Travel writing cross-mediality: from blogs to artifical intelligence

Authors

  • Stefano Calzati Tallinn University of Technology, Tallin, Estonia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1807-9288.2019v15n1p95

Abstract

This article addresses the genre of contemporary travel writing and discusses its cross-mediation in various digital forms: blogs, apps and the ultimate case where it is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) to actually produce the narrative. After providing some preliminary remarks on the difficulty to find a proper definition of travel writing, the article proposes to consider it not only as a genre, but also as a praxis. This open the way to a discussion that addresses the pragmatic effects that this kind of writing bears, suggesting that the more technology takes control over travelling and writing as social practices, the more these experiences are objectified and turned into acts. This is so, until it is an AI to be (put) in charge of the narrative of a journey: the experimental case of 1 the Road shows that the way in which AI textualizes its own experience resonates with the traditional form of hypomnemata providing food for thought about literary pleasure, authoriality and techno-self.

Author Biography

Stefano Calzati, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallin, Estonia

Scholar and researcher in digital cultures & philosophy of technology; Fiction and non-fiction writer; Teacher at University and college level; Editor for the press, the web, the radio, and publishing houses; Freelance reporter and translator; Proficient in 4 languages. IT savvy. Instagram account: @in_vietnam

Specialties: Creative Writing, Academic Research (Digital Humanities), Teaching, Editing, Journalism, translation, IT

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Published

2019-08-21

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Articles

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