In 2024, Lyra launched a new project ‘Page Against the Machine: AI and Poetry’, thanks to support from Brigstow Institute’s Ideas exchange fund and Arts Council England.

Public poets are paired with technologists/academics to research, explore and create poetry in collaboration with AI, developing the practice of the individuals involved and having a wider impact on the way we think about the future of AI and creativity.

The first interation of the project involved three poet / technologist pairs.

Caleb Parkin, former Bristol City Poet, widely published writer and practice-based PhD candidate at University of Exeter, collaborated with Francesco Bentivegna, artist and lecturer in Digital Technology at University of Bristol, focusing on voice, AI and the philosophy of technology.

Deanna Rodger, former UK poetry slam champion, experienced facilitator and writer of commissioned poems including BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, collaborated with Michael Marcinkowski, poet with work published by Broken Sleep Books, and Director of Education for the Digital Futures Institute and Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities at King’s College London.

shakara, a Jamaican-born artist fusing technology and creativity and weaving together poetry, spoken word and filmmaking with AI, collaborated with Vince Baidoo, a technologist who has worked with BBC, ITV and Channel4, started his first company at 15, and explores under-represented voices and narratives across media.

A panel discussion presenting this work was hosted at Lyra Festival 2024 at Watershed, chaired by Page Against the Machine project consultant Rebecca Kosick (Co-Director of Bristol Poetry Institute and Associate Professor of Comparative Poetry and Poetic at University of Bristol’s School of Modern Languages). shakara, as Lyra’s 2024 Festival Poet, also led a workshop exploring AI and Poetry entitled ‘Queering AI’.

The research process of Page Against the Machine encourages play, experimentation and curiosity, generating insights through practice-based collaborations.

At its core, the project asks what it is to be a human in the 21st century by considering our desire to be creative, express ourselves and to tell stories as an intrinsic part of our human consciousness.

We are interested in questions around ethical considerations of using AI to create art, how this impacts quality of poetry, if AI can impact public engagement with poetry, if AI can provide tools of accessibility for writing poetry, if poetry can ever be separated from the experiences of being human, and much more.

Having received feedback from poets and technologists as well as members of the public, we are now planning the next phase of Page Against the Machine.

Special thanks to Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio for their support in providing spaces for research.

Photos by: Sam Cavender