Ocean Internet Tour. October 17, 2024. University Museum. Bergen, Norway. Photo by Jhave Johnston.
I just wrapped up two new Internet Tours conceived together with Mario Santamaría. Like last year, we took some tourists around the San Francisco Bay Area on a journey to the hidden places through which our images, voices, cryptocurrencies and future intelligence circulate (more info on this and last year’s Internet Tour here). I love love love this project and hope I can continue offering more tours like it in the near future. This year’s tour was part of BCNM‘s 20th year anniversary celebrations. Happy birthday, BCNM.
Alex Saum at Internet Tour. October 14, 2024. Photo by Laurie MacFeeInternet Tour. October 14, 2024. Photo by Laurie MacFeeInternet Tour. October 14, 2024. Photo by Laurie MacFeeInternet Tour. October 14, 2024. Photo by Laurie MacFee
We also traveled to Bergen, Norway, to conduct a different tour: Ocean Internet Tour, at the University Museum. Although a situated experience like the other tour, in this journey Mario and I explored the possibility of speaking from the depth of the ocean, following a possible trace route between Berkeley and Bergen, experimenting with the changes of light as this hits the ocean at different depths. Performing this was a beauty as well, a mermaid.
Ocean Internet Tour. October 17, 2024. University Museum, Bergen, Norway. Underwater shot by Mario SantamaríaOcean Internet Tour. October 17, 2024. University Museum, Bergen, Norway. Underwater shot by Mario SantamaríaOcean Internet Tour. October 17, 2024. University Museum, Bergen, Norway. Underwater shot by Mario Santamaría
Ocean Internet Tour was part of a larger series of events around the More Than Meets AI exhibit organized by the Center for Digital Narrative in collaboration with UC Berkeley, co-curated by Eamon O’Kane, Jill Miller, and Scott Rettberg with Jhave Johnston and myself. Spanning over 6 different venues around the city of Bergen, this show “investigates AI and its role in creativity, narrative, and artistic innovation. We do so from a critically engaged perspective, one that both celebrates the new potentialities of AI for the arts and literature, while simultaneously considering some of the significant challenges AI poses for our culture and society.”
More than Meets AI at USF Verftet, in collaboration with the Bergen International Film Center. Photo by Andreas Oppsvik
The amazing folks from the CDN also organized a seminar about AI and Digital Narrative, where we were able to discuss new artistic currents around art and AI, with a special emphasis on narrative and generation. Thank you all!
Quick update to keep some sort of record of what 2024 has brought me so far! In January I participated at MLA24, and delivered a couple of talks engaging my latest research. In my talk “Trees and Codes” (part of the panel “Anthropocene Cultural Production in Latin America and the Caribbean,” organized by Nicolás Campisi and Fernando Varela) I read some digital artwork by Eugenio Tisselli and Milton Läufer as two different attempts of challenging algorithmic abstraction. I also had the good fortune of speaking at the ALCESXXI round table “Imagining Alternative Futures,” organized by Isabel Alvarez-Sancho and Christine Martinez where, next to the brilliant Julia Chang, Mary Kate Donovan, Katryn Evinson and Carmen Sanchis-Sinisterra, I described some of my work that responds to the environmental impacts of digital technologies.
“Imagining Alternative Futures” ALCESXXI round table at MLA 24
Moderator Marion Fourcade (left) with panelists: Josh Bloom, Alex Saum-Pascual, and Keanan Joyner. Photo by Brandon Sánchez Mejia.
Last month I had the good fortune of participating in a conversation on the past, future and present of AI together with my colleagues Josh Bloom, professor of Astronomy, and Keanan Joyner, assistant professor of Psychology, led by Marion Fourcade, Director of the Social Science Matrix and professor of Sociology. It was a fascinating multidisciplinary conversation on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence. Check it out below! or listen as a podcast at Berkeley Talks, episode 186: “The Transformative Potential of AI in Academia”
Like any other digital technology, or the Internet itself, the current explosion of AI research and applications relies on their conceptualization as immaterial technologies. The idea of clean, ethereal networks whose data is stored in a bodiless Cloud is nothing but a fallacy that hides thousands of miles of fiber optic cables, innumerable data centers, and increasing global energy consumption. The Internet that feeds and fuels AI is made up of a series of materials, constructions, and interventions that are hidden from the naked eye; from inconspicuous buildings in the centers of our cities, to urban beaches where the undersea cables that connect countries and continents are buried under the sand.
