In the first episode of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Joan Mukogosi, where they talk about her essay "Strategic Knowledge. Teens use 'algorithmic folklore' to crack TikTok’s black box", which she co-authored with Ireti Akinrinade.
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Episode 37: Algopod, Interviews with David and Benji
On the first episode of the new season, returning guest Gabriele de Seta joins Scott to talk about Algopod, the new series of podcast episodes that will be released as part of the new season of Off Center. We also hear some interviews that David and Benji, two middle school students who had their work week at the center, did with several people within the center's staff.
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The AI Update: AI and Research
In the final AI Update of the season, Scott and Jhave talk about some of the ways in which AI is finding itself involved in research. They talk about some of the AI models that have been developed with research in mind as well as some of their own experiments with these models.References:Brain2Qwerty https://ai.meta.com/research/publications/brain-to-text-decoding-a-non-invasive-approach-via-typing/ Accessed March 11, 2025.Claude https://claude.ai/ Accessed March 11, 2025.Deep research. https://openai.com/index/introducing-deep-research/ Accessed March 11, 2025.Eliot, George. 1879. “Impressions of Theophrastus Such” William Blackwood and Sons.Perplexity deep research https://www.perplexity.ai/?model_id=deep_research Accessed March 11, 2025.Rettberg, Scott. 2020. “Republicans In Love” https://eloconference2023exhibitions.wordpress.com/exhibition2_resistance/republicans-in-love/
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Episode 36: Digital Puppetry with David Bithell
On this episode Scott joins David Bithell overseas, at Southern Oregon University's Digital Media Center. They talk about digital performance, collaborative online music and digital puppetry. References: Bithell, David. Followers. 2017. http://www.davidbithell.com/followers.htmlBithell, David. Matters Dark and Luminous. 2023-Present. http://www.davidbithell.com/mattersdarkandluminous.htmlBithell, David. Subterranean. 2020. http://www.davidbithell.com/subterranean.htmlBithell, David. Windward. 2018. http://www.davidbithell.com/windward.html
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The AI Update: AI Fascism
In this week's AI Update, Scott and Jhave discuss some of the ways in which fascism reproduces itself, how AI could be used as a tool to facilitate it, and how those leading AI development have found themselves in positions of political power.References:Knausgård, Karl Ove. My Struggle. 2009-2011. Watkins, Gareth. AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism. 2025. New Socialist. https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism/
Off Center is a podcast series from the Center for Digital Narrative, a Norwegian Center of Research Excellence at the University of Bergen, Norway. In each episode, host Scott Rettberg and a guest delve into a topic revolving around digital storytelling and its effect on contemporary culture. The biweekly podcast series covers academic research on digital narratives in electronic literature, computer games, social media, computational narrative systems, AI, XR and more in an enjoyable and understandable way.