Saul Baizman, MFA ’14
thesis abstract
Name: Saul Baizman, MFA ’14
Undergraduate Degree: BA, English and American Literature
Undergraduate School: Brandeis University
Current Title: Principal
Current Organization: Baizman Design, LLC
Thesis cover
Algorithm has been applied to text for many purposes: to author poems, show advertisements, match romantic partners, grade college essays, perform therapy, spread misinformation, write news stories, and monitor our communications, to name a few. The use of algorithm in these contexts raises serious questions about the properties of text and, more broadly, the role of computational algorithm in our lives.
If in written formats a computer is indistinguishable from a human being, how does this change our attitude towards published texts? If a computer can write poetry, how must we redefine concepts such as creativity and authorship? What ultimately happens when we grant the awesome power of expression to an algorithm?
Regarding algorithms, we as a society need to become more sensitive to the contexts in which we deploy them and whether the application in a given context is appropriate. As we expand our reliance on algorithm and algorithms increasingly supplant humans in a variety of functions, my thesis seeks to investigate the existential issues and cultural implications of machines that read and write text.