Janet Zweig, Lipstick Enigma with Franklyn Berry for the Harris Engineering Center at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. 2010. Photo Stephen Allen

There have been numerous computational “sentence generators” since at least Joseph Weizenbaum’s Eliza program, including one of my all time favorites, David Rokeby’s Giver of Names. What seems particularly successful about Janet Zweig’s latest public art project, Lipstick Enigma, which mixes the language of engineering with the language of beauty advertising, is precisely how intelligible – and humorous – her sentences are. Some examples:

Janet Zweig, Lipstick Enigma with Franklyn Berry for the Harris Engineering Center at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. 2010. Photo Stephen Allen

Totally hot emissions!
Head-to-toe source code.
Defrag his confidence.
Bring out your inner widget.
Allure is cartesian.
Vibrating powermascara!
Say hello to his compiler.
Pixelate her personality.
Motorize her vibrantly!
Statisticians in love.
Hook up in the matrix.
This year’s gamma!
Ecstasy is fissionable.
Quantify her trust.
Power-up your face.
Lust is not electrical.
Torque his virtue.
Pair sonar with ego.
Can’t live without input.
10 minutes to firmware.
Gadget fatigue!
Tired of solder?
Detox distasteful uplinks!

Janet Zweig, Lipstick Enigma with Franklyn Berry for the Harris Engineering Center at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. 2010. Photo Stephen Allen

Lipstick Enigma is made of 1200 resin lipsticks powered by 1200 stepper motors, controlled by 60 circuit boards. The computer-driven sentence-generator, using rules and lexicon written by the artist, invents and writes a new line of text, and displays it on the sign when triggered by a motion detector.