Making the Writer’s Project
Proposal Type
Individual Talk
Location
Algorithms & Imaginaries
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
The Writer’s Project is a series of playful text editors which intervene in the act of writing in unexpected, challenging, and unusual ways. Some of the editors are conceptual experiments in user interface design: What if the editor asked you if you were sure before committing to each word? What if the delete key was not functional? Others editors are provocations that take aim at the conditions and AI-mediated writing, built to create a tension between writerly agency and system resistance. These involve placing writers into different configurations with text streams, for instance by turning prior writings into a Tetris-like poetry writing game.
The project was conducted as a practice-based research experiment in which ideas from the lineage of concrete poetry, kinetic typography, critical literacy, and digital poetics led to design decisions in each of the disparate editors. In this talk, I will walk through a selection of the editors, pairing each with the theoretical insight that inspired it. In this way, I am hoping to show how critical design and media making can closely engage texts. The writings of N. Katherine Hayles, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Loss Pequeño Glazier, Allison Parish, and Giselle Beiguelman will be engaged with ‘in-motion’, through the presentation of these small interactive media works.
Making the Writer’s Project
Algorithms & Imaginaries
The Writer’s Project is a series of playful text editors which intervene in the act of writing in unexpected, challenging, and unusual ways. Some of the editors are conceptual experiments in user interface design: What if the editor asked you if you were sure before committing to each word? What if the delete key was not functional? Others editors are provocations that take aim at the conditions and AI-mediated writing, built to create a tension between writerly agency and system resistance. These involve placing writers into different configurations with text streams, for instance by turning prior writings into a Tetris-like poetry writing game.
The project was conducted as a practice-based research experiment in which ideas from the lineage of concrete poetry, kinetic typography, critical literacy, and digital poetics led to design decisions in each of the disparate editors. In this talk, I will walk through a selection of the editors, pairing each with the theoretical insight that inspired it. In this way, I am hoping to show how critical design and media making can closely engage texts. The writings of N. Katherine Hayles, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Loss Pequeño Glazier, Allison Parish, and Giselle Beiguelman will be engaged with ‘in-motion’, through the presentation of these small interactive media works.
Bio
Alex Calderwood is a PhD student, researcher, programmer, and language artist. He is pursuing a PhD in Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz, advised by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Michael Mateas. His current work is in practice-based research, where he builds text editors that facilitate critical inquiry and wordplay. He is also a published poet (with an upcoming concrete poetry chapbook), and has formally worked as a journalist and AI researcher.