“Internet Tour” is an initiative by Barcelona-based artist Mario Santamaría, whose successful bus tours have explored the hidden digital infrastructures of many European cities. Now in Berkeley, in collaboration with Alex Saum-Pascual, and together with the Berkeley Center for New Media and the Arts Research Center, we’ll embark on a collective exploration of the world’s preeminent technology hub, the San Francisco Bay Area, as we unearth its Internet infrastructure. Traveling by bus and on foot across Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland, this guided tour will also feature poetic and artistic experiences. We’ll visit the places through which our voices, images, cryptocurrencies, and future intelligences circulate as cursed matter that flows from the same wound. Where to go from there?
This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Read more here, and see some images below!
Internet Tour was also part of the exhibition “More than Meets AI” curated by Jill Miller, Eamon O’Kane and Scott Rettgerb, on display at the Worth Ryder Gallery, October 2 to 15th, 2023
The Electronic Literature Organization 2023 international conference and media art festival took place in Coimbra, Portugal, July 12 to 15, and I had the great pleasure of co-chairing this massive event with my beloved Rui Torres and Manuel Portela, as well as Daniela Côrtes Maduro (who first suggested this event should take place in beautiful Coimbra).
ELO2023 included talks, performances, workshops, exhibitions… Do make sure to check out everything on our website! And, I will not lie, this was probably the toughest organizational task of my professional life. The post-pandemic academic and artistic world is a challenging one, filled with administrative and logistical challenges, as well as rising costs and environmental and health problems. And yet, we somehow managed to make this happen, and it was truly great. I love the ELO community, and I feel very proud of being part of its Board of Directors.
The Electronic Literature Organization’s (ELO) annual conference and media arts festival, “Overcoming Divides: Electronic Literature and Social Change,” will take place in Coimbra, Portugal, July 12-15, 2023, at the São Francisco Convent, the Exploratório-Centro Ciência Viva de Coimbra, and the Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente. Presenting an academic program of panels, round tables, and workshops, as well as an artistic program of exhibitions and performances, ELO 2023 showcases the diversity of contemporary digital literary practices, as well as theoretical reflections on algorithmic society, culture and art. 200 researchers and artists from over forty countries across all continents will gather for ELO 2023.
*Press release excerpt
The academic conference was a true success, with wonderful talks and three amazing keynote addresses by Lori Emerson, Jussi Parikka and Amira Hanafi. The performances at the Teatro Académico Gil de Vicente were incredible, and the exhibition “Arborescent || Resistance” was a dream come true. All works can still be accessed here.
There is a lot to share, the event was covered by local and national media (read some news clippings here), but I will be succinct and simply leave some pics below… (most photos by Nuno Pessoa and a couple by myself).
I am super excited to share with you this special issue that Álvaro Llosa and myself have co-edited for The Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies (Vol 24.1). Including articles by scholars Nuria Rodríguez-Ortega, Vega Sánchez Aparicio, Laura Sánchez Gómez and artist Tina Escaja; speculative essays by Belén Gache, and Álvaro Llosa; creative essays by Germán Sierra, Agustín Fernández and Jorge Carrión; an interview by Bécquer Seguín; and even an original short story by Vicente Luis Mora and a visual poem by myself; this monograph acts as a catalog for/from the future (as a matter of fact, we treated each contribution as if it had come from a future museum, and we included a curatorial statement before each text).
Front cover. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies. Vol 24.1
Cómo establecer la relación entre estos pedazos del aquí y ahora es lo que nos interesa abordar en este número monográfico sobre imaginarios digitales de las Españas posibles: mirar el ahora desde la distancia, quizás utópica a veces, quizás distópica otras, que nos permita el juego de la ficción futura, pero no únicamente. Presentamos así una colección de textos que asumimos como objetos representativos (en mayor y menor grado) de ciertas sensibilidades y culturas contemporáneas españolas, tanto en el ámbito individual como colectivo, y siempre en torno a algunos procesos de digitalización en su negociación con la realidad no solo material sino también conceptual. Dado el marco globalizado en el que el país se mueve, estas representaciones culturales se insertan a menudo en preocupaciones también planetarias. Entendemos, por tanto, nuestro rol de editores como el de la coleccionista de objetos que nos ofrece una instantánea de la realidad de les autores e investigadores que reflexionan sobre un futuro a partir de las inquietudes actuales y que, gracias a la organización y selección que aquí proponemos, la colección resultante nos permite articular nuevos tipos de saber emergente en la relación producida entre todos sus objetos. Por tanto, hemos recurrido también a la ficción del museo para enmarcar nuestra propuesta investigadora, y cada texto seleccionado debe conceptualizarse en relación con la galería general. Es decir, lo que practicaremos en este monográfico será la mirada desde la lógica relacional que la colección curatorial nos permite para imaginar … una hipótesis para el futuro que centre la importancia de los medios digitales desde nuestro presente.
Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies Volume 24 Number 1 March 2023
Special Issue: Futuros: Imaginarios, redes y prácticas digitales en la cultura española. Un catálogo de posibles Guest Editors: Alex Saum-Pascual and Álvaro Llosa Sanz
1 Futuros: imaginarios, redes y prácticas digitales en la cultura española. Un catálogo de posibles Alex Saum-Pascual and Álvaro Llosa Sanz
SECCIÓN 1: ONTOLOGÍAS Y LÓGICAS DIGITALES
9 Prácticas expositivas, museos e interfaz tecnocrítica Nuria Rodríguez-Ortega
33 Hacia una praxis tecnetoesquelética: propuestas gine-robóticas e interespecie desde un poshumanismo transcovid Tina Escaja
53 Sirio: Tecnología y literatura Vicente Luis Mora
SECCIÓN 2: SUBJETIVIDADES EN RED 59 Mal de red/red de mal Germán Sierra
67 Poesía en heptápodo: las fracturas de un futuro tecnológico en la última poesía española de ruptura Vega Sánchez-Aparicio
89 Un análisis comparativo de dos novelas españolas: Don Quijote de la Mancha y Kublai Moon, llevado a cabo por un grupo de antropólogos culturales de la Biblioteca Galáctica de Poesía del Gran Khan en la Luna Belén Gache
103 El amor estadístico Agustín Fernández Mallo
113 Untitled (atomic) form 2 Alex Saum-Pascual
SECCIÓN 3: PRÁCTICAS DIGITALES
121 Futuros postdigitales en español: tensiones postidentitarias en la creación electrónica Laura Sánchez Gómez
135 La nostalgia como interfaz narrativa o en qué manera las superficies físicas de lectura sentimentalizaron la experiencia digital sobre el pasado (España, 2013–2020) Álvaro Llosa Sanz
153 La exhibición de afinidades: notas sobre la dimensión narrativa de los museos Jorge Carrión
161 El pasado, presente y futuro del periodismo digital ibérico: una entrevista con Emilio Doménech Bécquer Seguín
The semester ends and it’s been a busy one! Probably the busiest of my career at UC Berkeley. Students sometime ask me what’s that I do, and it is a poem to see their faces when I explain to them the many different roles a college professor has… or is made to have. In any case, leaving the service load aside, this has been a very fruitful semester! I had the opportunity to teach two wonderful classes, and I want to thank my undergraduate students (the 200+ I had this year) for making going to class the must fun I would have all week. Teaching intro to literature in Spanish can be very fun when done with the right memes, isn’t that right Mr Pedro Pascal? 🙂
I also taught a very intimate and very stimulating graduate seminar on digital literature and material networks (historical, feminist, ecological, new, and newer), which really got my brain juices going, helping me solidify some of my positionings and thoughts as I continue writing my book on the matter. Thank you Chloe, Chloé, Lydia and Luis!
Finally, I want to highlight two things that happened these past two weeks, and take this opportunity to keep giving thanks. I want to thank the organizers of the Chicago Graduate Conference, who trusted me not only to be one of their Keynote speakers, but also give a flash poetry reading sharing some new-ish work, which was a delight.
I am also extremely grateful to the curators (Dilalica) of the show Caracteres, on display at the Cervantes Institute in New York City, for including two of my pieces on this showcase of digital/human work. “Room #3” and “Ashes to Ashes #YOLO” will be on display till May 12th, so hurry if you happen to be in the city!
“Ashes to Ashes #YOLO” on display at the Cervantes Institute NYC. Photo by Dilalica
“Room #3” on display at the Cervantes Institute NYC. Photo by Dilalica
#Postweb! on display at the Cervantes Institute NYC. Photo by Dilalica
General view of Caracteres, at the Cervantes Institute NYC. Photo by Dilalica
Last Monday, the Arts Research Center had the most beautiful party for the launch of Emerge/ncy, a chapbook presenting the work of the 2020 Poetry and the Senses Fellows, and my very dear friends, Menat Allah El Attma, Nathalie Khankin, Rusty Morrison, Gracia Mwamba, Beth Piatote, Jared Robinson, Jennif(f)er Tamayo (and myself). It was a joy to be back in the same space with these beautiful poets!
