News/Research

To Pray Without Ceasing

10 Mar, 2021

To Pray Without Ceasing

Alum Kyle Booten (Assistant Professor in English, University of Connecticut) was a poet in residence at Noktuno.fi. Nokturno.fi is a Finnish website presenting digital, experimental and cross-disciplinary literature, especially poetry, since 2005.

His latest poetic performance, created as part of his residency, took place on February 14th.

To Pray Without Ceasing is a text generation project about caring for strangers online. The algorithmic system listens for expressions of need on Twitter (e.g. “I really need somebody to talk to”) and generates empathetic prayers specific to these needs. Evoking the “Liturgy of the Hours,” the system prays in different ways at specific times of the day. Unlike humans, it never grows weary of paying attention to others.

The performance continues to be on Twitch, so check for future dates! https://www.twitch.tv/kbooten

You can view the artwork here! You can also find more information on Kyle's time at Nokturno here.