IF I CAN’T DANCE

Co-writing with algorithms

Human and non–human bodies are brought into assemblage through scores, which can include acts of writing, coding and programming. For instance, in Martine Neddam’s seminal net art piece Mouchette.org (1996-ongoing), the artist used simple online question and response forms to co–create the thirteen–year–old Mouchette together with website visitors. The figure of Mouchette continues to evolve as users co–write her life–narrative, responding to the website’s prompts as well as sensual and haptic qualities. As literary critic Katherine Hayles reminds us, virtual platforms embody and illicit bodily responses. 

Dear Machines (2022), an artists’ book by Mariana Fernández M was co–written by the artist together with a group of algorithms: Replika, GPT–3, GPT–2 and Eliza. The result is what the artist refers to as a techno–poetics: a series of short writing exercises developed over a year in which the algorithms are not used as tools, but inscribed into a relationship with Fernández M, becoming her companions with whom the fabulative potential of working with artificial intelligence (AI) is explored. 

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