Edited by writer and artist Michael Salu, fifteen of today’s most daring writers from across the globe read and respond to Italo Calvino’s seminal essay ‘Cybernetics and Ghosts’ with rich and expansive works of fiction.

In Calvino’s essay, first delivered as a lecture in 1967, he provocatively suggested that writing could one day become a computationally reducible process, speculating that machines might eventually become sophisticated enough to reimagine the singular author’s human’ parameters’ and write literature with the same dexterity as us. What, then, will become of the human author? With the digital age now spanning decades and computation determining almost every aspect of our lives, do we think clearly and imaginatively enough about our relationship with machines?

As a human echo to the datasets driving artificial intelligence, Calvino’s prescient ruminations catalyse the ideas in this anthology, creating a networked artwork reminiscent of the experimental literary group Oulipo. Contemplating the many ways myth and technology shape the human condition and reflecting on the power and importance of stories, Cybernetics, or Ghosts? offers a rich, intricate web of collective storytelling full of humanity, ingenuity and critical ideas.

Contributors:

∀ i, Iphgenia Baal, Steve Barbaro, Blake Butler, Lisa Hsiao Chen, Tice Cin, Innocent Chizaram Ilo, Shingai Kagunda, Kelly Krumrie, Andrea Mason, Kuzhali Manickavel, Geoffrey Morrison, Rion Amilcar Scott, Simon Okotie, Mandy-Suzanne Wong.

Publisher: Subtextbooks.net
Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1-9196015-3-3
Publication date: 18/10/2024
Format: Hardcover
Available for preorder from Bandcamp

Alongside, compiled by James Ginzburg, a sister compilation of music inspired by the texts will also be released through Subtext Recordings.

The artists, coming from equally diasporic backgrounds as the writers, were all asked to respond musically to the anthology, drawing inspiration from its texts and structure — and reflecting on how developments and evolution of technology used to generate text are mirrored in recent developments in the rise of generative AI for music.

This project marks the twentieth anniversary of Subtext.