MLA 2025: Thinking Beyond Brecht – Collective and/or Artificial Intelligence, New Orleans

Thinking Beyond Brecht – Collective and/or Artificial Intelligence
Panel sponsored by the International Brecht Society
Modern Language Association Convention (January 9 – 12, 2025), New Orleans, LA

This panel examines Brecht’s or Brechtian works from perspectives informed by conceptions of intelligence beyond that of the human individual. Brecht’s interest in –– and reliance on –– collective, collaborative forms of thought, action, and artistic production are well-known. Current, disruptive developments in artificial intelligence, swarm intelligence, and crowdsourced knowledge production would arguably have interested him as well. Both forms of non-individual intelligence are ambivalent. Collective thought-action holds the promise of overcoming the isolation, reification, and alienation of individuals under capitalism, but it can also lead to new and other forms of exploitation and increase the pressure to conform to repressive systems. Artificial intelligence under capitalism is frequently seen as a threat to livelihoods, human freedom, and autonomy, but can also be conceived as a liberating force.

We invite proposals that explore these and other aspects of either form of intelligence or of their conjunctions, in direct or indirect relation to Brecht’s work and thought.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Links and blurred lines between collaboration, collective intelligence, machine learning, and/or swarm intelligence
• Brecht's own commentary on machines and technology (e.g., "General, dein Tank ist ein starker Wagen") in context
• Brecht and prompts or memes
• Machine-generated imagery or sound and a Brechtian approach to politics and aesthetics
• Digital humanities and machinic interpretation of Brecht's works
• Brecht and systems of groupthink and/or collective action problems
• Discussion of Brechtian artworks that estrange and/or integrate artificial intelligence or group intelligence

Please send 250-word abstracts to Jörg Esleben (joerg.esleben [at] uottawa.ca) and Evan Torner
(evan.torner[at] uc.edu) by March 15, 2024. All panelists must be registered MLA members by
April 7, 2024.

Contact Information

Jörg Esleben (joerg.esleben [at] uottawa.ca) and Evan Torner
(evan.torner[at] uc.edu)

Contact Email

evan.torner@uc.edu