1 Sep - 30 Nov 2023

James Notin

For the 2023 Lagos Berlin residency, James Notin worked on a hyperfiction project which created a collaborative space for the writer and reader, to co-create a dynamic literary text. This project was focused on returning the Gutenberg-created reader to an active reader. Viewing literature as a commodity, the goal of this project was to empower the possibilities of the reader in the consumption process of literature.

In Marxist argument favouring Art as a Commodity, the transactional and seemingly passive consumerism role of the reader and public has become a divisive one since the advent of the Gutenberg press and the gradual/total shift from oral literature and folklore. Seemingly is the case of algorithms and their usage in target marketing. These two cited situations of human and technology relations and the possible ways of creating an active reader were the focus of their residency period.

The focus was on developing a nonlinear literature model, employing a chatbot model and AI possibilities to curate a data asset which allows the reader to actively create their own story, through a database similar to what exists in image generators and chatbots.