The computer as improviser : computational text-generation in electronic literature

This question of whether code can improvise is a complex one because in many ways, coding and improvising are complete opposites. Acts of coding generally have pre-determined results whereas improvisation, even when it has some pre-arranged elements, is an exploration of the undetermined. Nevertheless, coding can be used to improvised ends because programming can be and often is probabilistic, creating variable and sometimes highly unpredictable results. In a sense, Baldwin and Torres answer their own question about code and improvisation, because each section of their essay begins with a line of coding that freely recombines parts of the essay, thereby improvising upon itself. So while code is not intrinsically improvisatory, it can improvise if coders have an investment in the philosophy and practice of improvisation. In fact the concept and practice of improvisation permeates the electronic literature community quite widely, though it takes different forms from that in jazz improvisation. I will focus her particularly on one approach to improvised text: computational text generation (hereafter referred to as CTG).