About

Structuralism and AI publishes on the research process of a project led by Professor Sunil Manghani, which originated as part of his Turing Fellowship 2021-23, and the editing of a section, ‘Notes on Structuralism‘, for Theory, Culture & Society.

The project began by tracing aspects of the history of structuralism with a view to consider its significance for our current handling and advancement of AI, data and natural language processing. A reading group → provided the initial means to explore structuralism vis-a-vis AI. The project is ongoing, focusing on the experimental work of Mytheme Machine → , and remains committed to an ‘open research’ process. Research notes and outputs are made openly available, as part of an unfolding process.

See: index cards →, Lecture Notes → and Publications →

Key to the project is a re-reading of the influential anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, along with the noted cultural theorist Roland Barthes (see ‘Preparatory Space‘). Both thinkers, when turning to questions of culture, developed persuasive accounts for identifying specific ‘units of analysis’, which included sophisticated approaches to classification models, systems of thinking and cultural meaning. There remains a space for more careful consideration and cross-disciplinary dialogue.

An introduction to the project appears in ‘The Art of Artificial Intelligence’, Reaction [print version] (Research & Enterprise Magazine of University of Southampton, Issue 24, Summer 2023).

Prof. Sunil Manghani is Professor of Theory, Practice and Critique, Department of Design, University of Southampton (UK), and one of the organisers of The Alan Turing AI & Arts Interest Group. He is Managing Editor of Theory, Culture & Society, Co-Editor of Journal of Visual Art Practice, and co-founder of Electronic Life. His work brings together various aspects of critical theory, visual arts and image studies. His books include Image Studies (2013), Zero Degree Seeing (2019); India’s Biennale Effect (2016) and Farewell to Visual Studies (2015). He curated Barthes/Burgin at the John Hansard Gallery (2016), as well as Building an Art Biennale (2018) and Itinerant Objects (2019) at Tate Exchange, Tate Modern.