Poetic Cryptography: The Seed Phrase Verse
↗ Devcon
↗ Exhibit
A project that employs LLMs to generate poetry within an infinite linguistic cosmos. The world is metaphorized as a nocturnal maze, with words as the sole source of light. A spatial installation presents a labyrinth architecture built with paper strips printed with hundreds of verses, each containing an Ethereum seed word. The accompanying mobile app, Lumino—an AI found poem game that uses a corpus of modern English poetry—invites visitors to navigate this nocturnal maze digitally. The word "infinity" is set as the exit of the maze. The project is accompanied by "The Labyrinth Manual," a fictional meditation written in the guise of machine intelligence, exploring language, infinity, and the labyrinthine nature of meaning-making.
↗ Installation
↗ Video
↗ Crypto Poet Passport
↗ App Store
SCENE 1. BLACK LABYRINTH
In November, the world becomes a vast labyrinth,
A nocturnal maze;
Where the invisible far outnumbers the visible.
SCENE 2. TEXT UNDER CANDLELIGHT
Language is the only source of light: a word, a line, a poem.
Tiny orders of meaning, illuminating a corner of our existence.
SCENE 3. EVAPORATING POETRY
We watch as words evaporate.
Within a text, a poem lies hidden.
Within a poem, another conceals itself.
SCENE 4. BORGES & INFINITY
In Borges' syntax, another language is encrypted.
The falling away of one language generates another grammar.
Reading the same page repeatedly,
Until we reach the end of language:
Infinity.
SCENE 5. LUMINO: THE CRYPTO POET
Code can also be poetry.
We've created a language game:
As a traveler, you will follow the light of words,
To find your way out of the labyrinth.
SCENE 6. CHINESE POETRY COLLAGE
This game is a variation of an ancient word game: Found poem.
We've created some collage poems in Chinese characters,
about the edges of things, stars, space, and language.
SCENE 7. ENDING
三萬六千日，日日當秉燭。
…After walking on the plain for a long time, most forget they are in a labyrinth. Here are no walls, no dead ends, all directions stretch vast and wide - as if one could travel a thousand miles with enough strength.
There are many labyrinth keepers in the world: some guard labyrinths of hundreds or thousands of square meters, some only five or six. Without exception, each labyrinth consists of many walls, except the one I guard: the labyrinth of the plain.
…
→ Read the Manual
Lumino Guide
Tap to keep a word, tap again to let it go.
Shake your device, and order emerges.
Words light a path, guiding you toward the exit of the maze.
Upon your exit, a connected path will be revealed to you.
If you’re lost, keep going in one direction; you will soon be back at the start.
Remember, you cannot truly be lost in this labyrinth,
for every exit serves as a new entry.
A gift for people who love to look at letters.
Download
Crypto Poet Passport: a four-fold interactive booklet where visitors create their own found poetry using words from Ethereum's seed phrase wordlist (2048 words).
CREDITS
Concept Design: Fangting 方庭
Concept Design: Ruozhen Gong
App Dev: Ruozhen Gong
Photography: Fanta F
Music: Fanta F, Fu
EXHIBITION INFO
Presented as part of "Trusting the Unseen: Elements of the Infinite Garden,” Artists and Writers Cohort, Devcon SEA
Venue: Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC), Bangkok
Duration: November 12-15, 2024
© Ethereum Foundation, 2024