The Ouvroir de littérature potentielle was formed in 1960 France by Francois LeLionnais and Raymond Queneau.
The goal of the group was to create “potential literature,” or in other words, analyze and create a set of standards formed from constraints placed on literature. These constraints drew from both marginalized writing techniques and contemporary mathematics. (This sensibility resonates with the contemporary film The Five Obstructions.)
“One such technique is the lipogram, in which a certain letter of the alphabet may not be used; another is the palindrome.”
Because the group was involved heavily with not only literary minds but also mathematicians, many new methods for approaching literary structure were developed. The works of literature produced under these constraints have been associated with new media and database art. For example, Italo Calvino’s incomplete Order in Crime attempted to write a story based on anti-combinator processes a computer could theoretically be programmed to execute. This forward thinking is also reflected in Borges’ The Garden of Forking Paths, which preconceived hypertext. (Calvino was a member of The Oulipo, Borges was not.)
