Digitally Disfiguring the Canon
Proposal Type
Individual Talk
Location
Hypertexts & Fictions
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
Digitally Disfiguring the Canon
Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon defines Western literature in four ages: the Theocratic Age, the Aristocratic Age, the Democratic Age, and the Chaotic Age. Using various generative artificial intelligence programs, this proposed artistic project seeks to reimagine Bloom’s Western Canon without words. Firstly, a prompt will be made to analyse the text in question. Following this, various AI programs will be prompted to reimagine said text in html, css, and javascript withouttext. This will be regarded as machine vision as defined by Walker Rettberg (2023) and digital ekphrasis. Through this proposed creative project I hope to better define machine vision of the Western Canon as defined by Bloom. I also hope to synthesize the Western canon, utilizing Italian author Italo Calvino’s value of ‘quickness’ to ‘quickly’ comprehend the literary canon. Finally, I intend to use and reflect on this machine vision visualization of the canon, to better critique the limitations and impressions of the canon as a problematic hierarchy of literary studies.
Digitally Disfiguring the Canon
Hypertexts & Fictions
Digitally Disfiguring the Canon
Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon defines Western literature in four ages: the Theocratic Age, the Aristocratic Age, the Democratic Age, and the Chaotic Age. Using various generative artificial intelligence programs, this proposed artistic project seeks to reimagine Bloom’s Western Canon without words. Firstly, a prompt will be made to analyse the text in question. Following this, various AI programs will be prompted to reimagine said text in html, css, and javascript withouttext. This will be regarded as machine vision as defined by Walker Rettberg (2023) and digital ekphrasis. Through this proposed creative project I hope to better define machine vision of the Western Canon as defined by Bloom. I also hope to synthesize the Western canon, utilizing Italian author Italo Calvino’s value of ‘quickness’ to ‘quickly’ comprehend the literary canon. Finally, I intend to use and reflect on this machine vision visualization of the canon, to better critique the limitations and impressions of the canon as a problematic hierarchy of literary studies.
Bio
David Thomas Henry Wright is an author, poet, digital artist, and academic. He won the 2018 Queensland Literary Awards’ Digital Literature Prize, 2019 Robert Coover Award for a work of Electronic Literature (2nd prize), and 2021 Carmel Bird Literary Award. He has been shortlisted for multiple other international literary prizes, and published in various academic and creative journals. He has a PhD from Murdoch University and a Masters from The University of Edinburgh. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Bergen in Norway.