Magnificent, isnt it?
At its most fundamental,glass.leavesis a web app that allows you to manipulate text.
In other words, glass.leaves is a tool that lets you experiment on your words.
Yes, this is getting even more meta.
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And, importantly, why?
Well, it took what was a pretty normal intro to an article and made something completely different.
There are a gamut of lovely phrases in there that previously didnt exists at all.
To explain why and go into more depth though, we need to look back at some history.
Word experimentation has been integral to literature and poetry for generations.
1959sNaked Lunchis the most famous example of this methodology.
So, this experimentation is somewhat reflective of technology at the time.
Cutting up words and phrases, and splicing them together makes a lot more sense in these conditions.
you’ve got the option to see the link between the cut-up technique and glass.leaves immediately.
The app was designed by Gregory Kan, a poet and programmer based in Wellington, New Zealand.
He then realized this could be done more systematically, which led to the creation of the app.
How does it impact writers?
This is the part that intrigues me.
One of the things I love about art is how it offers you different perspectives.
Glass.leaves strips this down.
In the example I shared above, it totally transformed a news story into something thats fundamentally different.
Basically, glass.leaves is fun.
Ive spent a lot of time plugging in text and seeing what comes out the other side.
Whats the future for glass.leaves?
In a refreshing move, Kan told me hes quite happy to leave it as it is.
Its a simple tool that doesnt need to be any more complicated.
He did tell me about a sibling app he was considering though.
In other words, itd be like youre competing with the AI to find the best line!
Ill always be a sucker for the part of the world where art and technology collide.
I mean, I couldnt ever imagine coming across a tool like glass.leaves and not spending hours on it.
To have a play with glass.leaves,head over here, paste in some text, and go wild.
Youll have fun, I promise.
