I discovered this work on runme.org, under the category of 'Conceptual Software.' The artist, n3krozoft mord, defines this piece as: extremely simple apple-skript [for macos9 or osX - osX not tested] - exploiting the text-to-speech funktion of the mac.

The software, on my computer opened in Classic mode and began reading Act III, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. (That's the one with Hamlet's famous speech to Ophelia, "To be or not to be...") It is performed by seven different voices, each could be said to have its own personality. But just how much personality can a computer voice have, especially when it's reading some of the most recognizable lines of English literature?

I believe the artist is trying to recontextualize the scene from Hamlet, and in doing so comment on a computer's lack of ability to convey human emotions. It's a bit of a Turing test, if you will. One could never be convinced that the voices reading Hamlet in this work belong to human beings. Is it impossible to create a lifelike facsimile of the human ability to vocalize emotion? It may not be impossible, and if it is not, it will be interesting to see the product of such a flawless facade. Plays written for characters played solely by computers... Maybe.

by Joshua Wilt, posted 17 Feb 2004
URL: www.yproductions.com/teach/digital_art/blog/000219.html