An adaptation of Melanie Hoff's Folder poetry workshop for a net-art assignment @ mcad

folder-poetry-MCAD.md

Folder Poetry, Melanie Hoff

What if we could transform our online networks from something we passively receive to something we actively create? Folder Poetry is the practice of using the structure of computer folder organization as a new kind of poetic form like the haiku or iambic pentameter. By naming and nesting folders and files, we can create unfolding narratives, rhythmic prose, and choose-your-own-adventure poetry.

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Terms

• Folder Poetry is the practice of using the structure of computer folder organization as a new kind of poetic form like the haiku or iambic pentameter. By naming and nesting folders and files, we can create unfolding narratives, rhythmic prose, and choose-your-own-adventure poetry.
• The Terminal is desktop application to control and make changes to your operating system by typing text commands. In this class we'll use the terminal to create folder poetry.
• Bash is the programming language we'll use in the terminal, often one line at a time, but we can also put Bash code in a file and run that file.

Folder Poetry Rules

• Every file has to contain text in it.
  
• Underscores and dashes are ok. for example: my_file.txt or my-file.txt, case sensitivity matters! no spaces!
  
• All files must have a file extension such as .txt
  

Terminal.app location

Applications/utilities/terminal.app

🎲 Bash & Terminal commands

Command	Description
cd	change directory
cd ..	change directory one level back
ls	list contents of directory
pwd	print working directory
mkdir foldername	create a folder named foldername .
touch dandelion.txt	create a file named dandelion.txt
echo "woof woof" > kitty.txt	create a text file called kitty.txt containing the words, "woof woof"
echo "bark bark" >> kitty.txt	append the words "bark bark" to the end of text file called kitty.txt
cat filename.txt	print contents of file
rm -rf filename.txt .	remove a file or folder this way
mv filename.txt newfilename.txt	rename a file (you can also move anywhere by providing filepaths)
open .	open the current folder in Finder
open filename.txt	open file in Text Edit
nano filename.txt	open file in nano text editor (in terminal editor)
atom filename.txt	open file in Atom.io
cp sourcefile.txt destfile.txt	copy file (source filepath first, destination filepath second)
say "hello, what is poetic computation?"	speak out loud
man cd	show the manual for 'cd'. Press q to quit
source ~/.bash_profile	restart your terminal config file
tree	list file tree (if aliased, info below)
treefile	list file tree with file contents (if aliased, info below)

Keyboard Terminal Shortcuts

Command	Description
Up + Down Arrow keys	scroll through history of commands entered
Tab Key	autocomplete
CMD + CTRL + SPACE	Emoji Keyboard (Mac OS)
CTRL + c	escape the current terminal opperation
CTRL + x , y , enter	exit nano and save/overwrite changes

Editing a text file

command	Description
echo "woof woof" > kitty.txt	creates a text file called kitty.txt that contains the words, "woof woof"
echo "bark bark" >> kitty.txt	append the words "bark bark" to the end of text file called kitty.txt
nano textfile.txt	open file in the nano text editor
CTRL + X , y , ENTER	exit and save changes

Editing your ~./bash_profile

The ~./bash_profile is a configuration file for the terminal.

1. nano ~/.bash_profile to open your ~./bash_profile in the nano editor

Copy the commands in steps 2,3,4 into the text area in nano

2. alias tree="find . -not -path '*/\.*' -print | sed -e 's;[^/]*/;|;g;s;|; |;g'"

3. alias treefile="find . -not -path '*/\.*' | xargs -I {} bash -c 'f={}; echo \$f | sed -e \"s;[^/]*/;|;g;s;|; |;g\"; if [[ \$f == *.txt ]]; then echo; cat \$f; echo; echo; fi'"

   • steps 2 and 3 create aliass AKA shortcuts that will help us visualize our folder poem structures.

4. export PS1="\n🍋 \w\n\u$ "

   • This will customize your Bash prompt. Feel free to change the emoji. (skip if you use zshell)
   • Explanation: \w shows your full file path so you'll always know where you are in the terminal, \n creates a new line in your bash prompt. \u shows your computer username, and $ symoolizes the end of a bash prompt.

Terminal configured! time to exit nano and reset the session!

5. CTRL + X to exit nano, then press Y for yes to overwrite the buffer, then press enter to save the file.

6. source ~/.bash_profile to reboot your terminal session.

Making our Folder Poems

• cd
• mkdir folder-friends
• mkdir folder-poetry
• cd folder-poetry
• mkdir yourname-home
• cd yourname-home
  • ^ where we'll make our poems