CITY LIGHTS LIVE! Poetry in the Age of Machine Intelligence (Session 2)

Black Ocean Books and City Lights present
Poetry in the Age of Machine Intelligence
Curated by Jesse Damiani, promptcraft by Alexander Reben

Session 2 - Poetry Readings
with K Allado-McDowell, Mark Amerika, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, David “Jhave” Johnston, Sasha Stiles, and Lillian Yvonne-Bertram

As AI grows in utility and cultural presence, so do questions surrounding the human role in how our art is made.

The symposium "Poetry in the Age of Machine Intelligence " asks: what does the rise of artificial intelligence mean for creative industries?

As digital technologies in language modeling and generative visualization become increasingly sophisticated, questions about originality and the role these emerging tools play in art and culture take crucial positions in not just today’s discourse, but for generations to come.

Originally intended as a collection of essays and interviews from Jesse Damiani for the book "I Create Like the Word" this forum explores these topics through expert panels of AI developers, poets, artists, researchers, and curators — as well as through an ekphrastic process where original art and poetry weaves an exchange between human and machine, emphasizing the relationship between prompt and craft.

This places us at an emerging trailhead of poetics that asks us to face the role computers have within our own very ancient, very human traditions: the role of the poet and sublime expression.

About the speakers:

K Allado-McDowell is a writer, speaker, and musician. They are the author, with GPT-3, of the books Pharmako-AI, Amor Cringe, Air Age Blueprint and Out Side, and are co-editor of The Atlas of Anomalous AI.

Mark Amerika is an internationally renown artist and an author of thirteen books including his most recent title, "My Life as an Artificial Creative Intelligence," the inaugural title in the “Sensing Media” series published in 2022 by Stanford University Press.

Mashinka Firunts Hakopian is an Armenian writer, artist, and researcher. She is an Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice at ArtCenter College of Design and a 2021 Visiting Mellon Professor of the Practice at Occidental College.

David Jhave Johnston is a digital-poet writing in emergent domains: A.I., 3D, VR, and code.

Sasha Stiles is a Kalmyk-American poet, artist and AI researcher widely recognized as a pioneer of generative literature and language art.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist, and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race, and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press.)

The publication of the book which served as the inspiration for this symposium, "I Create Like the Word," was postponed prior to the date of this event. City Lights will carry the book when it sees print. Please refer to the City Lights website (citylights.com) to remain updated on the books release status.

This event was originally broadcast on Saturday, July 20, 2024 and hosted by Peter Maravelis of City Lights.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.