Workshop | Press Print to Compose: Creating Computational Poetry

Led by computational poet Prof. Allison Parrish and artist Prof. Blair Simmons (ITP/IMA, NYU Tisch), this workshop takes inspiration from Alison Knowles’s The House of Dust (1967), one of the earliest computer-generated poems. Coded in FORTRAN, the automated combinations of materials, locations, light sources, and inhabitants that populate the stanzas of this pioneering text generate infinitely and are printed in real time on a dot matrix printer (on view at the Grey). 

Participants will discover the ongoing value of Knowles’s creative methods and execute their own infinite poems. By experimenting with the materiality of written words and different printing technologies—including dot matrix, thermal, and inkjet—we will explore how the meaning of a poem shifts dramatically depending on how it is made. 

Bring your laptop and experience the surprisingly liberating potential of printers in poetry! 

No prior creative writing or coding experience is necessary.

Visitor Access & Registration

Please register to attend this event.  For attendance without an active NYU ID card, RSVP by Tuesday, October 6 to guarantee building access.

Arrive early to view by Alison Knowles before the workshop—the exhibition will be open from 11am to 8pm on October 7.

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email greyartmuseum@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.