Digital Journal for Philology
Sonderausgabe
Special Issue # 8 (1.2024)
Generative Literatur. Produktion und Rezeption im Zeichen des Codes
Edited by Stephanie Catani, Marlene Meuer and Niels Penke
Generative literature focuses on text experiments that were either created primarily with the help of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) or are algorithm-based. Both the growing prominence of generative literary processes on the one hand and the practically explosive development of the technological prerequisites responsible for them are indicative of this special issue's particular focus.
Stephanie
Catani
Marlene
Meuer
Niels
Penke
Produktion und Rezeption im Zeichen des Codes
Generative literature focuses on text experiments that were either created primarily with the help of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) or are algorithm-based. Both the growing prominence of generative literary processes on the one hand and the practically explosive development of the technological prerequisites responsible for them are indicative of this special issue's particular focus
Christiane
Heibach
Programmierung als ästhetische Praxis der Subversion in der Netzkunst
In the early 2000s, the term »codework« emerges to describe artistic projects that deal with the hidden symbolic levels of the computer – that is, with the algorithmic structures of digital media which are based on programming languages. These art forms reflect the epistemological and practical consequences of those technological developments that they use themselves. Their focus and their manifestations, therefore, change with their respective technologies, as do the modes of reception, which require different, sometimes new, forms of activity. This article discusses the extent to which the understanding of the term codework needs to be modified and/or expanded in light of current developments.
Julia
Nantke
Produktion und Inszenierung generativer Literatur am Beispiel von »1 the Road«
This article examines the effects of the modes of production, publication, and presentation of algorithmically generated literature on the central literary categories of authorship and work using the work 1 the Road – an AI-generated novel by Ross Goodwin – which was published as a printed book in 2018. Drawing on actor-network theory and the concept of the writing scene, it is assumed that literature is fundamentally created in a network of various participating human and non-human actors. However, generated literature is characterized by specific features that lead to shifts and extensions of this network. As the article argues, this results in a reconfiguration of the concepts of authorship and work, which, however, takes place in a productive dispute with the established concepts.
Robin-M.
Aust
Hannes Bajohrs digitale Lyrik
This article focusses on the tension between literary traditions and current methods of digital writing, examining Hannes Bajohr’s 2018 poetry collection, Halbzeug, which is made up of concept poems created using digital processes. Exemplary analyses of individual poems discuss Bajohr´s methods of text generation, the poetics behind them, and the meaningful contrast between pretext and transform. This serves as a basis for reflections about the implications of digital text production and algorithm-supported authorship, which are becoming increasingly diffuse, but also increasingly ›open-source‹ with the spread of digital writing methods, especially in response to Bajohr’s public disclosure of the respective transformation technique.
Johannes
Leitgeb
Transformationen generativer Literatur in Reimplementierung und Emulation
This paper considers the reimplementation and emulation of digital literature as forms of reception. the assumption here is that with the act of reimplementing digital literature on a system other than the one originally used for its production, a transformation takes place in the sense of a rewriting process (Höttgen). Theo Lutzʼs Stoachastic Texts (1959), an early work of digital literature, is used for analysis, since a large number of reimplementations for it are available. Methodolocially, this paper draws on the theoretical framework and vocabulary of computer archaelogy to explore Lutzʼs work against the backdrop of its technical implementation and compared to its reenactments.
Stephanie
Catani
Generative Literatur ›lesen‹
This article explores the evolving role of the reader in generative literature, which encompasses texts created through coding or artificial intelligence. By analyzing contemporary text experiments and drawing from both historical and current theoretical perspectives, it addresses the often-discussed empowerment of the reader, highlighting the act of reading as a means of generating meaning. The paper also explores new challenges readers encounter due to the intricate nature of texts produced by generative methods. The study concludes by illustrating how the roles of author and reader converge, particularly where generative texts emerge from a hermeneutic process that transforms the author into a reader.
Hannes
Bajohr
Über die Erwartungshaltung an computergenerierte Texte
Taking the gesture of declaring something to be art as a starting point, the article discusses an analogous deixis in literature and its relevance for the evaluation of computer-generated texts. Contrary to the view that computers or AI systems could be recognized as authors solely on the basis of high-quality output, it emphasizes the need for social recognition in a community of judgment. As an alternative to the Turing test, which is based on the paradigm of deception, this essay spotlights the Durkheim test, which relies on the paradigm of cosociality. Bajohr contends that computer authorship can only plausibly be said to exist when a machine's gesture of declaring something to be art is also understood as a deictic judgment in the strong sense.