Overview
Penelope is a combinatory sonnet generator film based on the Odyssey, addressing themes of longing, mass extinction, and migration. Recombinations of lines of poetry, video clips, and musical arrangements produce a different version of the work on each run.
Using a structure inspired by Raymond Queneau’s Cent mille milliards de poèmes, the work can generate millions of variations of a sonnet sequence that continually weaves and then unweaves itself. Like Penelope waiting for Odysseus, the project is built around repetition, deferral, and recomposition.
Public screenshot from the CDN Collection entry for Penelope.
Structure
Combinatory logic
The program writes 13 lines of a sonnet and then reverses the rhyme scheme at the center couplet, producing a 26-line poem as an audiovisual composition. The system determines the sequencing of text, image, and music, then displays the generated poem before composing a new sonnet pair.
Materials
Spoken lines are performed by voice actress Heather Morgan. The soundtrack recombines compositions by Alejandro Albornoz, including remixed oboe solos by Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra musician Marion Walker. Video by Roderick Coover also recombines algorithmically with the text and sound.
Public descriptions of the work emphasize that it runs in HTML and JavaScript and was built as a code-driven audiovisual system rather than as a fixed linear film. The first version exhibited publicly was presented in 2018.
Credits
Core collaborators
- Alejandro Albornoz, sound
- Roderick Coover, video
- Scott Rettberg, text and code
Additional contributors
- Heather Morgan, voice
- Marion Walker, oboe solos
- Helen Amourgi, non-speaking role
- Kostas Annikas Deftereos, non-speaking role
- Sophia Kagadis, non-speaking role
The video and text were developed during 2017 residencies at the Ionian Center for Arts and Culture.
Video
Trailer for Penelope.
15-minute demo of the combinatory film system.
Access
Publicly available material currently points to the browser-based work itself, along with MacOS and Windows application builds hosted through the CDN Collection.
Context
- The ELMCIP record documents Penelope as a 2018 creative work in HTML and JavaScript and notes exhibition at Electronic Literature Organization 2018: Mind the Gap! and bleuOrange Cocktail & Performance Evening #3.
- The ICIDS 2018 Art Expo description provides a fuller account of the 26-line sonnet structure, Heather Morgan’s performance, and the Ionian residency development context.
- The SEA(S) Arts 2018 winners page lists Penelope as a prize-winning film work and places it among related combinatory and generative projects by Coover and collaborators.
- The Unknown Territories site includes a concise public blurb and a direct link to the combinatory experience.