because, where Sam counted on a problem
Dad calculated on an experience, on one
Europe, on top of armed robberies
Bobo Belém came for my life
Paul the Gilder
though we also have lots of flowers, dear Albert Ferrer,
Europa breeds a weapon
bales and bales
to leave a life of egg bloom
there remained empty
sleep, reading
the ACLU, the A12
after managing need
in Heerlen, the battery
of the 7 winds
from Pamela Ave., flora made a life
state credits afterward
on the exit though
tableau in Gaul continued to run
He also continued after the triplet that appeared
for Libya has been running
do not let this run
Vi can run
the ending
yet the policy closes
sleep is that good
however, a lot of vetoes remained
this time or more often the target
54
or the previous lot
with it follows the apple Hans delivered
sleep tight
yes it is there on the street, remained Euro
NAC has killed
to comply
she, just then, kept a flight to Dublin, flight
let know
problems occur, pass
hive
let live
wolves live
the number two
nevertheless, it continues to live
beasts alarmed, have cooperated
thereby
the collision with a plow in place
sleep tight
that stimulated petal afternoon
the blabla stayed
let me walk
problematic within Libya
broke
with a few minutes left
the adolescent
Tripoli
lettuce remained empty
Robben walked
for some reason, lettuce did not appear
leaf two, three
Libya has left that problem
do not kick in anymore
football in 3
suddenly, suddenly stopped on a double for less borrowing
top in Brussels
swinging
Flanders’ shares remained
Sandeep Lombeek, tulip, four problem
there remained problem
issue
many Moluccans
FK Jablonec lit The Times on fire, sliver of life
to Berlin!
Source notes
The text for The Sims in Real Life was generated using YouTube’s “automatic captioning” feature. This feature was applied to a selection of videos including unorthodox or abstract uses of language. I experimented with videos of people speaking in tongues and going into trances before settling on a popular genre of prank video which features young men “talking gibberish to strangers.” This poem draws on captions automatically generated for the video “Sims in real life Prank” (2016) by YouTube user LETZUPLOADIT, accessible at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k1Vhem-Sms
With the automatic captioning function enabled, the software translated the nonsense words and sounds used in the source video into their closest English equivalents. Part found poem, part translation, the final text is made up, almost exclusively, of the lines generated by the software; my role here has been editorial as opposed to generative.
DOWNLOAD BONUS DIGITAL CONTENT
There are a bunch of extra SimsIRL goodies available in digital format on the CDs accompanying the limited edition multimedia chapbooks, available now from The Blasted Tree’s online store. Don’t have a CD drive? Don’t have the CD? No problem! You can download a .zip of all the bonus content - including an introduction by the author, an editor’s note by Kyle Flemmer, source and production images, and more - using the following link:
drive.google.com/file/d/1-BnvJm-X-Hq0AcxOpGiQl9FbkgNRVgjC/view?usp=sharing
The Sims in Real Life is out of print from The Blasted Tree Store
Featured by The Blasted Tree: April 30, 2019
Ben Robinson
Contributing Author
Other works on The Blasted Tree:
The Sims in Real Life by Ben Robinson is a Blasted Tree poem and multimedia chapbook.
ISBN [Online]: 978-1-987906-47-9
Design by Kyle Flemmer