binarywriting

Binarywriting is a contemporary term for writing practices that use binary digits, 0 and 1, as material, representation, or metaphor. Works labeled binarywriting may encode standard language into binary sequences, depict data streams as text, or employ binary imagery to explore digital culture.

Origin and scope: The term developed with digital and media art, informally in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, within circles of digital poetry, code art, and data visualization. It treats writing as a form that can be read as language or as binary data.

Techniques: Common approaches include transcribing prose or poetry into binary using ASCII or Unicode, creating hybrid texts where bits control layout or rhythm, and composing pieces whose meaning emerges through readerly translation or interpretation of the 0s and 1s.

Notation and examples: Binarywriting favors readable segmentation (groups of eight bits for a byte) to reflect byte-level encoding, and may place 0s and 1s with spaces to mark characters. Example: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111.

Reception and uses: It is chiefly encountered in experimental literature, digital art installations, and educational demonstrations of data representation. Critics view binarywriting as a way to interrogate the relationship between machine processes and human language, while noting its potential accessibility limits.

See also: Binary code, ASCII, Unicode, Digital poetry.