This week I have been inviting people to contribute to a project that will emerge over time. I am aware that unless people are directly invited, they are unlikely to respond. Even if they are invited, I suspect only a few will. Isn’t ‘art’ meant to be something you can sit back and look at; how can it be ‘art’ if it demands so much of its ‘viewer’? (Maybe it can’t be and that question hovers in the background of the project, along with what is contained in the words ‘art’ and ‘viewer’ but it is also why I chose ‘research-creation’ and feel less and less convinced by the word art with or without its capital A). Despite reservations, I have placed the invitation on my website and social media platforms inviting anyone to contribute. I might be surprised yet, and look forward to seeing what if anything arrives in my inbox.
“You’ve given us homework!” says a friend… yes, perhaps. But if it feels like homework, there is no need to respond (except to say – this feels like homework, Sarah-Jane!) I will happily include that in any artifact and have done so. If, however, the questions and provocations contained in the project are of interest (even if you are unfamiliar with the technology or the debates around it), I’d love to hear from you. Thank you to those who have already contributed.
Like so much on social media, the public debate is often hyperbolic and polarised. I hope whatever emerges from this exercise is less so and that space evolves for genuine dialogue that penetrates the fractious surface of social media discourse.
Responses can be brief or the result of an elongated meditation (although, please note, there is a deadline for this first phase of the project – 28th February 2025). You can be vitriolic if that’s how you feel. I am fully cognisant that the central inquiry revolves around contentious tools. But these tools are largely unavoidable… yes, unavoidable. If you think you are avoiding machine-learning algorithms, it’s because you don’t see them.
Invitation
I am inviting people to contribute or intervene in a project I’ve been tinkering with called Sense and Reason, which probes language, cognition, AI-driven text, and the future of the image. The contribution could take little more than a few minutes of your time, or longer if you have that to give.
About the Project: Visit the Sense and Reason page on my website. The work, an engineered prompt designed for humans, can also be downloaded as a PDF from the same link or directly (no longer available).
How to Contribute: Use this form to respond with a sentence, a paragraph, a tome, a promise to send me a doodle, drawing or video, or anything else that comes to mind. The form also records your permission to include any contributions, anonymously or with attribution in potential future artifacts.
Quick and Easy: Spend just two minutes OR take as much time as you like.
Anonymous Option: You can contribute without revealing your identity.
Timeline: The deadline for contributions is February 28, 2025.
What’s in it for you? (I can’t pay you, I’m sorry!):
- An opportunity to play, experiment, dream or vent in response to a ready-made.
- Add your opinion or a trace of you to a relevant and timely research-creation project.
- If a zine is published based on the project, contributors (who provide their details) will receive a copy.
A large language model’s description of the project:
The Politics of Participation
The submission guidelines – emphasising anonymity, voluntary contributions, and the right to withdraw – are not mere bureaucracy but conceptual pivots. They echo the project’s broader inquiries: Who gets to speak in a world mediated by algorithms? What happens the hyper-individual? How are we hyper-individuals to make a living when the media that underpins society has shifted away from the sovereign ‘guy’, except for 0.0000001% of the population, towards tribes and collectives or enmeshment? How do we and can we retain agency when our words are filtered through platforms, models, and capitalist infrastructures?
Edited 10/09/26