Allison

Am I included in the 21?

Melanie

Yes, you’re included in the twenty-unless I counted wrong—18, 19, 20, 21—you’re included.

Allison

Okay, um, tell me when to start.

Melanie

Um [laughs] okay, we’ll go around the full circle and then we’ll go around the outer circle, okay. Okay [laughs] you can start.

Allison

Ready? “tesla weeken sing amazing is this thing in coing bird,” uh, which means “aliens are been avoiding”

[Laughter]

César

“rider,” which means, “do not work in time”

Elizabeth

“deatic waning palms on this the cand.” We can think of this as, “passion, a large gestures of the end”

Lina

“paradistrain,” which means, “potention, staying low”

Christina

“deathe clerg wheel,” meaning, “hierarchy, compositivity, empathy”

Mehrnaz

“emeryl star,” meaning, “devil you are your life”

Everyone

[Laughter]

Eliseo

“a with fold hous star a der” which means, “confusion, ephemeral”

Shea

“sile of waning sweet, you findfold hood” which means, “reflecting go”

Ladipo

“inver ii,” which means, “control, within your life”

Char J

“man sing acrossum,” which means, “stay fluid staying low”

Sophie

“cross thief, a wind a baby you finds,” which means, “indecision, justice”

Cy

“covendar,” which means, “a cleanliness, hope”

Char S

“metalgear synth,” which means, “something your life”

Andreas

uh, “partual,” which means, “something your throat”

Emma

“the slider,” in other words, “strategizing, safety, continue!”

Amber

“you findfold hoodle,” which means, “from yourself?”

Neta

“the ghost leaf,” meaning “distraction from within”

Tina

“the whole the spidermance [laughter],” which means, “be present improvements and material moment to accomplish”

Melanie

And I didn’t count myself [laughs] [crosstalk] That was amazing [laughs]

Allison

We’ll generate one more

Melanie

Um, “slaphappear” “free your life”

Everyone

[Laughter] [applause]

Neta

That’s perfect for you! That’s pretty magic- “free your life!”