The Return of the Dead Author

The Return of the Dead AuthorIn her most recent research project which culminated in the exhibition Uncertainty in the Loop (2020) the Slovenian artist Sanela Jahi_ presented a further stage of her multiyear project. She converted her labour as an artist her work, research and interests of the past 14 years into data. The dataset was elaborated by a predictive algorithm that predicted her next artwork. The independent art theoretician and curator Aude Launay placed Jahi_s work

In her most recent research project Ð which culminated in the exhibition Uncertainty-in-the-Loop (2020) Ð the Slovenian artist Sanela Jahi_ presented a further stage of her multiyear project. She converted her labour as an artist Ð her work, research and interests of the past 14 years Ð into data. The dataset was elaborated by a predictive algorithm that predicted her next artwork.
The independent art theoretician and curator Aude Launay placed Jahi_Õs work amongst works that question the concept of authorship, as she questions whether the predictive algorithms used by her can be considered to be the author of the new artworks. Since they proceed from the past, predictive algorithms can be related to the figure of the aoidos, the classical Greek oral epic poet who both repeated the song as well as invented it while singing. On the deeper side, the issue focuses on the definition of what is authored: what makes something the product of a specific authorship process?