Look what just dropped down the chimney: Why, it's the first Off Center Christmas Special Holiday Extravaganza Show! Featuring music, human and otherwise, lessons in Norwegian folklore, Christmas beers reviewed, holiday traditions from various cultures, and merriment of all sorts. Featuring Jill Walker Rettberg, Anne Sigrid Refsum, Nick Montfort, Gabriele de Seta, Drew Keller, Hanne-Rikka Roine, Yagmur Vik, Tegan Pyke, Nadja Heiber, Rafael Pérez y Pérez, Søren Pold and the New Originals, Andreas Opsvik, and Ola Roth Johnsen.
In episode four of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta welcomes Nick Seaver, Associate Professor in Anthropology and Director of the Science, Technology & Society program at Tufts University, to catch up on his recent ethnographic research on algorithms, computing and automation.
Scott and Jhave are back talking billions of dollars and discussing whether the new AI economy truly is "too big to fail".
On this episode Scott talks to author and media theorist Roberto Simanowski about digital media, AI, art and hypertext.
Scott and Jhave are here to talk about a major class-action lawsuit that will reward authors for the fact that their books were used for AI training data... and this is not just any class-action lawsuit: the largest publicly reported settlement in human history.
References:
https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/
My Book Was Stolen by an AI Company. Why Does Suing Them Feel Wrong? Thea Lim
https://thewalrus.ca/suing-ai-company/
In episode three of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta visits Minna Ruckenstein, a Professor in Emerging Technologies in Society at the University of Helsinki's Consumer Society Research Center, for a deep dive into her work on algorithmic folklore.
On this episode Scott talks to Espen Aarseth, Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, about his groundbreaking work in game studies.
In episode two of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Guro Flinterud, a folklorist and cultural studies researcher, about her research on social media and digital platforms as an interface between the police and the public.
On this episode we talk about our upcoming exhibition "An Eye for AI Cinema" at the Bergen International Film Festival, running October 15th-23rd.
Is artificial intelligence destroying cinema as we know it? Are we entering the age of the computer-generated DIY film? AI brings tumultuous changes to the established film industry, at the same time as it is creating new opportunities for independent filmmakers, and perhaps even birthing new genres of moving image art.
Works
Laurent Basset
AFFAIR IN MARSEILLE, 2025
Seif Abdalla
HANAA, 2025
Micol Hebron
Study of animals in motion in the style of Eadweard Muybridge, 2025
Simon M. Valentine
One Last Wish, 2024
REDACTED
Optimals, 2025
Sachiko Hayashi, Nina Sobell
Echoes Unseen, 2024
Lina Ruth Harder & Colin Robinson
Wherever I go, you’re always with me, 2025
Scott Rettberg
Riverrun (fascistchicfascistquick), 2025
David Jhave Johnston
Brain-Knot Altar, 2025
On this episode, author, data scientist, and journalist Yudhanjaya Wijeratne talks to Jill Walker Rettberg about his relationship with AI in producing his Salvage Crew Trilogy of novels.
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne: “The Machine as Provocateur” Keynote at CDN Summer School 2025 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ZdWvzk2JE
StarMap – galaxy generator code on GitHub: https://github.com/yudhanjaya/Starmap
Find out more at Yudhanjaya.com
Photo by Dirk Skiba Fotografie.
It’s been a while since the last AI update, and with the field evolving so quickly, Scott and Jhave have plenty to catch up on. In this episode, they explore AI and writing - but who is prompting whom? Can AI serve as “steroids for creativity”? And if so, what are the unintended side effects?
After our summer break, Off Center returns with episode 2 of season 4. This episode features an interview with Samya Brata Roy, recorded during the 2025 CDN Digital Narrative PhD Summer School. Samya discusses his academic journey and the founding of Electronic Literature India.
In the first episode of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Joan Mukogosi, where they talk about her essay "Strategic Knowledge. Teens use 'algorithmic folklore' to crack TikTok’s black box", which she co-authored with Ireti Akinrinade.
