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<p class="elementToProof" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);"><b>Thinking Beyond Brecht – Collective and/or Artificial Intelligence</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Panel sponsored by the International Brecht Society, Modern Language Association Convention (January 9 – 12, 2025), New Orleans, LA</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">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.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">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.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Possible topics include but are not limited to:</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Links and blurred lines between collaboration, collective intelligence, machine learning, and/or swarm intelligence</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Brecht's own commentary on machines and technology (e.g., "General, dein Tank ist ein starker Wagen") in context</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Brecht and prompts or memes</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Machine-generated imagery or sound and a Brechtian approach to politics and aesthetics</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Digital humanities and machinic interpretation of Brecht's works</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Brecht and systems of groupthink and/or collective action problems</span></li><li style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36); margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Discussion of Brechtian artworks that estrange and/or integrate artificial intelligence or group intelligence</span></li></ul>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);">Please send 250-word abstracts to
<b>Joerg Esleben (joerg.esleben [at] uottawa.ca) </b>and<b> Evan Torner (evan.torner[at] uc.edu)</b> by March 15, 2024. All panelists must be registered MLA members by April 7, 2024.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Yana Meerzon</b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Professeure titulaire| Full Professor</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: black;">Directrice des études théâtrales | Director of Theatre Studies</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: black;">Département de théâtre | Department of Theatre<br>
Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa<br>
135 Séraphin-Marion, bureau 304B<br>
Ottawa (ON), Canada, K1N 6N5</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(36, 36, 36);"><a href="https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/270" class="ContentPasted0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/270</a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30); background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.critical-stages.org/19/the-essay-section-la-section-des-essais/" target="_blank" class="ContentPasted0" title="http://www.critical-stages.org/19/the-essay-section-la-section-des-essais/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Editor.
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques</a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><br>
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(12, 100, 192);"><a href="https://www.springer.com/series/17066" target="_blank" class="ContentPasted0" title="https://www.springer.com/series/17066" style="color: rgb(12, 100, 192); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Co-Editor.
Palgrave Studies in Performance and Migration (book series)</a></span></p>
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