I am collaborating with two visual poems: “Untitled (tree) form”[also known as “Report Abuse: Untitled (tree) form”] and “b&w screenshot”, where I explore with the limitations of digital rhetorics and aesthetics in print. The first one is part of my Google form triptych that I hope to share complete soon!
Have you ever wondered what that might mean? I am not truly sure, but the new book edited by Isabel Navas Ocaña and Dolores Romero, Ciberfeminismos, tecnotextualidades y transgéneros: Literatura digital en español escrita por mujeres, attempts a few approaches (and some definitions). While casting a wide net around these topics, the book focuses on the work of three main women digital artists: María Mencía, Belén Gache, Tina Escaja and myself! Apart from critical work discussing our practice, we were also invited to contribute some personal reflections. My chapter, “Corporal y corporativa: sobre Corporate Poetry de Alex Saum” looks at my Corporate Poetry project, explaining and contextualizing some of the poems in that series.
You can read Ocaña and Romero’s introduction here. But you will have to buy the book (or hurry to your library!) to read the other wonderful essays by authors such as Claudia Kozak, Thea Pitman, Miram Borham, Daniel Escandell… as well as Gache, Escaja, Mecncía and myself!
Now that blogs and newsletters are back in style (and now that the storm has stopped), I feel compelled to update this blog with some news of what I have been up to lately so… Let’s see…
Last December I published a new article, “Literatura digital para el fin del mundo: ecología y algoritmos en el Capitaloceno” in a special issue of the Danish journal Diálogos Latinoamericanos (Aarhus University), looking at the relationship between art and activism in Latin America (Daniel Escandell Montiel, Vega Sánchez Aparicio and Juan Carlos Cruz Suárez Eds.). On this essay (which you can read OA here) I debut the framework for my upcoming book Earthy Algorithms, examining the relationship between digital technologies and climate damage by looking at a selection of works of digital literature that expose their entanglement within material networks of mineral extraction and energy consumption. I am super excited about this project so… please read the article and let me know what you think!?
Even though I have not been very active in the art/poetry making scene lately, I am so so so happy that some of my older work is still being read, enjoyed and studied by people! I had the honor (the honor of my life!) of attending an MLA 2023 session, “Electronic Literature and the Long Pandemic,” where two panelists discussed my work “Room #3”. Anna Nacher talked about it in the context of her documentary, and Abigail Moreshead and Anastasia Salter read it together with Sara Raffel’s performance, “Video Off: Zoom and Pandemic Productivity.” According to them, these two works take up “Maud Ceuterick’s argument that the pandemic has ‘increased the urgency’ with which the ‘binary separation of domestic and professional spheres… needs to be tackled’ (2020)”, and they analyze these two examples of “Zoom-based electronic literature as a crucial activist response to the pandemic labor crisis. These works both offer us a means to reimagine and push back against the platforms of pandemic pedagogy and to call for greater attention to the ongoing challenges of disproportionate labor divisions.” Honestly, listening to these brilliant talks was one of the highlights of my artistic career (and, because I am a creep, I took pics that I am sharing below).
Anna Nacher (Jagiellonian University) presenting “Breathing on screen: COVID-19 and electronic literature by women-identifying digital artists” at MLA 2023 in San Francisco, January 7, 2023 (Moscone West) Abigail Moreshead (University of Central Florida) presenting “A Zoom of One’s Own? Crafting Feminist Resistance through Electronic Literature during COVID-19” at MLA 2023 in San Francisco, January 7, 2023 (Moscone West)
Last semester I also taught a big lecture course on introduction to literary analysis in Spanish and, while it was really fun, it was also one of the biggest challenges I have faced as a professor. It coincided with the UC strike (about which I posted quite a bit here), that after 6 weeks of brave graduate student worker striking ended up with a new contract for my brilliant grads, but also exposed many unsettling things about our work at the University… and these things are hard to come back from! Nevertheless, I am teaching again this same large course, so let’s see how things go this time!
I am also teaching a graduate seminar based on the one I taught together with my wifa Élika Ortega at CU Boulder in 2020. This time, focusing a little bit more on race and gender, and making the connections between digital culture today and (pre)modernity a bit more explicit. Next week, our class will be experiencing Alejandro Iñárritu’s Carne y Arena (which they are showing at the Craneway Pavillion in Richmond for another more week or so… hurry!) and then going to engage with some artist books at the College of Environmental Design’s beautiful library… and this is just the first two weeks! Feeling pretty happy about this class as well.
I hope I find time to work on some exciting new projects, but I won’t jinx myself by sharing too much here now. This is all for now! The baby is up and I must run (to her).
