LO: Nonsense Library

Nonsense Library – Allison Parrish (2021)

https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/nonsense-laboratory/

One of the most admirable things about Nonsense Library, is the way that real knowledge is game-ified, and programming, video games, and knowledge about linguistics/speech interact. It serves both as a learning tool and an experiment, and hence the ways in which one could interact with the program varies greatly. The game aspect makes the site endlessly engaging, and the way in which the program messes with pronunciation quite literally forces the viewer to speak aloud and have a conversation with the computer. I would guess that in order to achieve this, Parrish built an extensive algorithm linking phonetic & pronounced sounds. I would also guess that she, too, spent a lot of time feeling the words in her mouth in front of a computer. Because of the truly absurd speech one can receive simply by inputting a couple adjustments (“Hew hew heish weelhy heelhyy weehly heegy hsewhy heelych…”) I would guess that Parrish has a good sense of humor, and embraces the absurd in her work.