Alfabet is a project space that does not exist in one space per se, but can nevertheless be found ‘at home’ amidst the faded grandeur of ‘Willa Grohmana’, built by the industrialist and artistic patron Henryk Grohman in 1892. For the past twenty years, the villa has also housed the idiosyncratic Book Art Museum, which preserves some of Poland’s most exciting examples of printed ephemera and operates a vast range of printing machines from across the ages in the villa’s subterranean rooms. Alfabet takes its name from the idea that within this space, the drawers are filled with thousands of characters awaiting interaction, and infinite configurations might take place.
In this sense, Alfabet’s concept is not fixed, our form is open to experiment. Alfabet might have a ballroom, but it resists the vainglory and criterion of The Institution. Alfabet might sit amongst history, but it is restless, and neither for history or 'future histories'. It is for now, for now. If you get our meaning? Alfabet, also recognises that its name suggests the kindergarten, an evocation of innocence and learning that was surely considered when ‘Alphabet’ became the moniker for Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. We make this brazen allusion to a multinational conglomerate, and one of the world’s most powerful companies turning data into ‘raw material’.
Leigh Ladare, The task
Screening March 2020
Prediction Error Workshop Brody Condon Lou Cantor Alfabet Project
Prediction Error Workshop Brody Condon Lou Cantor Alfabet Project
Prediction Error Workshop Brody Condon Lou Cantor Alfabet Project Andrzej Chetko
Prediction Error Workshop Brody Condon Lou Cantor Daniel Muyzcyuk Alfabet Project
Prediction Error Workshop Brody Condon Lou Cantor Alfabet Project
Inaugural performance at Alfabet Project:

During the Prediction Error workshop by Brody Condon, we will become elements of the hidden states underlying our delusions and hallucinations. After an introduction by cognitive neuroscientist Phillip Corlett, Director of the Belief, Learning, and Memory Lab at Yale, we will simulate a predictive coding model. These models provide a mechanistic description of delusion formation as a result of overactive prediction error systems that can no longer accurately contextualise our surrounding environment.