Alex Gil lecture: 'Writing Freedom and The Freedom To Write: How To Write Like a Human in the Second Age of Mechanical Reproduction'
125 Convocation Way, Longmire 110
About the Event
The FSU Humanities Center will sponsor a series of eight lectures during the academic year 2026-2027. The lectures represent a range of disciplinary specialties within the humanities. Lecturers will present research that is taking humanities scholarship in new directions, deepening disciplinary expertise while demonstrating how thinking across disciplines is advantageous to the broader project of the humanities. The center anticipates that these lively afternoon events will advance discussion about the role of the humanities in higher education, and especially as an enterprise that teaches students to think critically, acquire competence in one or more fields, and prepare them for the responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship.
All lectures are planned for Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. in Beth Moor Lounge in the Longmire Building, with receptions following from approximately 6-6:30 p.m. The lectures are free, open to the public, and do not require advance registration. For questions regarding the lecture series: humanities.center@fsu.edu.
Abstract
Although we are easily distinguishable from machines, our creative output is increasingly blurred, especially in writing. In this talk, I will explore an earlier moment in the history of mechanical reproduction when artists sought freedom in writing under the banner of surrealism. Inspired by this historical moment, I will propose strategies we might pursue in our writing today to help us explore the limits of what machine learning can reproduce, and hence, what possible spaces remain for a writing that is truly ours.