Off Center

Scott and Jhave are here to talk about a major class-action lawsuit that will reward authors for the fact that their books were used for AI training data... and this is not just any class-action lawsuit: the largest publicly reported settlement in human history.

References:

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/

My Book Was Stolen by an AI Company. Why Does Suing Them Feel Wrong? Thea Lim

https://thewalrus.ca/suing-ai-company/

In episode three of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta visits Minna Ruckenstein, a Professor in Emerging Technologies in Society at the University of Helsinki's Consumer Society Research Center, for a deep dive into her work on algorithmic folklore.

References

Booker, T. (2013), Programmed Sociality: Enclosure, Governance and Critical Theory

Lönnrot, E. (1835), The Kalevala https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5186

Ruckenstein, M. (2023), The Feel of Algorithms: Edition 1 

Ruckenstein, M. et al. (2018-2022), Algorithmic Culture https://blogs.helsinki.fi/algorithmicculture/

On this episode Scott talks to Espen Aarseth, Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, to trace the origins and evolution of game studies. From his early fascination with text adventures to writing his groundbreaking dissertation Cybertext, Espen reflects on the "human legwork" required to build an entirely new academic field from the ground up.

References

Aarseth, E. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. https://archive.org/details/cybertextperspec0000aars 

Crowther, W., & Woods, D. (1976). Adventure (also known as Colossal Cave Adventure). https://rickadams.org/adventure/advent/ 

Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) Conference Series. (1998). https://elmcip.net/event/digital-arts-and-culture-dac

 Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research. (2001). https://gamestudies.org/

 Infocom. (1980). Zork. https://archive.org/details/msdos_Zork_I_-_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1980 

Knausgård, K. O. (2009). My Struggle (Min Kamp). https://www.worldcat.org/title/min-kamp-forste-bok/oclc/464593414 

Melbourne House. (1982). The Hobbit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1982_video_game)

In episode two of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Guro Flinterud, a folklorist and cultural studies researcher, about her research on social media and digital platforms as an interface between the police and the public.

References

Bakhtin, Mikhail (1986), Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, https://monoskop.org/images/7/7b/Bakhtin_Mikhail_Speech_Genres_and_Other_Late_Essays_1986.pdf

Cultural Analysis (2023), Journal of Cultural Analysis, https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalanalysis/

Folklore Journal (2024), Folklore, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfol20/134/1

Guru (2024), Folk in the Age of Algorithms: Theorizing Folklore on Social Media Platforms, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587X.2023.2273183

Knut (2007), The Berlin Zoo Polar Bear, https://www.zoo-berlin.de/en/

On this episode we talk about our upcoming exhibition "An Eye for AI Cinema" at the Bergen International Film Festival, running October 15th-23rd.

Is artificial intelligence destroying cinema as we know it? Are we entering the age of the computer-generated DIY film? AI brings tumultuous changes to the established film industry, at the same time as it is creating new opportunities for independent filmmakers, and perhaps even birthing new genres of moving image art. 

References

Laurent Basset

AFFAIR IN MARSEILLE, 2025

Seif Abdalla

HANAA, 2025

Micol Hebron

Study of animals in motion in the style of Eadweard Muybridge, 2025

 Simon M. Valentine

One Last Wish, 2024

REDACTED

Optimals, 2025

Sachiko Hayashi, Nina Sobell

Echoes Unseen, 2024

Lina Ruth Harder & Colin Robinson

Wherever I go, you’re always with me, 2025

Scott Rettberg

Riverrun (fascistchicfascistquick), 2025

David Jhave Johnston

Brain-Knot Altar, 2025

On this episode, author, data scientist, and journalist Yudhanjaya Wijeratne talks to Jill Walker Rettberg about his relationship with AI in producing his Salvage Crew Trilogy of novels. 

References

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne: “The Machine as Provocateur” Keynote at CDN Summer School 2025 -   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ZdWvzk2JE

StarMap – galaxy generator code on GitHub: https://github.com/yudhanjaya/Starmap 

Find out more at Yudhanjaya.com 

Photo by Dirk Skiba Fotografie.

Iain M. Banks (1987) The Culture Series

Google Creative Lab (2012) 100,000 Stars https://stars.chromeexperiments.com/ 

Atticus Poetry (2017) Love Her Wild https://www.atticuspoetry.com/

 Stephen King (1982) The Gunslinger 

Rupi Kaur (2014) Milk and Honey 

Garry Kasparov (1998) Advanced Chess (Centaur Chess) https://kasparovchess.com/ 

Stanisław Lem (1961) Solaris, https://solarislotus.com/ 

OpenAI (2022) Whisper (Speech Recognition Model) https://github.com/openai/whisper 

Keynote (Yudhanjaya Wijeratne), https://www.youtube.com/@CenterforDigitalNarrative 

David Stark (2018) Planet Generator https://watabou.itch.io/planet-generator 

ConcernedApe (2016) Stardew Valley https://www.stardewvalley.net/ 

Tynan Sylvester (2013) RimWorld https://rimworldgame.com/ 

Tynan Sylvester (2013) The Simulation Dream https://tynansylvester.com/2013/06/the-simulation-dream/

Peter Watts (2006) Blindsight

It’s been a while since the last AI update, and with the field evolving so quickly, Scott and Jhave have plenty to catch up on. In this episode, they explore AI and writing - but who is prompting whom? Can AI serve as “steroids for creativity”? And if so, what are the unintended side effects?

