Computer Arts Society ONLINE Talk “An Unexpected Story: AI and the Writer” - host Geoff Davis with David Link (art and also music with F.M. Einheit ex Einstürzende Neubauten).
BOOK NOW ON EVENTBRITE https://computerartssociety200526.eventbrite.co.uk/ Computer-generated text is not new. From the first procedural poems of 1952 through hypertext fiction, net art, and early neural text experiments, artists and programmers have been exploring what machines can do with language long before ChatGPT turned it into a mainstream source of fascination and anxiety. Today, the concerns are real: ownership, authorship, payment, and what still counts as human work. This talk traces the hidden history behind those questions through the work of David Link and Geoff Davis, and asks what it means to build your own tools in a culture where most people are using someone else’s. Online only - Wednesday 20th May 2026 - 18:00 BST 6pm UK Other time zones here: https://www.timeanddate.com SPEAKERS Geoff Davis, Dr David Link Geoff Davis is an artist, PEN-published writer and CAS Committee member with a practice spanning four decades, from early text generation and computer art in the 1980s to contemporary AI-assisted works, along with novels and music. He is the editor of the AI Creative Anthology series (2023, 2024, 2026) and has hosted a series of AI and the Arts panel talks for the Computer Arts Society. Davis is a researcher at UAL examining AI and text generation, the practical use and emotional dimensions of both the user response and the tool itself, including sycophancy and what he terms 'mood bias'. His first Story Generator, written and released by Micro Arts in 1985 and distributed via the Prestel network, has been exhibited internationally from 1985 to 2025, and was described by curator Georg Bak as 'an early precursor of ChatGPT'. Davis also created pioneering Pixel art and Glitch art in 1984, and a code generated animation from Valerie Solanas's SCUM Manifesto, exploring themes of Universal Basic Income, which he returns to in Pattern City, a novel incorporating art, due 2026. His work is in many international collections. More information at linktr.ee/GeoffDavis David Link, born in Düsseldorf in 1971. Artist, media theorist and programmer. Lives and works in Cologne, Germany. Music - Radar Angels with F.M. Einheit (ex Einstürzende Neubauten). His artistic works are shown at festivals and in museums worldwide. Exhibitions (selection): Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2010); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012); Microwave Festival, Hong Kong (2012); YCAM, Yamaguchi, Japan (2013); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2015, 2018, 2019-2022); CCCB, Barcelona, Spain (2016); Manchester Art Gallery, UK (2016); MAK, Vienna, Austria (2019); Crone Gallery Wien Berlin (2021, 2022); Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art, China (2023). His theoretical work can be found in: David Link, Archaeology of Algorithmic Artefacts (Minneapolis: Univocal, 2016). In 2024, he published Pandaemonium, a 300-page poem, entirely computer-generated (Berlin: Matthes and Seitz, 2024, in German). In 2009 he coded and exhibited Strachey’s famous ‘Love Poems’ from 1952. More information: Dr. David Link https://alpha60.de We will discuss other writers such as Richard Beard and his ‘Universal Turing Machine’. More information https://computer-arts-society.com/events/aiartgeoffdavismay2026.html BOOK NOW - ONLINE ONLY via Zoom. https://computerartssociety200526.eventbrite.co.uk/ Next talk is Genetic Moo – “Interactive Art Is Best” – details here: https://computer-arts-society.com/events/genetic-moo-2026.html You can see our future programme here: https://computer-arts-society.com/events/index.html BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT 25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP, UK
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