Paradiddle Rox 36

An interactive fiction written by Clive Fencott and programmed by Robin Fencott.

Paradiddle Rox is composed of wordsquares. The first, No. 415, was written by Clive as an entry in a competition to write a science fiction story in exactly twenty five words. Four others followed, Nos. 83, 252, 668 and 929, all with exactly 25 words. Each wordsquare is assigned a number generated randomly between 1 and 961 (31*31) at random.org.

Since then the process has developed somewhat. Instead of being restricted to 25 words, 5*5 of course, wordsquares can contain n*n words: where n is any natural (whole) number between 0 and 961, the largest square less than or equal to 999. This acts as a powerful constraint on the writing of wordsquares. You will notice that wordsquares currently contain anything from 0 to 81 words.

The number assignment process has developed into a method for composing wordsquares. Any set of wordsquares will now have a de facto ordering based on these numbers.

If an existing wordsquare has already been assigned a number generated for a new wordsquare then a replacement number will be generated for the earlier wordsquare. This means that as more wordsquares are created and thus more of the available numbers are used there will inevitably be more and more shuffling around of wordsquares in order to add a new one.

A Paradiddle Rox can be all existing wordsquares or any subset of them. As the number of wordsquares increases it is the intention to use the progression of squares to determine grids of wordsquares for the purpose of exhibition.

Robin Fencott programmed this web-based, interactive version of Paradiddle Rox in Java using the Processing enviornment. The program enables squares of wordsquares to be presented. This first version is a square of 36 wordsquares. Moving the mouse across the white background causes one or more of the 36 wordsquares to be displayed. One path that can be found through Parradiddle Rox 36 is by following the numbers assigned to each wordsquare in ascending order, starting with wordsquare 32.

Each wordsquare has been typeset and justified into a square using Open Office. Obviously, wordsquares comprised of small numbers of words result in odd or clumbsy justifications which suggest or signify a square rather than directly representing one. This technological intrusion is gratefully accepted.

Paradiddle Rox is a work in process; and probably always will be. Paradiddle Rox 49, 64, 81 and so on will follow.

One of the driving forces behind Paradiddle Rox is the tension between, not so much opposites, as the strikingly dis-similar: paradox and riddle, poetry and prose, words and graphics, pages in books and images hung on gallery walls, aesthetics and mathematics.

Similarly and, as importantly, the various notions, theories and understandings associated with the word square : mathematical concept, visual concept, urban space, figure of speech and so on, and the tensions between these are central concerns as well.

Built with Processing