Language Game[s]: Dr. Hannah Lammin - Performing Machine Languages

Dr. Hannah Lammin Performing Machine Languages: from automatic writing to the transcendental computer This paper examines theoretical presuppositions about the essence of language by examining two mechanisms for machinic language production: the notional ‘abstract machine’ that Alan Turing proposed as passing his ‘Imitation Game’ test (1950); and the collective writing system created in Ron Athey’s performance work Gifts of the Spirit: Automatic Writing (2011). Turing’s machine exemplifies a scientific conception of machine language, whereas Athey’s models a philosophical conception of language ultimately grounded in the human. Drawing on Jon McKenzie’s (2001) taxonomy of performance paradigms, the paper analyses how these theoretical perspectives, in distinct ways, posit language as an act of performance. It then utilizes François Laruelle’s notion of the ‘Transcendental Computer’ (2005) as a non-standard theoretical apparatus for re-deploying both paradigms—radicalizing the performat