Course of Study

• The nature of poetic computation: What is a poetic computation work made of? What are its materials? It’s affordances? What is inherent in its nature? When we try to critique a story we reach for the plot, characters, setting. For a photograph: the subject, the context, technical details like exposure, lighting, staging. What do we reach for when we want to critique a poetic computation piece? Where lies its power? Its appeal? Its limitations? What are the ethical considerations?

• How the nature of poetic computation can negate intention and impact consumption, interpretation: How is meaning constructed from a poetic computational art piece? What constitutes “paratext” when thinking about a data scraping project or a computer generated poem? How does the interactive nature of many computational works complicate our perception of it?

• Poetic Computation as an Evocative Object: How can we conceptualize a piece of poetic computation as an evocative object: something with context, associations, networks. What are the social and material conditions that make this piece of work possible? What baggage do we bring along? What baggage does the technology bring?

Expectations

Time & Workload

• Participants can expect to spend no more than 2 hours outside of class each week on class readings and assignments. It's a discussion based class, so participants are invited and encouraged to share their thoughts on the lectures, readings, and in-class exercises.

Materials

• No materials required!

Learning Outcomes

Together we will develop:

• An understanding of the concerns, affordances and potentials specific to poetic computation and the ethical implications.

• A framework and a language for thinking and talking about works of poetic computation.

• An understanding of the different forms of poetic computation and what they “authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence, block, render possible, forbid and so on…”

Is this class for me?

This class may be for you if:

• You have some interest in thinking and talking about poetic computation and its underpinnings.

• You tend to think deeply about art projects you like or dislike and why (or you'd like to do so!)

• You’d like to get in the habit of talking about art projects and articulating: what it’s doing, why it might be doing that, how it’s working, how it’s not.

• You enjoy crit sessions (not necessarily being the subject of them, just engaging with someone’s work)

• You agree with the statement: "Maybe the work is staying with the questions."

This class may NOT be for you if:

• You’re interested in a class about general tech ethics (privacy, surveillance, algorithms of oppression, implications of crypto/AI/ML)

• It’s important for you to arrive at a definitive conclusion of a project or technique being “bad” or “good.”

• You think intention is all that matters when creating something!

• You tend to say it’s not that deep often.