Writing with Automated Machines: Between Translation and Sabotage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_6-3_6Keywords:
cybernetics, cognition, information, meaning, aestheticsAbstract
A generative text is a system constituted by non-conscious and conscious cognizers, digital and analogue processes, and mathematical and linguistic modes of representation. But how do algorithms cognize? And how is meaning constructed in a system where authorial intentions and readers’ experiences and interpretations are mediated by algorithmic agents? Through the analysis of How It Is In Common Tongues (Cayley and Howe, 2012), I intend to discuss the tensions that arise from the encounter between algorithmic and human cognition, and between the regimes of information and expression. Drawing on Katherine Hayles’ view on the cognitive non-conscious and Claude Shannon’s information theory I will start by establishing a distinction between information and meaning, between communication and expression, and between the regimes of information and of the literary. To reflect on the political ecology of digital mediation (situated in the informational regime of cybernetics), I will consider Matteo Pasquinelli’s perspective on the co-evolution of technology and economics, and discuss how algorithmic cognitive processes embody and reinforce the structures of contemporary cognitive capitalism. Finally, I will discuss the strategies of resistance enabled by aesthetic approaches to computation, such as the ones explored in this case study.
Downloads
References
CAYLEY, John, and Daniel C. Howe (2012). How It Is In Common Tongues. 30 May 2017. http://thereadersproject.org/?hiiict2012
CAYLEY, John, and Daniel C. Howe (2013). “Reading, Writing, Resisting: Literary Appropriation in the Readers Project.” Proceed-ings of the 19th International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA2013, Sydney. 22 May 2017. http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/9708
HAYLES, N. Katherine (2014). “Cognition Everywhere, The Rise of the Cognitive Nonconscious.” New Literary History, 45.2: 199-220. 20 May 2017.
PASQUINELLI, Matteo (2014). “The Labour of Abstraction: Seven Transitional Theses on Marxism and Accelerationism.” Fillip magazine #19. 27 May 2017. http://matteopasquinelli.com/labour-of-abstraction-theses/
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
MATLIT embraces full open access to all issues. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- A CC licensing information in a machine-readable format is embedded in all articles published by MATLIT.
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
- You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
- No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
