Speculative Poetics for Video Games and AI
A book launch for Elden Poem and the The Institute for Other Intelligences
In this joint book launch, Daniel Snelson and Mashinka Firunts Hakopian present readings and performances from Elden Poem (Hysterically Real, 2022) and The Institute for Other Intelligences (X Artists’ Books, 2022). In The Institute for Other Intelligences, Hakopian presents the transcript of a fictive symposium on critical AI, convened at a not-yet-extant school for machine intelligences, artificial killjoys, and sundry bots. Across both works, the authors develop a poetics for inscribing speculative missives within the media platforms and network cultures of the present.
Hosted by Al Filreis, the event will feature live gameplay, an illustrated lecture-performance, video excerpts, and a poetry reading, with a Q&A on games, AI, and poetics to follow.
MASHINKA FIRUNTS HAKOPIAN is an Armenian writer, artist, and researcher born in Yerevan and residing in Glendale, CA. She is an Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice at ArtCenter College of Design. In 2021, she was a visiting Mellon Professor of the Practice at Occidental College, where she co-curated the exhibition “Encoding Futures: Critical Imaginaries of AI” with Meldia Yesayan. With Avi Alpert and Danny Snelson, she makes up one-third of the collective, Research Service. She is a Contributing Editor for Art Papers, and her writing and commentary have appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Performance Research Journal, Art in America, Hyperallergic, and Meghan Markle's Archetypes. Performances and projects have been presented at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Museum of Contemporary Art (LA), Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), Drawing Center (NY), Judson Memorial Church (NY), and in the New Museum (NY) Voice Registers Series. See also: www.mashinkafirunts.com
DANIEL SCOTT SNELSON is a writer, editor, and archivist working as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of English and Design Media Arts at UCLA. His online editorial work can be found on PennSound, Eclipse, UbuWeb, Jacket2, and the EPC. His books include Full Bleed: A Mourning Letter for the Printed Page (Sync, 2019), Apocalypse Reliquary: 1984-2000 (Monoskop, 2018), Radios (Make Now, 2016), EXE TXT (Gauss PDF, 2015), Epic Lyric Poem (Troll Thread, 2014), and Inventory Arousal with James Hoff (Bedford Press/Architectural Association, 2011). With Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and Avi Alpert, he performs as one-third of the academic performance group Research Service. See also: dss-edit.com