As If Poetry: Computer-Generated Tanka and Contemporary Japanese Verse

This paper discusses the innovative use of soft-AI computer algorithms in the creation of tanka, a form of poetry with roots in classical Japanese culture. Among the recent surge of interest in computer-generated poetry in Japan, I look particularly at two computer programs: the instant tanka genera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inASIANetwork exchange Vol. 28; no. 1; p. 36
Main Author Mehl, Scott
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Open Library of Humanities 02.07.2022
Subjects
Analysis
Artificial intelligence
authorship
cybernetics
Imagining Geopolitics across Media and Artforms
information society
Japanese poetry
Mediation
Poetry
Japan
information society
Japanese poetry
cybernetics
authorship
artificial intelligence
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ISSN1943-9946
1943-9938
1943-9946
DOI10.16995/ane.8145

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Summary:This paper discusses the innovative use of soft-AI computer algorithms in the creation of tanka, a form of poetry with roots in classical Japanese culture. Among the recent surge of interest in computer-generated poetry in Japan, I look particularly at two computer programs: the instant tanka generator Inu-zaru created by Sasaki Arara, and the so-called “guzen tanka” Twitter bot of programmer Inaniwa and poet Sekishiro. These programs engender new paradoxical models of technology-mediated authorship and reading, whereby human agency is at once subtracted from the composition process while also being presupposed as a necessary component in the participant reader. Such forms of reading and writing shed new light on theoretical matters such as the death of the author even as they pose intractable questions concerning international copyright conventions.
ISSN:1943-9946
1943-9938
1943-9946
DOI:10.16995/ane.8145