Intrusive thoughts: the internal monologue of a stressed singularity
A workshop led by Sam Leiblich
Presented by Coconut Studios and Free Association
FREE
Workshop date:
Gulumoerrgin/Darwin workshop: Saturday 13/11/21, 1PM - 4:30PM
*In-person workshop
APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/krgyQN2rYC15bhex7
Application deadline: 12PM, Thursday, November 11, 2021
Applicants will be notified by 6PM Thursday, November 11, 2021
Techno-futurists believe “The Singularity”—when human and artificial intelligence combines to form a world-spanning super-intelligence—is the inevitable next step in the evolution of life on Earth; but what happens when the worldwide super-mind starts spiralling? And what if the singularity is already here and it’s literally just obsessing over whether we’ve all bought toilet paper this week?
This series of workshops will introduce attendees to the thought of John C. Lilley, Ray Kurzweil, and other outsiders and futurists, whom we will read through the work of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud. After establishing a theoretical grounding we will use state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, and a set of especially adapted writing exercises, to learn to listen—to ourselves and to the algorithm—so that we might predict what comes next. What will it be like when the internet scrolls us? Get ready to see Siri stress the fuck out!
These workshops are free and open to writing and technology enthusiasts. Participants will generate text that will be used to feed an algorithm towards the presentation of an audiovisual artificial intelligence to be launched at FUTURES Gallery for PHOTO 2022. Access services including Auslan available on request. Writers of all abilities and from any state or territory are encouraged to apply.
About Sam Leiblich
Sam Lieblich is a Melbourne-based artist investigating networked and algorithmic forms. His work explores the orientation/disorientation of the subject in the other, and the manifestations of the human-algorithm hybrid into which human beings are now subsumed. These digital works combine machine learning algorithms with custom code to foreground systems design and—by finding beauty and intention in the system—try to re-situate human desire in the algorithm.