Our computational devicesincreasingly powerful, increasingly intelligentcan now think for us, perceive for us, pay attention for us, write for us. Lest we forget how to do these things ourselves, we dearly need new models for co-existing with algorithmic media, the artificial minds on our desks and in our pockets.

Kyle BootensGymsoffers one such model. This book documents Bootens process of developing nine different gymscomputer programs that, as he composes poems, place his human mind under unusual strain, trigger its unused muscles, and test its focus and endurance. One gym goads him to pick up and ponder weighty allusions. Another challenges him to painstakingly perceive and describe the features of various artworks. Still another stretches his verses syntax beyond the limits of human cognition.Gyms is a collection of poetry, but it is also the lab notebook of a speculative and idiosyncratic Human-Computer Interaction research, or of an applied, empirical approach to the future of poetic form.It invites the reader to imagineand, more than imagine, createtheir own answers to the question: how can we program ourselves to think the uncomputable?

Paperback | 280 pages | 8.5″ x 5.875″