PDR

自動化

Automation

Inspired by the endlessly repeated automated announcements in Tokyo train and subway stations, this is a generative poem called "自動化" in its Japanese version, and "Automation" in English.

It uses the syntax of the familiar announcement "１番線ドアが閉まります。ご注意ください。" ("The doors on platform 1 are closing. Please be careful"). Every 8 seconds, a script generates a new line by randomly selecting the platform number, subject, verb, and exhortation from a preset list. It displays the result on the screen and then generates a new line. Browsers capable of speech synthesis will also read the text aloud in either English or Japanese.

Andrew Campana

Text for "自動化 || Automation" was provided by Andrew Campana, who also wrote the original code for randomly generating the statements. Campana's original script is a modified version of code authored by Nick Montfort for use in his generative poem "Lede."

Thomas Dodson wrote the code for speech synthesis, language switching, responisve page design, animations, and embedded video. A fix for the Firefox browser was provided by David Mayo.

The looped video of the Tokyo subway was shot by Vic Stefano, and the subway station photo by PekePHON.

Collator, the bilingual typeface used in the piece, was designed by Vince Lo.

"自動化 || Automation" was built by Thomas Dodson using HTML5, CSS3, and JQuery.

Note that the full range of features may not be available in some browsers and on some devices. For the best experience, we recommend using the Chrome browser on a desktop or laptop.

The code for this project is open source and made freely available under the MIT License. Source code can be downloaded or cloned from the repository on Github.