Oulipop


2 performers, 1 laptop, 20 minutes

Till Bovermann, Sara Hildebrand Marques Lopes (2016)

Text as code, code as text. Authors as rule followers, CPU’s as muses. Influenced by the sound of endless computation originating in text treated as algorithm, the performers turn text into nonsense, eventually settling to something new and surprising.


Manipulating texts according to Oulipo rules. Each keystroke triggers a process that translates the current text’s characters into a set of commands for a fictional CPU. Treated as a sound signal, the ever-changing output of that CPU is played back, and thereby influences the performers’ decisions on how to further alter the text. Over the course of the performance, an initially meaningful text turnes into nonsense before it eventually settles into a new and often surprising semantical meaning.