Installation: Particle Poem Collider

Inspired by the irreverence and innovation of Push the Boat Out’s patron saint, Edwin Morgan, Particle Poem Collider is our way of honouring the work of the festival’s guests while playfully questioning ideas of ownership, copyright and creation. A rather old-fashioned AI (the latest generation are just too good at aping styles, and tend not to make interesting or amusing mistakes) is trained on the guests’ work and then generates a steady stream of doggerel, letter by letter, in the vein of whichever poet (or poets) takes its fancy in the moment. Rendering this ‘text’ en masse in a printed pamphlet as well as on LED panels adds another layer of provocation: if the system stumbles upon a perfectly turned original phrase, or an exhilarating insight, who gets the credit?

Ray Interactive in collaboration with Pip Thornton and EFI.