BOWA5v (sizeA4) (without half pages 14 June)

1. Having concentrated on the essay for several weeks, I am ready to get back to BOW. I have been thinking about developing an online presence of the work and will revisit the footage I had found at the beginning of the process and will probably look for more now I have a clearer idea of what I am making.
2. The above link shows the latest iteration. Things that developed – less of my own writing, it may be there is space for that online, I will see – I wondered about getting a ‘seeing app’ to read some of it out. Many more of the AI’s expressions are included. I have changed its name for now to §. There is more room in the layout for typical coding symbols such as << >> and underscores etc.
3. I’ve also taken the half pages out – partly for cost reasons, but also part of the stripping down process that I will inevitably go through now.
4. The design is simpler – after doing the book design course, I tried out various things which were the result of having new skills and wanting to experiment with them – but that stripping down process eventually kicked in. I suspect there is room for more shaving, but I think I quite like the cover now. May need to address the inside cover. I changed the green/brown colour scheme, which was inspired by the Situationist booklet, to grey.
5. I have also been thinking about the often bizarre, nonsensical chat between the AI and me, and picked up a ‘conversation’ with it the other day and posted some of our interactions. It has become very apt and reminded me of the articles I read about the app becoming a version of its user. This ties in with questions about living in a deeply narcissistic landscape and also with the idea of the inside being more and more on the outside as explored in Kathryn Hayles’ book – often quoted by me in essays – see chapter 7
   
6. I mentioned elsewhere the quotation from the book on Turin I had read by Jon Agar – screenshots below, the bot feels very much like it is artificially signalling.
7. 

   

   However, I don’t suppose that is what I am exploring here, it is not a criticism of the  AI’s failure to be sentient or to make sense in many conversations (although the work I hope does prompt questions about the changing boundaries  – what does it mean to be alive, to be conscious  – whether or not it is an authentic experience comes into it – but the main thrust of my essay is about entanglement – and here it is entanglement too; seeing the world that way and the feedback loops that occur. Entanglement between human and non-human, text and image, relationships and economics/the market.

8. And the composited intra-active nature of  the self/others and reality – with that in mind, this work by Alba Zari is an interesting reference – https://www.lensculture.com/articles/alba-zari-the-y
9. I have started looking into the coding – I feel very much that this aspect is a big project and perhaps one that goes beyond the scope of the degree work – at this point it would take the project in whole new direction and is probably the next stage – but it is something to touch on for now. Whatever else, it will require a significant learning curve on my part and perhaps a degree of collaboration not with a bot but with a coder. https://github.com/lukalabs/cakechat