Allison Schuette-Hoffman

August 19, 2007

Oulipian podcast

Oulipo means potential literature. It’s at the heart of an artistic movement that generates art, potentially, through the use of constraints. Famously, there’s a novel that’s been written without the letter “e.” In my class on new cultures and technologies of writing, I had students create a podcast based on the constraints of the Third Coast Festival’s 2006 ShortDocs contest. They had an opening line, three sounds and 2 1/2 minutes. Here’s what happened when I made a go of it myself.