Since the first tool was fabricated, society has had an affinity for technology. Not only cherishing its ability to make the daily grind a little bit easier but for its ability to revolutionize how people look at things when contemplating what they can be used for. “Debasheesh Parveen” and “Ariadna Alfil” are technologically fabricated people, robots, on Facebook that take random headlines from their national news papers and, through the use of an eponymous algorithm, muddle them into seeming obscurity in their status updates and attached photos. The two robotic personalities were introduced to the international community of Facebook in 2009, first Debasheesh then later Ariadna, (Flores) where they promptly began disseminating their perplexing status updates to their growing group of friends, and acting as any person does on Facebook, liking and commenting on pages and pictures. “Debasheesh Parveen” is constructed to be an Iranian male and “Ariadna Alfil” is constructed to be a young Mexican female, the two bots began a relationship and got married in March 2010 (Flores), and continue to post. Their virtually exclusive existence is not the only revolutionary aspect of this work of E-lit, the algorithm that drives the formulation of both of the bots status updates, Computer Aided Poetry a.k.a. CAP, accepts the input of excerpts from outside sources and converts them into a synonymous sentence by clicking a button to ‘shake’ things up. The new sentence can then be further randomly manipulated, but on a word to word level rather than on the sentence level, to perfect its grammar and mystique.
There is an alluring nature to these works of electronic literature, which comes from their ability to emphasize the exponential reach of the virtual world and social media. Social media has had a profound programming influence over all it touches. Since the rise of sites like MySpace, Facebook and countless dating sites, people have had to adapt to the robotic and dehumanizing requirements of profile construction and upkeep. Much like the slew of literary games from Jim Andrew’s, and their technological ‘iterations’, the fabricated personalities of “Debasheesh and Ariadna” are a comment upon the embedded nature technology, in this case social media, has in modern society. Moreover, the intentionally incongruous contents of the bots status updates is the antithesis of the rampant posts that are redundant and self evident. However, it is the way that the bots status updates are created that is most pertinent, not their actual content, because they can very rarely be deciphered anyways. On the surface the status updates and online activity look routine and effortless, so closely resembling actual online human activities that the technological labor of love that it takes to create them can be lost if you are unaware of their mechanical origins. In this sense the “Debasheesh and Ariadna” bots are a lot like “TOC” and “ Between Page and Screen”, because aesthetically they are simple and straightforward, but in reality the algorithms and programs that makes seeing them possible are intricately elaborate and rigid and must not be underestimated. Perloff’s notion that “no medium or technique of production can in itself give the poet the inspiration or imagination to produce works of art” (Perloff 143-64) rings true in these pieces, because regardless of having the technological skills to make a pseudo personality it is the aura that is created that make the otherwise mechanically heavy pieces literary.
The creator of these Facebook robots is programmer and digital artist Eugenio Tisselli (Flores) born in Mexico City in 1972 (“Eugenio Tisselli”). Tisselli is also the creator of the CAP algorithm that makes these robots peculiar posts possible. He maintains a twitter page, @sautiyawakulima, and website, www.motorhueso.net, where all of his works since “Debasheesh and Ariadna” can be found. While Tisselli is an academic at heart, he still teaches in Barcelona (“Eugenio Tisselli”), his interest in social technologies has led him to become involved with “mobile communication projects for communities at risk of social exclusion in different parts of the world” (“P2P Foundation”).
Works Cited
“Eugenio Tisselli.” Rhizome. http://rhizome.org/profiles/eugeniotisselli/, n.d. Web. 19 Mar 2013.
Flores, Leonardo. “”Debasheesh Parveen” and “Ariadna Alfil” by Eugenio Tisselli.” I ♥ E-Poetry. Tumblr, 12 Mar 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://leonardoflores.net/post/45191117921/debasheesh-parveen-and-ariadna-alfil-by-eugenio>.
Perloff, Marjorie. “Screening the Page/ Paging the Screen:Digital Poetics and the Differential Text.” Trans. Array New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories. Adelaide Morris and Thomas SwissI. Cambridge and London: MIYT Press, 2006. 143-64. Print.
“Eugenio Tisselli: Bio.” P2P Foundation. P2P Foundation, 04 JUNE 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://p2pfoundation.net/Eugenio_Tisselli>.