Reiku Haiku

• archive
• 2018

Reiku haiku was a project designed to compose structurally correct haiku poetry using formulaic cultural recycling on a large body of public domain texts. It was originally featured on its own website, and now continues life gracing the pages of LOGGIAonFIRE. Some are really, really bad, but a few are actually interesting and thought provoking in some way. Quite a few are actually kind of funny. Exactly what you would expact what you harness the power of a million monkeys with typewriters.

The ormat of haiku is appealing for a number of reasons, and the art form enjoys a strong, if somewhat small, following. While there are many traditions, there are very few rules. The reiku engine respects the 17 on rule: the first line should have 5 syllables, the second 7 and the third 5. Because only select fragments are used from each source text, the resulting haiku retains a sense of context while also encouraging cuts and juxtaposition - techniques that provide the essence of successful haiku. The background image provides a further layer of potential contrast, and is intended to be an integral component of reiku.

While this project was intended as an experiment and a fun exercise, the engine actually produced some appealing and thought provoking pieces. And while there might be purists that reject reiku as a legitimate form, I really don't give a damn - they can get stuffed. Haiku as a format has evolved so much that claiming to be a purist is suspect in itself.

One major appeal of haiku is the constrained nature of the form. The artist is required to use very few words to convey meaning. This terseness means that the art can be digested quickly and considered meaningfully by almost anyone. Reiku haiku, based on its derivative nature, takes this a step further. Because there is a deep context behind each construction, as defined by the source material, we find traces of themes in the final expression.

The reiku website was live for about a year, and quite a few batches were produced during that time. It was a fun project, and led to other similar excercises using modifications of the engine. These include Motivational...ish, a series of slides emulating the look and feel of stereotypical motivational posters and a lyric composer that writes replacement lyrics for existing tunes. As AI eats up more and more of the automated content space, reiku stands as a reminder that there are other ways to do this work.