The Way Bot

The Way Bot scrapes Twitter for tweets that contain the phrase “I like it when.” After removing all the hashtags, special characters, and identifying material, the bot confirms that it has not encountered the expression before and then stores the statement in a database in order to tweet a fresh comment every few minutes. By removing specific markers of identity and filtering hateful or offensive language, what comes through is a more basic (and generally positive) expression of human feeling. The generative engine for The Way Bot was originally created to harvest a large amount of sentences starting with “the way that” and assemble them into the 99-page novel, The Way That I’m Crying so Hard I Have to Gasp For Air, by Eli Brody and 5,134 friends, a work submitted to NaNoGenMo (National Novel Generation Month) in 2013. Whereas reading the litany of statements out loud emphasizes The Way Bot's anaphoric poetics, embedding this account within a user's Twitter stream produces a lyrical refrain, a musical chorus that endlessly transmits a beacon of humanity’s collective unconscious. (Source: Editorial Statement from the works collection site)