the concept

Nick Monfort’s “Taroko Gorge" is a digital poem. From 49 chosen words (16 nouns, 23 verbs, 10 adjectives), Monfort’s algorithm autogenerates a never-ending piece. Monfort’s work is meant to evoke a real place – Taroko Gorge in Taiwan. The piece plays with the number of combinations of words one can use to describe.

I’ve created my own version of “Taroko Gorge” with “buzzwords” from 2020. I found them here and here and here. Following Monfort’s formula, I chose 16 nouns, 23 verbs, and 10 adjectives from the year’s news. I’d like to consider how accurately news jargon reflected the year. Do these terms help us or hurt us? What do buzzwords side-by-side in an endless poem sans media reveal?

This project is titled 2020