Metahaven

With the transdisciplinary project “Metahaven: The Feeling Sonnets”, the Kunstzentrum Halle 14 in Leipzig and the Dutch design studio “Metahaven” are investigating the role of contemporary literature in an age of high-tech language models. Since the public launch of the large language model ChatGPT3, if not earlier, we are revisiting old questions with new urgency, such as the role of the author, technology’s ability to reproduce human creativity, and the authenticity of the artistic work.

The project is situated at the interface of literature, computer science and media art. It explores the qualities of human language which are absent from the language models. An example of this are poems by contemporary authors which function in multiple languages, play with language and speechlessness at different levels, and address alienation and emotional communication. During the Leipzig Book Fair, poems by Eugene Ostahevsky (Berlin/New York), Yoko Tawada (Berlin), Maxime Garcia Diaz (Amsterdam) and Marwa Helal (New York) will be read in a lecture performance during the “Leipzig liest” festival. Afterwards, researchers from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence will discuss issues related to digitalisation in connection to advanced literature. 

The project includes a media station and experimental episodic film, based on the volume of poems “The Feeling Sonnets” (2022) by Ostahevsky, describing a dystopian future controlled by artificial intelligence. The video pieces will be presented in a solo exhibition by Metahaven in Halle 14 and accompanied by events, performances and an art education project. The project will be documented in a publication.

Artistic director: Michael Arzt
Authors: Marwa Helal, Eugene Ostashevsky
Artist: Metahaven
Lecture performance, Leipzig (HALLE 14 – Centre for Contemporary Art): 23 Mar. 2024; solo exhibition, Leipzig (HALLE 14 – Centre for Contemporary Art): 7 Sep. – 8 Dec. 2024