S_POEMS

S_POEMS is an anthology of Love Poems from the 17th-20th Century, which have been transcribed via speech-to-text software. Errors of transcription resulting from this process have been included in these new versions of the poems, which are read aloud by the text-to-speech software included in the app.

Whilst the errors of transcription reveal 21st Century, consumerist obsession and interpersonal aggression in a stark contrast to the original sentiments of the poems (the software transcribes the most likely collocation, based upon aggregated data from users), the monotonous recital of the text-to-speech software emphasises the deadening of human creativity and emotions when expressed through binary computational systems. Questions are raised as to the suitability of increasingly ubiquitous technologies as a method for sustaining interpersonal relationships.

Features poems by:
John Donne, Lord Byron, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, AC Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Robert Herrick, William Shakespeare, John Clare, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Arthur Gorges, Alexander Pope, William Empson and Sir Walter Raleigh.