Generative Affection

Benford Krummenacher (2021)

Benford Krummenacher, a CMU undergraduate studying Art and Biology, conducted an investigation into generative language and typography. Krummenacher writes: “In gift-giving, the value of a gift is often conflated with the amount of labor put into it. Minimizing the amount of labor put into each sign of affection, however, maximizes the number of signs of affection one can produce. As this is a desirable goal in terms of community care, I wrote a program which generates personalized letters and drawings for someone based on keywords I provide about them. In doing so, I am able to generate, and plot with a robotic pen plotter, hundreds of nearly-laborless letters which still effectively demonstrate care, attention, and affection.”

Krummenacher’s Generative Affection project was supported by Microgrant #2021-015 from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier.