diff --git a/2.Ghost-Writing.md b/2.Ghost-Writing.md index d61b238..1592e2f 100644 --- a/2.Ghost-Writing.md +++ b/2.Ghost-Writing.md @@ -244,7 +244,61 @@ Karin wears a black jacket when Maaike plays chess So now that we have a better understanding of how arrays, indices, randomness, and functions work, let's write love letters! -One of the first non-scientific computer programme that was ever written is Christopher Strachey's Love Letters programme for the Manchester Mark I (so called [Baby](https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1369/1920_themanchestermk1computerbuiltbyextendingthebaby.jpg?10000)). In fact, this computer programme (making use of randomness) is arguably the first art-inspired programme! Christopher Strachey was a computer programming pioneer who worked along Alan Turing in the very early days of computing at the University of Manchester. Strachey's story is amazing and there is a great article about [him and the love letters in Rhizome's Queer History of Computing](https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-computing-part-three/) written by Jacob Gaboury. +One of the first non-scientific computer program that was ever written is Christopher Strachey's Love Letters program for the Manchester Mark I (so called [Baby](https://content.presspage.com/uploads/1369/1920_themanchestermk1computerbuiltbyextendingthebaby.jpg?10000)). In fact, this computer program (written in 1952 and making use of randomness) is arguably the first art-inspired program! Christopher Strachey was a computer programming pioneer who worked along Alan Turing in the very early days of computing at the University of Manchester. Strachey's story is fascinating and there is a great article about [him and the love letters on Rhizome's Queer History of Computing written by Jacob Gaboury](https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/apr/9/queer-history-computing-part-three/). For those who are interested in researching Strachey's work, please have a look at his [papers and correspondences at the Bodleain library's archive](https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/2561). + +Strachey's Love Letters have been studied before. [David Link](http://www.alpha60.de) did a colossal reconstitution of the Love Letter program on a simulator of the Manchester Mark computer. [The works was exhibited circa 2010](http://www.alpha60.de/art/love_letters/). The program doesn't look at all like the code we are writing at the moment! The picture on the right side above (☝️) is from Link's simulator. Early computers did not have the compilers and interpreters we have now (remember compilers and interpreters) and thus the code was written in a rather cryptic way (believe me, way more cryptic than what we are writing). + +The program we are about to write in a "modern" computing language (i.e. javascript/p5js) is a modified version of [Nick Montfort](https://nickm.com)'s letter.py source code written in python. Montfort's letter.py was based on Noah Wardrip-Fruin's article ["Digital Media Archaeology."](https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520948518-016/html) + + +### Love Letters' structure + +First, let's have a look at love letters to see what they look like. David Link has generated an [archive of simulated letters](http://www.alpha60.de/art/love_letters/archive/muc/). + +Here are four examples: + +``` +HONEY MOPPET + YOU ARE MY AMOROUS RAPTURE.: MY KEEN LOVE. MY COVETOUS + INFATUATION THIRSTS FOR YOUR FERVENT LIKING. YOU ARE MY + CRAVING LIKING. MY CURIOUS RAPTURE FONDLY THIRSTS FOR YOUR + ANXIOUS ENCHANTMENT. + YOURS COVETOUSLY +MUC +``` + +``` +DEAR DARLING + MY ADORABLE FELLOW FEELING WANTS YOUR SWEET INFATUATION +. MY ADORABLE ARDOUR LOVINGLY WISHES YOUR FERVOUR. MY + UNSATISFIED FELLOW FEELING EAGERLY HUNGERS FOR YOUR IMPATIENT + DESIRE. YOU ARE MY LOVING FERVOUR. MY WINNING WISH YEARNS FOR YOUR + KEEN HEART. + YOURS FERVENTLY +MUC +``` + +``` +HONEY HONEY + MY BURNING FANCY EAGERLY TEMPTS YOUR INFATUATION. + YOU ARE MY FERVENT YEARNING. MY LIKING BEAUTIFULLY YEARNS FOR YOUR + LOVE. MY APPETITE TENDERLY CHERISHES YOUR BEAUTIFUL WISH. + YOU ARE MY EROTIC ADORATION. + YOURS SEDUCTIVELY +MUC +``` + +``` +DARLING LOVE + YOU ARE MY AMOROUS ENCHANTMENT.: MY KEEN EAGERNESS. + YOU ARE MY DEVOTED ENCHANTMENT. MY YEARNING FERVENTLY LIKES + YOUR AMOROUS PASSION. MY EAGERNESS TENDERLY YEARNS FOR YOUR + PASSION. + YOURS SEDUCTIVELY +MUC +``` + +Can you decipher certain writing patterns in the above letter formulations? If so, what are they?