Sorrow.js

It might be the case that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but the unfortunate companion truth is that most breakup literature is bad. The grief is real, of course, but it’s often the case that the photograph of the animal pain loses a great deal of the vibrant, feral qualities that made standing with it in the thicket at night terrifying in the first place. And it’s understandable why. It is, ironically enough, quite difficult to say something true amidst the graphic emotional nudity of the immediate moment, and the ones who get it right seem to focus more on the portrait of themselves on fire and less on the administrative heft of someone moving out, or moving on, or both. As an example of the latter, we need look no further than Philip Roth assessing Claire Bloom $62 billion in damages during their divorce for violating their prenup. I think we all get where he’s generally coming from, but it’s hilarious nonetheless to see him live out his own token of wisdom that being a writer turns you into someone who is always wrong.

As an example of the former, I present to you Call me Adele, a coding project from Wipawe Sirikolkarn tasked with turning her sorrow into a data set. She compiled all of her saved text messages from the first 4 months and the last 4 months of her 4-year, now-ended relationship and graphed them based on topics like how often her ex mentioned her name, or how many words their conversations included. I found it stunning, perhaps because of how clear the distinctions were that she discovered and perhaps because it proves just how human our relationship with technology actually is. Much is made about how disconnected it’s made us as a species but this work serves as an example of the very real depths and revelations it conveys to us on a regular basis if we’re paying attention. I love this project completely, and it’s wonderful to watch obviously brilliant people make brilliant art from obvious things.