User:Alessia/Recap

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki


I always struggled with having too many ideas in mind, the only thing I was certain of was my desire to work with poetry.

I was exploring the intersection of poetry and games at the beginning of the year. I was confident in this direction for a while, but as I began writing my thesis, my focus shifted. Artificial intelligence entered the picture, and I found it far more exciting to write about than game theory.

When it came time to prototype, my direction was less clear. With games, I had imagined a compilation of poetic games/poetry as games, but with AI I wasn’t sure how to shape the public experience of my research. I experimented with different forms of AI generated poetry, working with Python to understand the basics of machine learning and text generators. Yet I still felt uncertain about the impact I want my project to have to the public.

Projects


Here the wiki page for all the last projects I worked on, without including the first ones I did, so the games and little poetry zines I presented during my first public moment:

https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Alessia/Making

One of the projects I had in mind was making interviews with artists/poets/programmers and anybody that could bring a nice viewpoint. I stopped seeking contacts after understanding I couldn't do that inside of my thesis. I did interview a couple of friends, but as you pointed out, my questions were too broad. Asking, “What do you think about AI making poetry?” wasn’t enough. For these reasons, because of the rule you can do whatever even after xpub, I stopped working on it.

At some point I was suggested maybe just to work on my own poetry practice. I think I didn’t fully explain myself then: I am not going down the path of self expression. I am not going to show up my poems for the sake of it, because I just don’t want (I would have chose the fine art master if I wanted to produce another self centred work), then I am not really sure another piece of art about depression, as my poetry is soaked in that, would be even useful.
This is happening because I am not being clear, even to myself maybe, about why I am doing what I am doing. Looking at all the feedbacks got me extremely confused, and what surely will help me later in life is understanding I don't have to listen to everyone.

I found out about electronic literature, algolit and oulipo, not so long ago. This opened a new spectrum of possibilities, if I want to continue experimenting around I think I will go in that direction.

In the meatime, I started an internship in Poetry International. Firstly, because I want to work in the publishing environment during my lifetime. Secondly, because I chose to focus on poetry and artificial intelligence exactly because of Poetry Booth, a project presented to the last edition of Poetry International.

Thesis


The process of balancing writing and making has been extremely challenging for me this year. This brought me to focus almost totally on writing most of the time.

In my thesis, what I say is that poetry will always be an human experience, this won’t change.
Here a list of main points I feel are central to my thesis, as you asked for:


Poetry as a human experience:

"The first time I saw ChatGPT generating poetry, I couldn't shake an uncanny feeling that something was fundamentally wrong. I began questioning my reaction. Why was I feeling this way?"​

“Poetry is often seen as a deeply intimate form of expression. Historically the value of the medium has been tied to the poet’s intent, experience and craft. When the author spot is left vacant some complications could emerge, not just for poetry but all forms of communication. Poetry is a dialogue between the reader and the poet’s personal perspective, AI generated poetry challenges this vision of it by eliminating the intent of the author. Many argue that this lack of human intention and personal connection may produce aesthetically nice patterns yes, but empty verses. Is creative expression just a sophisticated form of pattern recognition, or does it require something more fundamentally human?​”

Machine authorship and mimesis:

“Despite artificial intelligence being just around the corner for over half a century, here we are watching the rapid acceleration of AI evolution, and usage.
Machine learning, as a subset of AI, continues its rapid improvement too, with large language models being now at their prime. This transformation asks for a careful analysis of how these technologies are reshaping not only the processes of reading and writing but also creativity. Erslev’s (2023) concept of "machine mimesis" offers a good insight into the evolution of the relationship between human and artificial creativity. AI is becoming increasingly better at replicating human writing styles, an interesting shift occurs here – humans are beginning to mimic AI back. As in a recursive loop, we are returning back to machines”

Speculation about the future:

“The very definition of poetry may evolve. As it will be for art. Art breathes innovation, as well as technology, and is shaped in the wonderful chaos of the present.”

“I don’t believe in a world where poetic and artistic creation will become disconnected from the human mind either. Art is a human activity, its making is the result of the combination of what is the conscious and unconscious mind, connected to the human abilities of creativity, as a way to survive, adapt and understand. This won’t change”



I made many points in my thesis, but fundamentally left many doors open.

I did say my own viewpoint on the matter: poetry won’t disappear as an artistic human practice. Its value, as other mediums, will inevitably change because of societal changes, as it has always been. Creativity won’t disappear, taken from us from corporations. What will happen, and seemingly is happening, is the extreme of what our society has to offer us: anything as products, commodification the human experience.

At the same time I explored a bit how artists are using AI as an addition to their practice, how new genres of poetry are emerging because of this clash between “artificial” and human. I speculated a bit about what the future could look like, without giving fuel to the narrative of AI as an alien force that will rule over us.

Even if I just said that I explained my viewpoint on the matter, maybe I didn’t fully. I wasn’t focusing on my stand on it. I didn’t know much about AI, corporation filth, before starting to write this thesis. That’s why I focused on many viewpoints, to get the bigger picture. Maybe what I should do is find a way, through prototyping, the gradshow, to get a clear personal point on this matter, to find a way to show it to the public (not that I actually know how at this moment).


Other projects I like + (why I find them interesting)


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