MEATMINGLE

I guide the audience in making a collective poem using evolutionary algorithms in a generative ecosystem via little genital creatures going to an internet sex party. Confused? Me too.

A generative poetry ecosystem where participants create genital critters, "gennies", whose DNA is a line of poetry, and send them off to a poetry play party. When the gennies are lubed up enough and their refractory period is reset, they cruise around until they find another willing genny and ~~redacted~~ until a new little genny pops out whose DNA poem line is a cross of the parents'.

ITP Stupid Hackathon 2024 && WordHack March 2024

Credits

subconscious references

Robert Yang's games, especially "We Dwell in Possibility"
adrienne maree brown's books Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism

p5 client/server

glitch hosting
evolutionary algorithms from Twitch Plays God (originally from Dan Shiffman's Nature of Code)
creation UI based on previous mobile client prototype for Fist Fillet
profanity filtering via Obscenity
syllable detection via Allison Parrish's Pronouncing.js library
TTS thru Luke DuBois' p5.speech library

Assets

pillow background via stable diffusion
hair clip art -- i forgot where i'm sorry -_-

Special Thanks

Sara Dee
Todd Anderson
Duncan Figurski
Julia && Heather
Dan Shiffman
Harry Macinnis
Tiri Kananuruk
Allison Parrish
Dave Currie
Marcel Truxillo
Schuyler DeVos
Matt Ross
Brent Bailey
James Hosken
John Bezark

License

CC-BY-NC

TODO

Intro

CW: sex, procreation, poetry
gennies do not have families, they have no platonic relationships.
though in our world procreation is often not the byproduct or even goal of sex, for the gennies, their sex always results in a new genny joining the party.
(explanation of stats)
(showing a genny getting too dry and withering away)
showing bounce of bounds (i've always said my sex life was like the game where you watch the DVD logo bounce around but it never quite hits the right spot)
karaoke queue
- chose these colors totally randomly

Instructions

Facilitating the Poem Party

Don't put too much lube around, the gennies will get overwhelmed if surrounded by it lol.

Arduino Tips

On Windows, might need to install drivers for "USB Input Device" in order for the Nano 33 IoT to be used as a mouse.

To Fork/Hack

After installing the npm/yarn packages, you need to replace the obscenity/datasets in node_modules with those in p5Server/obscenityDatasets, or change them to your own filter preferences.

Work Log

Monday Notes

~~DNA rework~~
mating restrictions
timer check and rework
poems visual
screen size
mobile size
highlight genny when poem is speaking
visual of beat (bg color change? movement of gennies?)
genny assets
genny death animation
genny mate animations
genny movement adjustments (separation and speed)
~~try interval timing of speak()~~
~~split poem into 4 beat sections~~
check strudel timing options
click poem line in queue to interrupt and play
control UI page
sliders for mutation, flocking, timers
override buttons
- pause
- kill one
- set all wetness / refractory to ready
hover on screen to show poem, timers
vibe brainstorm
- queue sampler tool (hovers over lines? button to play?)
performance
- quadtree again? or just limit num of gennies / make survival harder?
- what's easier, making a bunch of assets, or just giving people a canvas? then can do crossover of drawings too, which would be soooo satisfying... whole new layer... might even solve the tint issue since it might be easier to draw the lines than tint the images. though going to depend on how i end up tracking the lines... can i store points and just make lines? those should be less expensive than ellipse right?
- or... do i dare... learn shaders...
meat mingle title with bubble letters
test on glitch to make sure everything works
speech queue needs to be based on the gennies that exist, not just arbitrary repetition, esp. once gennies are gone. maybe locking the poems on the line box protects the genny from drying out? can highlight with good aura -- that way it also promotes the poem heading in a certain direction since they have a higher likelihood to reproduce (unless the wetness lost scales by number of offspring) (can't just give them infinite wetness b/c might go nuclear)
test performance.now() vs millis()
mate with more than two partners -- anyone who joins the puddle within the timelimit, the genny has words from all poems (might be too busy/nonsensical tho)
fix syllable distribution over beat

Tuesday Notes

not sure why they're getting stuck on the right edge after resize. can't replicate it enough to isolate variables, but seems like has to be in flocking code -- either the bias ternaries I added or some error in the new ecoWidth? doesn't make sense. Luckily they still follow lube, so can just fix manually...
tech list
- mic on stand
- aux out (need to check laptop...........)
- test glitch
after Dentist
- add ecosystem pop limits
- change poemQ to match karaoke, move blocks each bar
- have karaoke queue
- fix beat distro
- click blocks to show options (or just have options always there?)
  - move up (or arrow key)
  - move down
  - kill
  - protect
  - lube
  - lube all
- current block will highlight its genny
later
- check tone loop / beat
  - test performance.now()
- test Ableton sync
misc
- new background
  - add something fun to the right edge since they all get stuck there
- new genny assets
- genny asset on mobile
- random line on mobile from genny mutation list
- emojis for lube
- test optimization
- check middleware for protecting server
stretch
- arduino to p5 (via TD?)
  - IMU? does what?
    - scrolls karaoke? is seek/avoid in party? deposits lube? i think that makes the most sense (lol)
  - button
    - seems like only makes sense in conjunction with IMU or joystick.
  - motor
    - would be fun to have it vibrate
- test the bulkiness of using the breadboard
- switch to RiTa.js so can analyze mutated word and replace with word that is the same type

Wednesday Notes

count word and syllable, so 9 words with one syllable spread out
shader tests
- cool background
- glitch effect on sex to beat
- using porn to fill shapes as texture
sex timer
mobile updates
queue updates
- blocks tracking karaoke
- buttons on blocks
- highlight genny that's being read
UI
- pause on server
- ~~mute checkbox~~
- clear lube button
- hover to show genny stats
- meat mingle title on karaoke queue
music
- ~~test aux out~~
- test ableton sync with midi controller
- test tone.js loop
- mute button
- ~~bpm visualizer for sync~~
- bpm adjustment buttons
vibe as mouse
line drawing test
glitch
- upload
- test server
- test wifi

augustluhrs/meatmingle