Mechanisms & Multitudes from Experimental Words by Ruth Aylett & Momtaza Mehri
We wanted to focus on AI and robots as human-created artefacts rather than contribute to their cultural mystification as ’things with a life of their own’. The gap between the public perception of AI and the actual capabilities of the technology also fascinated us. After some discussion, we decided on a collage approach that could encompass multiple perspectives and three different ‘voices’.These voices shared a lineage, speaking to the changing developments, cultural attitudes and anxieties around AI. One was Daedalus, the mythical Greek craftsman and innovator of wings and moving statues (early depictions of robots). Another was Ada Lovelace, considered the first computer programmer, whose work demonstrated how a generic machine like Babage’s Analytical Engine could be driven by a ‘program’. Our third voice was the chatbot PARRY, an early AI artefact riddled with limitations and only able to repeat Ada Lovelace's rigning voice. We attempted to inhabit these figures, combining their voices and using synthetic voices to contrast against Lovelace's human inflections.
Tracklist
| 7. | Ruth Aylett & Momtaza Mehri - Mechanisms & Multitudes | 3:12 |
Lyrics
(Daedalus)
I am Daedelus, the engineer,
Maker of machines, solver of problems.
Don’t come to me for elaborate metaphors,
But - hydraulics, levers and gears.
For plain words, that get things done.
So I did a thing or two for the Gods.
But none of this: ‘Here: be a constellation,
Twinkle as a star’. Not on your life.
My payment was to carry on my work
indefinitely, and that was good enough.
(Ada Lovelace)
They called me Ada, the Enchantress
Of Numbers. They placed me at the feet of Reason’s altar,
Went to the races.
Left me to the thorny mathematics of girlhood.
A child born in the shadow of the Great Father,
His countless kin. Man’s hubris was the kindling to my flame.
They wanted me to abandon the heart’s hydraulics ,
Each breathlessly illogical leap
Of romance. A turbulence I was warned against, weaned against.
They did not want to discuss this.
(Parry)
I went to the races.
I don’t understand your motives.
I don’t confide in strangers.
Let’s talk about something else.
It’s time you shared interest in my feelings.
I don’t want to discuss this.
(Ada Lovelace)
Lady Lovelace’s Objection. I gave my name to refusal.
Did not understand their motives.
Found no conflict,
Between the philosophy of drifting birds, between the poetry
Of shimmering dewdrops on grass & the humming whir
Of steam-powered engines. Shared interest with feelings.
The imagination knows no borders.
No dividing lines between the mind’s disciplines.
I never believed in a calculus of opposites.
At twelve, I tried to fly. Did not confide with strangers.
Oilsilk & feathered fancy, my wings first came to me
In a dream. Then, the hurried sketches.
Mechanisms given the flesh of metaphors.
The engine turns, the loom weaves.
Soft-petaled flowers. The shuffling geometry of cards.
(Daedalus)
Time to be practical.
To engineer moving statues,
machines, that can help me out.
Think of all the shock, all the - awe.
Just from gears: levers: hydraulics.
And my own skilled hands
