Biotext

Specialist seminar
Thursdays weekly 11 am – 1 pm
Filzengraben 8 – 10, [] ground zero, Academy of Media Arts Cologne

“Biotext” is a continuation of the seminars “Codichte: experiments with cognitive systems” and “Introduction to Programming Text Generators” from the winter semester. (The past seminars are not a prerequisite for participation.) While in “Codichte” we stayed mostly within text systems, in “Biotext” we deal with the embedding of text in the environment. But it is also conversely about the integration of non-human and non-machine authors (other organisms, phenomena, natural processes) into text production, i.e. the exchange between text and environment in both directions.

Some examples from art: inscribing Wikipedia into the cells of apples, worms connected to a typewriter, freelancing cows, self-governing forests, or vacuuming robots with the movement behavior of zoo animals.

The seminar will focus on working on your own projects. In the first sessions we will provide inspiration for possible projects and afterwards we will supervise your projects individually.

(Summer 2021)