Book review of "The Community and the Algorithm"
Congratulations to Andrew Klobucar, the editor of the book "The Community and the Algorithm: A Digital Interactive Poetics," for receiving a review from Daniel Punday, appearing in the 'Electronic Book Review,' January 7, 2024:
Current debates about the coming impact of generative artificial intelligence have focused primarily on the role of these algorithmic systems in individual creative and professional activities. […]
By shifting attention towards the potential for algorithmic activities in creative communities, this collection makes clear how limited the terms of the debate have been. Klobucar’s collection intervenes into this widespread mixture of panic and celebration about algorithms by challenging three fundamental assumptions we see in popular conversations: the unstated premise that the algorithm is uniquely contemporary, a technology-driven phenomenon; the focus on individual professional or creative activity; and the assumption that algorithms ultimately are in conflict with human agency. […]
Klobucar offers a corrective to our current ChatGPT panic. But any collection like this is also making a claim to define a field or area of inquiry, and so I hope that this collection prompts us to pay more attention to the stakes of this kind of disciplinary reorientation, even if it doesn’t quite provide an answer. What happens when we frame a bunch of analog creative practices as algorithmic?
[Extract from book review appearing on 'Electronic Book Review': Punday, Daniel. “Expanding the Algorithm”, Electronic Book Review, January 7, 2024, https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/expanding-the-algorithm/]
Edition 1st
ISBN 978-1-62273-959-2
Published in September 2021
Page last updated on January 11th 2024. All information correct at the time, but subject to change.
