School
for
Poetic
Computation
Human-scale Natural Language Processing, re-establishes computation as a tool in the radical writer’s toolbox. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of AI that drives pervasive technologies like spell check, search, bots and content moderation. This multi-billion dollar, energy-intensive industry increasingly dictates the shape of everyday language while perpetuating harmful biases. We will practice "human-scale" natural language processing by forgoing pre-existing datasets and models in favor of communally-written texts. This includes exercises in which participants invent new textual categories and hand-tag each other's writing. Participants will learn the basics of text processing, analysis and generation in Python, including parsing, regular expressions, Markov chains and vector similarity. Many exercises will be performed using analog media as well (for example, cut-ups, free-writes, etc.). In addition, we will prioritize technical approaches that function well on low-end hardware rather than carbon-intensive computation. The goal of the class is for participants to learn more about themselves and their classmates through these communal acts of computational reading and re-writing.
Human-scale Natural Language Processing is one of two classes that SFPC is fundraising for in our Community Fundraiser. SFPC has not raised enough money to offer this class tuition free as of January 9, 2024. We will continue to accept donations towards the scholarship fund for this class. Donate to help us offer this class for free.
No classes during the Fourth of July holiday weekend on Thursday, July 4 and Saturday, July 6.
By the end of this class, participants will:
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Allison Parrish is a computer programmer, poet, and game designer whose teaching and practice address the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Allison was named "Best Maker of Poetry Bots" by the Village Voice in 2016, and her zine of computer-generated poems called "Compasses" received an honorary mention in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica. Allison is the co-creator of the board game Rewordable (Clarkson Potter, 2017) and author of several books, including @Everyword: The Book (Instar, 2015) and Articulations (Counterpath, 2018). Her poetry has recently appeared in BOMB Magazine and Strange Horizons.
Allison is originally from West Bountiful, Utah and currently lives in Brooklyn.
she/her
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Ilona is an artist, extrovert, teacher and technologist who sees their work as love notes to themself, the world, and others. They work across mediums using music, poetry, code, drawing, and their jewish practice as tools of expression both publicly and privately. These days they are particularly interested in trans narratives of liberation, judaism as a site of ritual, visibility on and offline, and how we present ourselves and our work to the world.
he/they
· instagram
Yadira is an artist and technologist cultivating tech ecologies. They are using software, hardware and data to bring together ecological thinking and tech making as a way to co-create and deepen connections with ecosystems. Parting from her rural ubpringing, Yadira is invested in, inspired and informed by the traditional ecological knowledge of her rural community, where she will continue to co-create communitarian tech with.Yadira has been invited to present her work at the Cambridge Centre for Data Driven Discovery and the Ida B Wells Just Data Lab at Princeton University.
she/elles
· website
· twitter
· instagram
Our programs are conducted in spoken English with audiovisual materials such as slides, code examples and video. Online programs are held over Zoom.
Please take care and be well. We hope you are comfortable in your housing, living, and working situation in general. Never hesitate to ask us for advice and reach out if you have accessibility requests or need any assistance during your time at SFPC. We will work closely with you towards co-creating the most accommodating learning environment for your needs.
What is an unconventional type of data that you’re interested in collecting? Why?
Applications open until Applications closed on April 15, 2024.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on . Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 5 classes, it costs $750 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule weekly or monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
Upon payment, your space in the class will be reserved. We offer scholarships for those who cannot pay full tuition. Read more about scholarships below.
If you can’t pay full tuition, we really still want you to apply. Our application will ask you how much you can pay. We will offer subsidized positions in all of our classes, once each one has enough participants enrolled that we’re able to do so.
We have also started a scholarship fund, and we will be offering additional scholarships as community members redistribute their wealth through SFPC. We direct scholarship funds towards participants who are low-income, Black, Indigenous, racialized, gendered, disabled, Queer, trans, oppressed, historicially excluded and underrepresented.
Right now, tuition is SFPC’s main source of income, and that is a problem. It means that we can only pay teachers, pay for space, and organize programs when participants pay full tuition to attend. Tuition is a huge barrier to entry into the SFPC community, and it disproportionately limits Black participants, indigenous participants, queer and trans participants, and other people who are marginalized, from participating. Scholarships are not a long term solution for us, but in the short and medium term we hope to offer them more while we work towards transforming SFPC’s financial model.
For SFPC to be the kind of place the community has always meant it to be, it needs to become a platform for wealth redistribution. If you are a former participant, prospective participant, or friend of the school, and you have the financial privilege to do so, please donate generously. There is enough wealth in this community to make sure no one is ever rejected because of their inability to pay, and becoming that school will make SFPC the impactful, imaginative, transformative center of poetry and justice that we know it can be.
Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.