Bots: a cultural tour

Martin O'Leary | @mewo2

Who's this guy?

I'm a curator

I'm a scientist

I'm a "creative coder"

What's a bot?

A bot is a machine that takes the place of a human in a communications medium

A bot is a ~~machine~~ computer program that takes the place of a human in a ~~communications medium~~ social network

Now, it's 2017, so most of the "machines" that we interact with are actually computer programs, and most of the communications media are actually social networks. But the underlying principles are the same. We're still looking at machines which interact on human terms. Some people like to argue that this is a dehumanising development. We're taking human communication, which has already been abstracted into 140 characters of text or whatever, and we're introducing machines into the mix, so we don't know if we're talking to a real human or not. I'm sympathetic to that view, but I would counter that there's a rehumanising aspect as well - we're forcing the machines to interact on our terms, not theirs. Also, probably worth saying that Twitter is by far the dominant social network for bots. There are various reasons for that, which I'm happy to talk about afterwards if anyone's interested.

"Art bots"

Programs which generate "content"

Usually run on a schedule

Mostly disconnected posts

Often not interactive

...very like a spam bot

Bot-ston (Martin O'Leary)

Bots as performers

Performance

→

I want to start by talking about performance. If we think about a play, then we have a script, which is a static artifact, and then it gets performed, and at the end there might be a recording, which is also a static artifact. But neither of these things is the play. The play - the primary work of art - is the ephemeral thing in the middle, the performance. We can think the same way about computer programs. We have some source code, which we can save and archive, and we have some output, which we can also save and archive. But there's a thing in the middle, which we can't save, because it's a process, and it can't be stripped from its context. There's obviously a difference between a play and a computer program, because the performance of a play involves human beings, and the running of a computer program is an entirely inanimate thing. The difference with a bot though, is that the program is presenting itself as a human, or human-equivalent thing. So from the perspective of the audience, there is a performance happening, even if that's not really what's going on at the performer end.

CRASHNBURN (Stephanie Hyland)

@AlphaNano @CRASH__N__BURN pic.twitter.com/DqfEZsNQxf
— TЯEИT👽📡 (@pr1ntf) January 27, 2017

@solarce @CRASH__N__BURN oh wow you just brought me back 15 years ago.
— Michael Schubert (@schubertcx) February 4, 2017

555 µHz (Ramsey Nasser)

Dear @555uhz I want you to know you'll always be my fav Twitter acct and I miss you everyday https://t.co/TumTcRaSu2
— MaulerTruckrHat (@RednckTruckrHat) February 17, 2017

@555uhz Never forget cc @ra pic.twitter.com/HcJWtMFxMs
— Nick Fox-Gieg (@n1ckfg) February 28, 2016

everyword (Allison Parrish)

a
— everyword (@everyword) November 30, 2007

aardvark
— everyword (@everyword) November 30, 2007

sex
— everyword (@everyword) February 9, 2013

@everyword I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY FOR A LONG TIME
— Amy (@Aim0zz) February 9, 2013

zymurgy
— everyword (@everyword) June 7, 2014

THE END IS HERE! @everyword: zymurgy”
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) June 7, 2014

éclair
— everyword (@everyword) June 7, 2014

.@everyword B-B-BUT

YOU CAN'T

JUST

DO

THIS
— Shin Neo (@NKGhidorah) June 7, 2014

Bots as performers

Long, slow, casual performance

Audience interaction

Bounded or unbounded

Bots as magicians

The Sorting Hat Bot (Darius Kazemi)

@Kels_Schro @SortingBot YO HOW DID YOU MAKE THIS HAPPEN
— Ryan Harvot (@HarvotRyan) December 6, 2016

@SortingBot how does this work lol?
— Ashlee Bailey-Seal (@AnnabelleLee94) April 6, 2015

@SortingBot how the fuck do u work
— Alizée 🥀 (@jcfuckash) July 8, 2016

The only secret of magic is that I'm willing to work harder on it than you think it's worth.

Penn Jillette

olivia taters (Rob Dubbin)

Uncharted Atlas (Martin O'Leary)

Bots as archivists

Parliament WikiEdits (Ed Summers)

Editing The Gray Lady (@j_e_d)

Cambio en el título pic.twitter.com/glvwz9EkW3
— Editando TN (@tn_diff) May 17, 2017

Modification du Titre pic.twitter.com/sLsV5B6cDj
— L̶e̶ ̶S̶o̶i̶r̶ édité (@lesoir_diff) May 17, 2017

Omar, perhaps world's longest cat, finds internet fame - BBC News https://t.co/Z2HyoelJQp ➜ https://t.co/zB2S7P0s5A pic.twitter.com/1fJPPKHWKy
— Editing the BBC (@bbc_diff) May 17, 2017

Anders Hoff aka inconvergent

generative bot (Anders Hoff)

Bots as curators

Museum Bot (Darius Kazemi)

Old School Flyers (Darius Kazemi)

Moon Shot Bot (Darius Kazemi)

NYPL Dogs (Ashley Blewer)

Medieval Death Bot (Soren Häxan)

Novice Art Blogger (Matthew Plummer-Fernandez)

Archillect (Murat Pak)

Not included: bots as poets

Allison Parrish

Harry Giles

Thank you

Twitter: @mewo2

Email: [email protected]

Slides: mewo2.com/cultural-bots

#botally | #botally Slack signup

Bots: a cultural tour

Martin O'Leary | @mewo2

Who's this guy?

I'm a curator

I'm a scientist

I'm a "creative coder"

What's a bot?

"Art bots"

Bot-ston (Martin O'Leary)

Bots as performers

Performance

CRASH__N__BURN (Stephanie Hyland)

555 µHz (Ramsey Nasser)

everyword (Allison Parrish)

Bots as performers

Bots as magicians

The Sorting Hat Bot (Darius Kazemi)

olivia taters (Rob Dubbin)

Uncharted Atlas (Martin O'Leary)

Bots as archivists

Parliament WikiEdits (Ed Summers)

Editing The Gray Lady (@j_e_d)

Anders Hoff aka inconvergent

generative bot (Anders Hoff)

Bots as curators

Museum Bot (Darius Kazemi)

Old School Flyers (Darius Kazemi)

Moon Shot Bot (Darius Kazemi)

NYPL Dogs (Ashley Blewer)

Medieval Death Bot (Soren Häxan)

Novice Art Blogger (Matthew Plummer-Fernandez)

Archillect (Murat Pak)

Not included: bots as poets

Thank you

CRASHNBURN (Stephanie Hyland)