J. Nathan Matias Creative Portfolio, December 2010
Academic
Philadelphia Fullerine (documentary)
Philadelphia Fullerine (research)
Comparing Spatial Hypertext Collections
Tragedy in Electronic Literature
Ethical Explanations
Operational Media Online
Syntagmatic Browser
Tinderbox Web Viewer
Truth, Trust, and the Textual Camera
Web Art Science Camp London 2010
E-LitCamp Boston 2009
Accordion for the World
The Hacktatus: Wittgenstein Design Project
Academic Integrity Marketing
Literary Choice in Interactive Fiction
Non-Portfolio Academic Work
Business
Emberlight: Visual Notes Online
Scaling for kgb's Super Bowl Television Ad
kgb Multiroom Web Chat Interface
Dr. Johnson: A Rapid Prototyping Framework
Dressipi Sibyl
TouchType
Harbour Coffee Online Sales Interface
Elizabethtown College Admissions
Etown.edu Information Architecture
Texperts and the Knowledge Generation Bureau
Performance Testing & Instrumenting Web Applications
kgb Web Application Interface Integration
Workstation Status Dashboard
Back of the Envelope
Design & Art
Swift-Speare: Statistical Poetry
Stretchtext Authoring System
Recital: Notes from an Itinerant Mind
Exhibit: Abolitionism in Britain
Sculpture: Read for the Sky
Visual Summaries Project
Design: Competetive Debate
Radio Show: Echoes of America
Design: Edward Tufte at Intelligence2
The Normative Decisionmaking Model
Card Storytelling Software
Projects with Tinderbox
Other
Libyan Higher Education Documentary
World University Documentary Prototype
The University Lives Collection
The Ministry of Stories
Timelines for Citizen Case Management
Cambridge Union Society E-Voting Policies
Swift-Speare: Statistical Poetry
Autum 2010
Shakespeare with fewer Monkeys and Typewriters

Inspired partly by JM Coetzee's statistical work on Beckett's writing style, Swift-Speare is a set of experiments in machine-learning-assisted poetry composition using the Dr. Johnson prototyping framework I designed for TouchType.

I am currently compiling a collection of poetry in the style of Shakesepeare, Milton, Longfellow, and others with very distinctive styles. I am also applying these methods to novelists with distinctive styles, such as Joseph Conrad, William Gibson, Russell Hoban, and James Joyce.s

Step one: create a statistical model of the sonnets.

Step two: apply our predictive text algorithm interactively as I compose new writings in the style of famous writers.

Here is the beginning of a poem, based on a statistical model of Shakespeare's sonnets (showing the associated predictions):

Let base clouds stir the world's enshrouded tears

Which have no astronomy to be assail'd

Thus in thy fair appearance lay thy buried fears

Whose uncovering gaze my fond perception failed

> And in |

  [my, 0.000261165812844411]

  [quest, 0.000130582906422205]

  [their, 0.000130582906422205]

  [possession, 0.000130582906422205]

  [hue, 0.000130582906422205]

  [the, 2.94613328151172e-05]

Beowulf:

Sing sweetly of battle-borne ages

of fell foes infernal, and the king

whose woe endured hailing rage

and the death of exiled heroes.

Denham and Waller Combined:

Since nature gave the world to all our hopes

and beauty gives to us the youthful pleasures still;

No weariness I'll yield to all man's gain

Nor would I tell those powers above to rage.

The wise counsels of age shall have the spoil

of art, and elephant, and crown above

> when I have seen the |

[Muses, 5.35540220880648e-06]

[Earl, 4.53149414170184e-06]

[Queen, 3.70758630197088e-06]

[Greeks, 3.29563226841856e-06]

[British, 3.29563226841856e-06]

[English, 2.88367823486624e-06]

Justin Bieber:

I need somebody to be reality

The only thing that makes me crazy is your breath

and no matter what we've done whatever it could be

once in a star, once in my heart


> Dancing close, baby |

[,, 4.57498754258268e-05]

[oooh, 1.71562023751903e-05]

[nooo, 8.57810118759517e-06]

[doll, 2.85936721411417e-06]

[know, 2.85936721411417e-06]

[yeah, 1.42968360705709e-06]


yeah girl

yeah girl

girl I swear

girl I know

yeah yeah this beat rocks

yeah girl