Permutations - Brion Gysin

Permutations by Brion Gysin / ISBN 9781734681772 / 167-page paperback published by DABA *** The first collection of the Beat mentor’s long-influential permutation poems―one of the earliest examples of computer-generated literature Written between 1958 and 1982, Brion Gysin's "permutation poems" begin with short phrases or sentences whose constituent words are exhaustively rearranged over the course of the text. At first, Gysin wrote these poems manually, although later, in collaboration with programmer Ian Sommerville, he would write permutation poems with the assistance of a computer, making them a very early instance of computer-generated literature. Some of these works were published in books, while others exist only as audio recordings. Many derive from a 1960 BBC radio commission, “The Permutated Poems of Brion Gysin,” in which readings of the texts were recorded, cut up, modulated and overlapped. For the first time, this collection brings together all published and―where transcri