transactions

Floral Float Flume excerpt published in Var(2x)

Var (2x) is an online literary journal by the makers of X-Peri reserved for the most extreme literary experiments. I’m pleased to have (finally) made the cut with an excerpt from Floral Float Flume: Flue Flit Flip, a novel about AI units engaged in a series of marketplace transactions. This selection comprises about 18 pages, or the first four episodes out of ten. The whole story runs 70 manuscript pages.

The vocabulary of the piece is severely limited to words beginning with “fl-“. What you see is not a random selection of words but a precise narrative with specific meaning and syntax. Four letter words are operations; five letter words are objects. To start with, “Floral Float Flume” is the name of one of the transactional AI units, and “flue flit flip” translates as “enter offer profit,” a kind of “vini vidi vici” for transactional AIs.

If you dare, you can read the selection here.

“Flip Operations I” and two other texts published in Zoomoozophone Review’s last issue

zoomoo 17 cover

The last issue of experimental lit journal Zoomoozophone Review was released yesterday, May 17.  This blow to the international avant garde is tempered by the massive trove of material in ZR Issue #17, which features 116 pages filled with work from 40 contributors, including: Alexander Limarev, Alexandra Naughton, Angela Caporaso, Austin Islam, Beach Sloth, billy bob beamer, Cand Torrance, Carmen Tracey, Cecelia Chapman, CL Bledsoe, Clay Thistleton, David Patton, Francesco Aprile, Glen Armstrong, Heath Brougher, J. D. Nelson, Jeff Bagato, Jeff Harrison, Joel Chace, John M. Bennett, John Pursch, Keith Higginbotham, Kristie Shoemaker, Kushal Poddar, manuel arturo abreu, Nanna Juul Lanng, Nathan Spoon, Nathan Stapleton, Nicholas Bon, Nico Vassilakis, Patricia Walsh, Rosaire Appel, Sanjeev Sethi, Shane Allison, Sheila E. Murphy, Susan Sweetland Garay, Texas Fontanella, Volodymyr Bilyk, Yrik-Max Valentonis, and Yuan Changming.

I’m pleased to be part of this issue with three texts: “Flip Operations I,” “To This End,” and “Everything Goes Now.” These are part of a new series exploring the possibilities of AI computers performing transactional negotiations, with stripped down vocabularies of English words used in ways that do not mirror normal syntax.

You can purchase an issue of Zoomoozophone Review #17 (price starts at $0) on Gumroad using this link.

zoomoo17-flip

“You Need a New Heart” published in Avant Appal(achia)

avant-appal-6

Experimental poetry journal Avant Appal(achia)‘s Issue #6 went live today. Nice selection of interesting text and visual work. This one also includes my poem “You Need a New Heart,” one of a series of pieces based on the idea of an imaginary AI transactional language. You can read the piece and the whole issue here.

avan-app-6-new heart

This text forms part of a new series of experiments inspired by the Facebook AI units that recently developed their own language using English words with different syntax and meaning. The AI units were intended to carry out customer service transactions and negotiations, and the format of their language seemed to be a powerful way to confront and manipulate the continuous stream of commercial messages invading our mental space.

These texts represent an attempt to replicate a machine code constructed from an extremely limited vocabulary, often initiated by spam emails. Each piece develops by permutations, repetition, and sound/rhythm. It’s impossible for the human observer to know if the machine is analyzing or tabulating data, performing a calculation, conducting a negotiation, or making a persuasive appeal. Any of these functions is a possibility. In a way, the texts are a form of speculative fiction: looking at a machine narrative pulled from a future where AIs have been released to perform functions on their own. As in the case of the Facebook AIs, these instances show a machine or machines adapting human (English) language for their own ends. The repetition of the key words imitates a transactional language, as if a carnival barker is repeating an appeal to a potential audience. But the end result also reminds me of a magical incantation appealing to a familiar spirit.