ABOUT
This project explores the opportunities, challenges, and ethics of engaging artificially intelligent models in collaborative creations of knowledge through the creation of the “Trans-Feminist-Queer Transformer” (T.F.Q.T.) a Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 2 (GPT-2) model fine-tuned with databases of love songs from trans-feminist-queer artists programmed to generate output for live musical performance. Guided by trans-feminist-queer phenomenologies, this research retroactively analyzes the creation of the T.F.Q.T. from creating a dataset for fine-tuning and experimenting with intervals of training to exploring methods of remixing, adapting, and performing the generated output live. Through a critical analysis of my own practice as informed by sensory analyses of other contemporary A.I. works—including Annie Dorsen’s algorithmic theatre, J.R. Carpenter’s electronic literature projects, and Allison Parrish’s algorithmic poetry projects—this project posits research-creation as an ideal methodology for working through philosophical crises of AI and creative labour, which often understate or neglect sensory analyses of the body. My research uses the T.F.Q.T. to navigate the debate between embracing A.I. as “literary communism” and shifts in public policy and discourse around the fears of generative A.I. and plagiarism, data theft, surveillance, and the augmentation or replacement of creative workers. Its major findings include crafting frameworks and creative strategies for using generative A.I. as a tool towards creative-conceptual ends, and undertaking phenomenological analyses of the mind’s compulsion to engage in a process of sense-making with an algorithmic model.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
This project began with technical support and mentorship from David Rokeby, director of the BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies, and AI—housed within the University of Toronto's Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies. This model went through two major rounds of fine-tuning in late 2023 and early 2024, and produced output which I then used to create unique musical and lyrical compositions. An expanded article on this project, entitled "Queering GPT-2 in Collaboration: Fine-Tuning the Trans-Feminist-Queer Transformer," is currently in peer review.