Experiment 2 / Text Reduction

< Introduction >

I started by asking: what really happens when our words meet a system? In my research, I kept returning to how algorithms read patterns and signals, and reduce human data inputs by reducing rich behaviours into simplified categories, metrics, and features. What if I made that reduction visible? That led me to use ASCII as a way to expose this reduction.

Text Reduction converts what users type into shifting arrangements of circles, blocks, triangles, and lines. Using ASCII, the computer’s earliest visual alphabet to reinterpret each word based on its structure:

⑴ Short Words (Circles): o O @ •
⑵ Long Words (Squares): # ▓ ░ +
⑶ Starting with Vowels (Triangles): ^ /\\ >
⑷ Ending with Punctuation (Lines): | / \\

By reducing meaningful language into these simplified shapes, it mirrors how algorithmic systems strip human expression of nuance and encode it into machine-readable categories. Each input creates a visual that reflects not what the user writes, but how the system classifies them.