In the framework of Saison Numérique the Maison du Livre opens its space for Algolit during three days in a row. The group presents lectures, workshops and a small exhibition about the narrative perspective of machine learning models. These selflearning algorithms are based on algebra and statistics. They often function as opaque ’blackbox’ algorithms, while they shape applications that are daily used on a worldwide scale, like search engines on the web, translation machines, advertising profiling, facial recognition etc.

Because machine learning models are so present, the members of Algolit felt the need to distillate reading and writing experiments from it. By executing parts of their construction process in a literary context, they become more legible. It is way to experience a few moments that are usually hidden in the making of the model, and that co-design contemporary stories in the way they influence the organisation of information.

On the program:
Thursday 9 November

• 18h30: opening exhibition
• 19h & 20h30: guided tour of the exhibition

Friday 10 November

• 18h30: guided tour of the exhibition
• 20h: lectures: Mike Kestemont (UA) on Generative Models and the Digital Humanities: Towards Synthetic Literature; Amir Sarabadani (Wikipedia Germany) on Wikipedia’s ORES-project

Saturday 11 November
from 13h till 19h: workshop ’Variation on a Glance’ by Nicolas Malevé, please register via an@constantvzw.org

Sunday 12 November
from 12h till 18h: workshop ’Towards Collective Gentleness?’ , please register via an@constantvzw.org

Organised by: Manetta Berends, Cristina Cochior, Gijs de Heij, Hans Lammerant, An Mertens
With the support of: Constant vzw/asbl, La Maison du Livre, Saison Numérique

Algolit is a workgroup around algorithms and literature, initiated by Constant, an organisation for arts and media in Brussels. In the footsteps of Oulipo, the Algolit members share their experiences with code and text during monthly meetings, and conduct new experiments together.