The following two pieces are AI orchestrated compositions based on The Future of Text V and VI. Process described below.
A Sound of Text:
A Quiet Sound of Text:
Lyrics
We’ve been living in a world of flat and frozen lines where the pages never move and the wisdom’s hard to find From the Gutenberg elegies to the screens we hold so tight. We’ve been searching for a doorway into a different kind of light. And though we know so much, our sphere of ignorance grows wide. Oh, we’re stepping through the portal, leave the 2D world behind In a spatial architecture, where the soul and syntax intertwine–It’s a “thinking space” we’re building, in the air and in the mind. Experimenting to experience, it’s how the future unfolds
Is it a book, a volume, or a sculpture made of gold–old? A “knowledge object” floating, waiting for a hand to hold?–We pinch the text from mid-air, watch the paragraphs unfold, walking through the sentences, a story yet untold. We’re questioning the silence, we’re teasing out the space, moving past the dripping tap of knowledge, to a much more fluid place. Will the words run vertical, horizontal, all around, or dance like stars in flight? A city of our meanings, glowing in the virtual night, we’re still asking why–as the limit of our knowing meets the endless digital sky. The future of text isn’t flat on a page, It’s written in space, it remembers its age, words don’t just line up, they gather and stay, Forming constellations we walk through each day. You don’t scroll for meaning, you step inside. Letters have depth, and ideas collide, sentences breathe, they curve and expand, knowledge you touch with an open hand. Not just links on a wire, Not just data at speed, this is thought made visible, a landscape of mind, a network of knowlegde. The future of text is written in space, clusters of knowledge, time and place, not just networks of data passing through, but worlds of meaning you move into. The future of text is around you. Paragraphs float like rooms with a view, Footnotes whisper from angles you choose, History stacks in layers of light, past and present sharing the same sight. You remember by walking, you learn by return. Every idea has edges you turn, Metadata hums beneath what you see, text communicates, context alive, not buried, but free. Knowledge isn’t hidden, It shows how it’s made, Every source leaves a shadow, Every thought leaves a trace. tep closer — this word has weight, This idea bends when you change your state, Zoom out and the pattern appears, Zoom in and the voice is clear. This isn’t storage, this isn’t a file, It’s memory shaped to scale and style.
Experimenting to experience, the future we’re designed to seek out.
The future of text is written in space, ideas with volume, stories with place, Not just networks of data passing through, But living structures we think inside too. When meaning surrounds you, and context is near, The future of text is finally here.
Experimenting to experience, it’s how the future unfolds
Written in space… Held in relation… Text becomes place… And knowledge becomes navigation.
Experimenting to experience, it’s how the future unfolds
Text becomes place… And knowledge becomes navigation.
Process
The process was started in Google Gemini where I upload last years Future of Text book and this years draft and asked for song lyrics based on the text with the following prompt:
“Please write song lyrics based on these two volumes. The main points are the way we have been looking at the future of text, particularly in virtual reality (also called XR). We have learnt some things, and we question more things. One conclusion is that we need to investigate the spatial aspects of text, something we are still trying to tease out. The song should be in the style of 1970s easy listening music.”
I then decided it needed more about where we are now, with the insight that we really need to use the space–and akin to spatial hypertext–clustering, or as Vint said the very first time we met; ‘binding’ so I asked ChatGPT to:
“Write song lyrics along the lines of the future of text in virtual reality is written in the space, with clusters of knowledge, not just networks of data.”
The lyrics were then massaged together and edited, re-written, added to, deleted and so on. This was no click-and-receive, this took several hours of tinkering with both lyrics and music, including getting to the final music prompt.
I then put this into Suno.com with the style prompt which was elaborated by the Suno.com AI based on my initial input:
“Club ready soul with male and female vocals. Starts with spoon word before singing. Each verse alternates percussive rap lines with syncopated jazz piano stabs and understated brass. As layers build, club-ready elastic bass and lush synth pads drive the groove. Jazz drums whip up emotional intensity, while breakdowns amidst intricate synth and bass interplay.”
For ‘A Quiet Sound of Text’ the Prompt was simply:
“Calm soulful piano only male and female”