Allison Parrish

{{Short description|Creative coder}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}{{Use American English|date=August 2020}}

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| birth_place = Bountiful, Utah

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| nationality = American

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| field = Poetry, software engineering, creative coding, game design, electronic literature

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| works = Everyword, Rewordable, Articulations

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Allison Parrish is an American poet,{{Cite web|last=Temkin|first=Daniel|date=2020-05-31|title=The Hacker Aesthetic of Minimalist Code|url=https://hyperallergic.com/566816/the-hacker-aesthetic-of-minimalist-code/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927083040/https://hyperallergic.com/566816/the-hacker-aesthetic-of-minimalist-code/|archive-date=September 27, 2020|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}} software engineer, creative coder, and game designer, notable as one of the most prominent early makers of creative, literary Twitter bots.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/poetry-twitter-bots-best-twitter-bots-art-allison-parrish-everyword/|title=What it Means to Be an 'Experimental Computer Poet'|first=Mariana|last=Fernandez|date=October 12, 2017|website=Vice|access-date=September 19, 2019|archive-date=October 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012041800/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8x8ppp/poetry-twitter-bots-best-twitter-bots-art-allison-parrish-everyword|url-status=live}} She was named "Best Maker of Poetry Bots" by The Village Voice in 2016.{{cite journal|last1=Chiel|first1=Ethan|title=Best Maker of Poetry Bots: Allison Parrish|journal=Village Voice|date=2016|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/best-of/2016/smart-city/best-maker-of-poetry-bots-9237810|access-date=2019-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503040312/http://www.villagevoice.com/best-of/2016/smart-city/best-maker-of-poetry-bots-9237810|archive-date=2017-05-03|url-status=dead}} Parrish has produced a textbook introduction to creative coding in Python, more specifically Processing.py.{{cite book|last1=Parrish|first1=Allison|title=Make: getting started with Processing.py|date=2016|publisher=Maker Media|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-1457186837}} Parrish holds a BA in Linguistics from UC Berkeley, and a Master of Professional Studies from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), NYU. She has been a Writer-in-Residence in the English Department of Fordham University, 2014–16, and an Assistant Arts Professor at the ITP since 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/itp/853082171|title=Allison Parrish: Assistant Professor|accessdate=22 September 2019|website=NYU/TISCH|archive-date=September 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922212049/https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/itp/853082171|url-status=live}}

Selected works

  • {{cite AV media|title=Everyword|date=2007–2014}} A conceptual poetic Twitter bot launched 2007 and later published as a book: {{cite book|last1=Parrish|first1=Allison|title=Everyword: the book|date=2015|publisher=Instar Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-9904528-5-0}} This bot tweeted out an alphabetized list of about 100,000 words, one every 30 minutes. Instead of a definition, the entry for that word contains the social media analytics of that tweet.{{Cite web |title=Digging and Sinking and Drifting: Allison Parrish's Machine Poetics - Journal #117 |url=https://www.e-flux.com/journal/117/385623/digging-and-sinking-and-drifting-allison-parrish-s-machine-poetics/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}} @everyword was one of the first bots to have an ultimate telos, or aim, as well as a clear structure, and a metanarrative as the reactions to each word were substituted for a definition and use of the word.
  • Frankenstein-Genesis, word vectorization, a machine-readable representation mixes two paragraphs from "Frankenstein" and the Bible.{{Cite web |title=Music 256A Reading Response 9 |url=https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~elenamss/256A/rr9/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=ccrma.stanford.edu}}
  • {{cite AV media|title=Rewordable|date=1999–2000}} With collaborators Adam Simon and Tim Szetela.{{cite journal|last1=D'Anastasio|first1=Cecilia|title=Five family-friendly board games that aren't monopoly|journal=Kotaku|date=2017|url=https://kotaku.com/five-family-friendly-board-games-that-arent-monopoly-1821584449|access-date=September 19, 2019|archive-date=August 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814004249/https://kotaku.com/five-family-friendly-board-games-that-arent-monopoly-1821584449|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Lucy Family Institute Fireside Chat Series, Data Poetics: Allison Parrish |url=https://lucyinstitute.nd.edu/news-events/events/2022/11/11/lucy-family-institute-fireside-chat-series-data-poetics-allison-parrish/ |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society |language=en |date=2022-11-11 |archive-date=February 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202084331/https://lucyinstitute.nd.edu/news-events/events/2022/11/11/lucy-family-institute-fireside-chat-series-data-poetics-allison-parrish/ |url-status=live }}
  • {{cite book|last1=Parrish|first1=Allison|title=Articulations|date=2018|publisher=Counterpath|location=Denver|isbn=978-1933996653}} The book uses an algorithm to draw lines between similar linguistic elements of public domain poetry.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-17 |title=Interview with Allison Parrish |url=https://esoteric.codes/blog/interview-with-allison-parrish |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=esoteric.codes |language=en}}

Awards

Allison Parrish won The Maverick Award from the Electronic Literature Organization in 2024.{{Cite web |last=Marino |first=Mark |date=2024-07-22 |title=Announcing the 2024 ELO Awards – Electronic Literature Organization |url=https://eliterature.org/2024/07/announcing-the-2024-elo-awards/ |access-date=2024-08-15 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=ELO Annual Awards – Electronic Literature Organization |url=https://eliterature.org/elo-awards/ |access-date=2024-08-15 |language=en-US}}

References

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