3. Instapoetics and the Literary Algorithm

This chapter will look at examples of machine learning poetry and Instagram poetry in order to examine the cultural impact of a posthuman cyborgian fluidity of borders as audiences expand and algorithms cannibalise texts and spew out literary artefacts. Discussions will incorporate a post humanism lens stemming from N. K. Hayles (How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), John Cayley (The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is the Text). Electronic Book Review, 2002) and Karoliina Lummaa (Posthumanist Reading: Witnessing Ghosts, Summoning Nonhuman Powers. In Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture, ed. S. Karkulehto, A. Koistinen, and E. Varis. New York and London: Routledge, 41–56, 2020). Both machine learning and Instagram poetry can be classified as anthropophagic algorithmic texts—cannibalistic algorithm-driven texts that remix, reuse and re-appropriate content—and specific examples can show us how non-human participation in digital poetry is established. I will include discussions and statistics regarding the audience demographics of Instagram and what implication this might potentially have for the future of poetry.