Embodying the Algorithm: Exploring Relationships with Large Language Models Through Artistic Performance

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of research on how people engage with and experience algorithmic systems, the materiality and physicality of these experiences is often overlooked. We tend to forget about bodies. The Embodying the Algorithm1 project worked with artists to explore the experience of translating algorithmically produced performance instructions through human bodies. As performers interpreted the rules of engagement produced by GPT-3, they struggled with the lack of consideration the rules showed for the limits of the human body. Performers made sense of their experience through personification, reflexivity, and interpretation, which gave rise to three modes of relating with the algorithm – agonistic, perfunctory, and agreeable. We demonstrate that collaboration with algorithmic systems is ultimately impossible as people can only relate to algorithmic systems (a one-way relation) due to the material limitations of algorithmic systems for reciprocity, understanding, and consideration for the human body.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication date19 Apr 2023
Pages1-24
Article number654
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Apr 2023
EventThe 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: 23 Apr 202328 Apr 2023
https://chi2023.acm.org

Conference

ConferenceThe 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period23/04/202328/04/2023
Internet address

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