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Concrete Writing with Proteins

This paper explores an alternative approach to textual pro-

duction through protein folding mechanism and artificial

intelligence. Drawing primarily on the legacy of 20th-centu-

ry-concrete poetry, I propose the concept of "concrete writ-

ing": a form of compositional activity that seeks expression

in the real through the materiality of language. I begin by

introducing key aspects of concrete poetry that inform my

conceptual framework. Then, through Eduardo Kac's and

Christian Bök's works, I discuss how their artistic practices

exemplify the possibilities of concrete writing on a molecu-

lar level. I then elaborate on the structural parallels between

protein folding and textual composition, for my own exper-

imentation. In the last section, I present paragrams, a series

of speculations that use AlphaFold to design and generate

new textual objects. This work intends to contribute to the

ongoing discussions of text generation using AI models by

reconsidering the prevalent yet somewhat reductive view on

language.

Keywords

concrete poetry, experimental poetry, AlphaFold, protein

folding, concrete writing, paragram, materiality of lan-

guage, coding