Combinatorics: from Oulipo to Recombinant Poetics

RECOMBINANT POETICS Interaction with different forms of generative production enables one to dynamically explore emergent meaning. New forms of computer-based art can make it possible for participants to actively become engaged in aspects of the production of the work. Each “user” of a specifically authored computer-mediated system may have a quite different experience emerging through interaction. Yet, emergent systems can also be analogue in nature. There is an interesting commonality to generative literary, artistic, and musical production that is relevant to the OULIPO, Recombinant Poetics [1], as well as techno-audio remix culture. In the following, I will compare and contrast approaches to combinatorics from the perspective of each of these fields of research. OULIPO (Ouvroir de litérature potentielle — The Workshop for Potential Literature) “does not want to be considered a literary school, or to overtly advance specific ideologies or theories, its goals portray an understanding of literature that merits outline and critique” [2]. In his illuminating book entitled OULIPO – A Primer of Potential Literature, Warren F. Motte, Jr., outlines the history of OULIPO, which was conceived at the initiative of Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais: