Blog: Featured work: Toying with text
Text can be a really great medium to work in creatively. At Pool, we’ve been realising the hidden potential of text and having a bit of fun with it. We’re not just talking about writing stories, but remixing them!
We’ve remixed one story uploaded to Pool using the least creative piece of software on the planet; Excel.
Playing around with text can help generate new ideas if you’re struck with writer’s block and it can also produce interesting and often hilarious outcomes.
Some of the best free software to get you started in remixing text we’ve come across:
nam shub - This has heaps of interesting rules that you can apply to your text like removing vowels/consonants, changing the order of letters and words and even an option to make your text look like email spam!
robotype - This lets you see letters more as graphic elements, and play around with them to make pictures and compositions.
Cut ‘n’ Mix Word Machine - This is a more complex tool that cuts together unrelated words and phrases to make new meanings you may not have thought of.
Text Pictures - This guide tells you step by step how to make images out of text using nothing but a word processor and an image!
The best thing about using text as a medium to remix is you don’t need any flash video or audio editing software that can be expensive. All the sites and programs above are free to download and use.
There have been some excellent written pieces uploaded to the Pool recently which provide quality material for you to play with. Campese Terrace, Grange Road and A Ratigan Street Story are some great text based stories on Pool to start remixing.
Emily Naismith,
Pool intern.
Image by DarwinBell under Creative Commons licence
