Drawing the Possible into the Present: Entanglements of Human and Computer in Speculation (CO-SPEC)

We are increasingly entangled with environments produced and shaped by algorithms. However, literary fiction has not lost its role as one of the most important arenas for imagining something that is possible. The project CO-SPEC provides us with tools to recognise and analyse the ways in which our entanglement with computational media affects, guides and shapes our engagement with the possible. The primary tool suggested is speculation which, as a cognitive strategy, is available to both human and technical agents. CO-SPEC investigates simultaneously 1) the ways in which digital technologies have become entangled with our imaginations, and 2) a variety of works of fiction that illustrate, make use of and challenge this entanglement. Through this analysis, CO-SPEC aims at distinguishing speculation from other meaning-making strategies, and through a focus on the activities of reading, writing and sharing, outlines a model of textual agency within the algorithm-based environments.