On the first episode of the new season, returning guest Gabriele de Seta joins Scott to talk about Algopod, the new series of podcast episodes that will be released as part of the new season of Off Center. We also hear some interviews that David and Benji, two middle school students who had their work week at the center, did with several people within the center's staff.
In the final AI Update of the season, Scott and Jhave talk about some of the ways in which AI is finding itself involved in research. They talk about some of the AI models that have been developed with research in mind as well as some of their own experiments with these models.
References:
Brain2Qwerty https://ai.meta.com/research/publications/brain-to-text-decoding-a-non-invasive-approach-via-typing/ Accessed March 11, 2025.
Claude https://claude.ai/ Accessed March 11, 2025.
Deep research. https://openai.com/index/introducing-deep-research/ Accessed March 11, 2025.
Eliot, George. 1879. “Impressions of Theophrastus Such” William Blackwood and Sons.
Perplexity deep research https://www.perplexity.ai/?model_id=deep_research Accessed March 11, 2025.
Rettberg, Scott. 2020. “Republicans In Love” https://eloconference2023exhibitions.wordpress.com/exhibition2_resistance/republicans-in-love/
On this episode Scott joins David Bithell overseas, at Southern Oregon University's Digital Media Center. They talk about digital performance, collaborative online music and digital puppetry.
References:
Bithell, David. Followers. 2017. http://www.davidbithell.com/followers.html
Bithell, David. Matters Dark and Luminous. 2023-Present. http://www.davidbithell.com/mattersdarkandluminous.htmlBithell, David. Subterranean. 2020. http://www.davidbithell.com/subterranean.html
Bithell, David. Windward. 2018. http://www.davidbithell.com/windward.html
In this week's AI Update, Scott and Jhave discuss some of the ways in which fascism reproduces itself, how AI could be used as a tool to facilitate it, and how those leading AI development have found themselves in positions of political power.
References:
Knausgård, Karl Ove. My Struggle. 2009-2011.
Watkins, Gareth. AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism. 2025. New Socialist. https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism/
In this episode, Scott travels to Australia to talk with Tama Leaver at the Center of Excellence for the Digital Child. They discuss Tama's involvement with the Center, his research regarding generative AI, the ways in which children interact with AI and how they can be affected by them, as well as a recent ban to social media for all children under 16 in Australia.
References
Haidt, Jonathan. The anxious generation: how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. 2024. New York, Penguin Press.
Leaver, Tama, and Suzanne Srdarov. 2025. "Generative AI and Children's Digital Futures: New Research Challenges." Journal of Children and Media. 19 (1): 65-70. doi:10.1080/17482798.2024.2438679.
Ritchie, Hannah. Australia approves social media ban on under-16s. BBC News, Sydney. November 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89vjj0lxx9o
Jhave and Scott talk about simulated worlds or environments created with AI, considering what are the boundaries for artifical life.
In this episode we are joined by co-authors Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and Nick Montfort to talk about their new publication Output: An Anthology of Computer Generated Text, 1953-2023. We learn about their path into digital poetry and the process of putting together this anthology.
References
Bertram, Lillian-Yvonne. 2019.Travesty generator. Noemi Press.
Bertram, Lillian-Yvonne and Nick Montfort. 2024.Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953–2023. The MIT Press.
Gysin, Brion and Ian Sommerville. 1960.Permutation Poems.
H. Yngve, Victor. 1961.Random Sentences.
Knowles, Alison and James Tenney. 1967.The House of Dust.
Lutz, Theo. 1959.Stochastic Texts.
Montfort, Nick. 2017.The Truelist. Counterpath.
Montfort, Nick and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. 2003.The New Media Reader.
Nish-Lapidus, Matt. 2020.Work, Life, Balance.
Richardson, Leonard. 2013.Alice’s Adventures in the Whale.
Stiles, Sasha. 2021.Technelegy. The Black Spring Press Group.
Strachey, Christopher. 1953.Love Letters.