I have in the back of my head that it would be really interesting to combine writing and computer science, especially literature. I finally got around to thinking hard about this, and why it’s easy to combine art and computer science. Computer science can be used in art as a tool; most of the current art that uses computer science either generates visuals or is used to make a custom interface (e.g. motion sensors etc). Computer science can also be used in the understanding of art, as it has been used in the understanding of music.

I’ve been told that this is a good time to get into digital art — there’s just not a lot of artists who are skilled in computer science.

So that brings me to literature. There have been programs to generate literature, in which words are combined with some attention paid to grammar and the compatibility of the words. But this approach takes the artistry away — all that’s left to do is for the artist to look through the output and select interesting texts. On the other hand, there are ways to use computers to enhance the study of literature — researchers claim to have a program that can distinguish male and female writing. There’s the innovation of hyperlinking and easy text chatting. There are helpers — word processors, grammar checkers, word processors, etc.

I could imagine being able to input plots, themes and emotions into a computer and have it output a story, but this seems a long way off and how much fun, and how much a personal expression, would it be anyway. Perhaps such things already exist.

I think I will give up on the idea of a connection between literature and computer science.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 11:22 pm and is filed under art, computer science, web technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.