The Labelle Litanizer

I made the Labelle Litanizer, a program which generates random Animal Crossing: New Leaf outfits.

Latour litanies confront us with objects in a way that defies our usual methods of grouping or reduction. In a similar way the Labelle Litanizer asks us to consider the possible rather than merely the desirable or expected.

I was surprised at the tonal bluntness sometimes - a hint of disgust in Have you considered a bathrobe?, a winking flirt in Have you considered a pink wet suit, gas mask, and timer? The in-game text often captures this effect too, the "mere" substitution of objects changing the sentence's meaning in ways beyond simple reference. (Take that, positivism!)

Along with the variety it does suggest it's worth noting what the constraints prevent. In Animal Crossing you are forbidden from holding a balloon and an ice cream; a false nose and glasses; two different shoes. Tools (shovels, axes) and toys (balloons, tweeters) are indistinguishable. Eventually every player asks whether Animal Crossing is real play or fake work; this ontography only contributes to blurring that line.

The point of such things is that they mostly speak for themselves, so that's all I'm going to say for now.