About this Episode
What does it really mean to act “spontaneously”? In this episode, we challenge the common belief that spontaneity correlates with authenticity—and that scripting undermines agency. From gender identity and social performance to jazz improvisation and machine learning, this lecture explores how our actions, even the seemingly unscripted ones, are shaped by deep cultural repertoires. Drawing on Judith Butler, Erving Goffman, Daniel Dennett, and personal performance practice, we examine the potential false dichotomy between being scripted and being free.
This is the third of four episodes in Chapter 3 of the thesis, Scripting for Agency, exploring the question: can a self be written—or, "encoded and decoded"?
About this Series
Scripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a video lecture series based on Dr Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies.
Links
Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/sfa-series
PhD thesis (PDF format): https://bit.ly/sfa-pdf
Thesis artworks: https://bit.ly/sfa-art
References
- Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Translated by Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books, 1971.
- Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge, 1993.
- Dennett, Daniel C. Freedom Evolves. Harlow: Penguin, 2004.
- Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.
- Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin, 1990.
- Merton, Robert King. Social Theory and Social Structure. London: Collier-Macmillan, 1968.
- Royal Society. Machine Learning: The Power and Promise of Computers That Learn by Example. London: The Royal Society, April 2017. https://royalsociety.org/-/media/poli....
- Ahmed, Samira. “The Arts and Artificial Intelligence,” interview with Mick Grierson. Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 21 November 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000....
- Hayls World. “10 ChatGPT Life Hacks - THAT’LL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!” YouTube video, 12:12. Uploaded March 31, 2023.