References

Abundant Intelligence Project (2024). Indigenous AI and Language Revitalization. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-024-02099-4

Beckett, Samuel (1951). Molloy 

Codrescu, Andrei (1970). License to Carry a Gun. 

Joyce, James (1939) Finnegans Wake.

Mistral AI (2024). Mistral Large 2: Multilingual Capacity and European Language Models. https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-large

The Conversation (2024). Fake academic papers are on the rise: why they’re a danger and how to stop them https://theconversation.com/fake-academic-papers-are-on-the-rise-why-theyre-a-danger-and-how-to-stop-them-224650

Prompt Armor (2024). Before installing an MCP: The security risks of autonomous agents. https://promptarmor.com/blog/

Suleyman, Mustafa et al. (2025). The Quantum Merlin Hypothesis and GPT-5 Iterative Problem Solving. https://arxiv.org/

Walker Rettberg, Jill (2023). Narrative Homogenization and Cultural Bias in Large Language Models. https://jilltxt.net/

This episode features an interview with Samya Brata Roy, now an Assistant Professor of English at Gitam (Deemed-to-be) University Hyderabad, recorded during the 2025 CDN Digital Narrative PhD Summer School. Samya discusses his academic journey and the founding of Electronic Literature India. 

References

Coover, Roderick (Ed.), with contributions by Mark Marino. (2019). The Digital Imaginary: Literature and Cinema of the Database. https://www.akademika.no/dokumentar-og-fakta/kunst-og-kultur/digital-imaginary/9781501379406?srsltid=AfmBOophg-ofPaSdQpLvomMOLLfRAeHcsHcBLv6gZn4mgVzgqUfv8rl1

Electronic Literature Organization. (2006). Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1. https://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Ensslin, Astrid; Roy, Samya Brata (2024). Electronic Literatures as Post-Comparative Media. https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/55582/

Gallix, Andrew. (2008). Is e-literature just one big anti-climax? https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/sep/24/ebooks

Hayles, N. Katherine. (2008). Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary. https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268030841/electronic-literature/ 

Menon, Nirmala, and Shanmugapriya T. (2023). First Anthology of Indian Electronic Literature. https://iiti.ac.in/

Pressman, Jessica. (2020). Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/bookishness/9780231195133

Rettberg, Scott. (2004). Wherefore Genre? Grand Text Auto. https://grandtextauto.soe.ucsc.edu/2004/08/20/wherefore-genre/

Rettberg, Scott. (2018). Electronic Literature. 

Roy, Soumyabrata. (2024). Electronic Literatures and Its Impossibilities in India. 

Shafiq, Afrah. (2017). Enter Sultana's Reality. https://afrahshafiq.com/enter-sultanas-reality

In the first episode of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Joan Mukogosi, where they talk about her essay "Strategic Knowledge. Teens use 'algorithmic folklore' to crack TikTok’s black box", which she co-authored with Ireti Akinrinade.

References

Akinrinade, Iretiolu, and Joan Mukogosi. (2021) Strategic Knowledge: Teens use "algorithmic folklore" to crack TikTok's black box https://medium.com/datasociety-points/strategic-knowledge-6bbddb3f0259

Butler, Octavia E. (1987) Dawn  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60929.Dawn

Butler, Octavia E. (1993) Parable of the Sower https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52397.Parable_of_the_Sower

Lenhart, Amanda, and Kellie Owens (2021) The Unseen Teen: The Challenges of Building Healthy Tech for Young People, https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Unseen-Teen-.pdf

Returning guest Gabriele de Seta joins Scott to talk about Algopod, the new series of podcast episodes that will be released as part of the new season of Off Center. We also hear some interviews that David and Benji, two middle school students who had their work week at the center, did with several people within the center's staff.

References
Akinrinade, Ireti & Mukoki, Joanne (2019). Algorithmic Folklore. https://datasociety.net/

Black Isle Studios (1999). Planescape: Torment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment

DrinkBox Studios (2013). Guacamelee!. https://guacamelee.com/

Flinterud, Guro (2023). Folklore of the Algorithm. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587X.2023.2233839#abstract

Jørgensen, Kristine & Mortensen, Torill Elvira (2024). Looking for gamers where they are: Norwegian broadcasting from television to Twitch. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389959402_Looking_for_gamers_where_they_are_Norwegian_broadcasting_from_television_to_Twitch

Magnuson, Jordan (2023). Game Poems: Videogame Design as Lyric Practice https://www.jstor.org/content/oa_book_monograph/10.3998/mpub.12758495

Ruckenstein, Minna (2023). The Feel of Algorithms. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520394551/the-feel-of-algorithms