Ami Clarke, Tony D. Sampson, Maud Craigie, John Cussans, Andy Weir, Distributed Cognition Cooperative (Anna Engelhardt, Sasha Shestakova), Richard Carter, Mikey Georgeson, Ada Hao, Harry Meadows and Charlie Tweed

The Centre for Media Research at Bath Spa University presents Fiction Machines – Part III, an evening of new screenings, talks and performances from artists, filmmakers and theorists. The work presented will highlight a diverse range of critical approaches that make use of particular fictional strategies in their conception and deployment.

This event will be the third part of the Fiction Machines project, which began as a symposium at Bath Spa University in July 2019, featuring keynotes from Professor Simon O’Sullivan (Goldsmiths and Plastique Fantastique) and Dr. Tony D. Sampson (UEL). The project evolved into a special issue of the International Journal of Creative Media Research, edited by Andy Weir (AUB), Tony D. Sampson (UEL) and Charlie Tweed (BSU) which launched in late 2020.The event will bring together all of the contributors to the IJCMR: Fiction Machines special issue, acting as both a launch event and a showcase of new works and research projects that build on its themes.

Contributors include

Ami Clarke who will present new work Pandemonium (working title), commissioned by Radar for Risk Related, and subject to further development through Clarke's residency at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in May 2021. It forms part of an ongoing body of work by Clarke exploring probability and risk within surveillance/disaster capitalism from a trans-feminist post-human position. Tony D. Sampson will present a talk on his recent research into neuroaesthetics. Maud Craigie will show an excerpt from her film Indications of Guilt, pt.1, along with some photographs from her current exhibition at Mirror, Plymouth.

John Cussans will present his new work PKD-AI: A proposal which outlines a plan to apply a GPT3-like AI to Philip K. Dick’s entire corpus of writing in order to produce a posthumous AI generated PKD novel. Richard Carter will showcase two new projects Orbital Reveries and Landform, which centre on the processing of satellite and drone imagery into multi-dimensional ‘textscapes’. Distributed Cognition Cooperative (Anna Engelhardt, Sasha Shestakova) will present the project "Intra-structures" which treats infrastructures as intra-active processes, placing the user within Russian propaganda infrastructures via the fictioning machine of the telegram bot. Mikey Georgeson will present Professor Kimey Peckpo who will attempt a live stream of an auto fictional account of a real life walk emerging from the past beyond the perimeter of the CCNI.

Harry Meadows discusses Sasha Engelmann’s book Sensing Art in the Atmosphere: Elemental Lures and Aerosolar Practices, exploring the atmosphere as a metaphor for thinking, free from earthly constraints. Andy Weir shows a short video extract as part of new (theory and practice) work in progress on grounding and ungrounding, navigating planetary sites of nuclear toxicity through a mythic/materialist ontology (geo-fiction) of dust.

Image from 'Intra-structures' telegram bot by Distributed Cognition Cooperative for the exhibition 'If Need Be' curated by Pejvak. Z33, Hasselt, Belgium 11.06 - 22.08

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Fiction Machines - Part III - Programme

6pm - Welcome and Introduction Charlie Tweed

6.10 - Andy Weir: Unearth - shows a short video extract as part of new (theory and practice) work in progress on grounding and ungrounding, navigating planetary sites of nuclear toxicity through a mythic/materialist ontology (geo-fiction) of dust.

6.20 - Distributed Cognition Cooperative (Anna Engelhardt, Sasha Shestakova) will present the project Intra-structures which treats infrastructures as intra-active processes, placing the user within Russian propaganda infrastructures via the fictioning machine of the telegram bot.

6.30 - Richard Carter: In the Wake of Waveform - showcasing two new projects Orbital Reveries and Landform, which centre on the processing of satellite and drone imagery into multi-dimensional ‘textscapes’.

6.40 - Maud Craigie will show an excerpt from her film Indications of Guilt, pt.1, along with some photographs from her current exhibition at Mirror, Plymouth.

6.50 Harry Meadows discusses Sasha Engelmann’s book Sensing Art in the Atmosphere: Elemental Lures and Aerosolar Practices, exploring the atmosphere as a metaphor for thinking, free from earthly constraints.

7.05 - Ada Hao presents Making touch visible with the suture of fantasy with virtual aesthetician in “The Best Facial Clinic” – The glitchy-score of tele-synaesthesia performance in the age of global pandemic.

7.20 - Tony D. Sampson - The Centre for Critical Neuroaesthetic Interferences, presenting a talk on his recent research into neuroaesthetics.

7.35 - John Cussans will present his new work PKD-AI: A proposal which outlines a plan to apply a GPT3-like AI to Philip K. Dick’s entire corpus of writing in order to produce a posthumous AI generated PKD novel.

7.45 - Mikey Georgeson will present Professor Kimey Peckpo who will attempt a live stream of an auto fictional account of a real life walk emerging from the past beyond the perimeter of the CCNI.

8.00 - Ami Clarke will present new work Pandemonium (working title), commissioned by Radar for Risk Related, and subject to further development through Clarke's residency at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in May 2021. It forms part of an ongoing body of work by Clarke exploring probability and risk within surveillance/disaster capitalism from a trans-feminist post-human position

Q and A