iLib Shakespeare is a social media mashup that uses the dynamic input of users to continuously rewrite a sonnet of William Shakespeare. The user phonetically rhymes a word or short phrase, which is added to the database of variations available to other users. For instance, unhappily forsworn can be rhymed as snappily untorn. Each time the page is loaded, a different selection of user-defined substitutions is used. A transposed midi version of "Lachrimae" or "Seven Tears," by John Dowland (1563-1626), can be heard as well, with "perturbations" that increase as the sonnet text is modified.
with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts