a javascript program for creative mangling of text
This program takes a text input and ouputs the same text, minus a few of its words. Words can be either dropped, so they disappear completely, or erased, which means all their component letters are substituted by blank spaces.
The idea is to obtain several versions of the same text by running it a few times through the forgetter; these can be distributed to a group of people who can then attempt to collectively reconstitute the original text, thus enacting the procedure of collective memory. This was made for a session of the Baldio Translation Group, where I was given the word “forget” to work with.