Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, video art by Spalter.

—

Pandora

I too would have opened the box,
taken my leave,
wanted to know,
gone to the moon.
I too would have been tempted
to lift the lid,
to see what was inside.
I would have faced the same questions!
Eyes wide open, journeying through space.
I want knowledge. I want hope. I want to want. And no one can stop that.

I am goin’ on my star trek.

Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, video art by Spalter.

—

Cy

Tunnel vision
can sometimes be a blessing.
With Nobody as my friend, I sail toward Saturn.
One-eyed, wondering and wandering,
penciling my signifying marks.
I’m a voyeur on the margins,
an eater of the dark.
I am an exile from my own time,
a chartered citizen of Nowhere.
Once I was a visionary, now
my sight has been reduced to one slit.
I’m a Cyclops to Saturn, a future mythology…
Some-thing, drawn, in the making.

Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, video art by Spalter.

—

Arachne

Spidering outward,
crawling through space,
tragedy turns to infinite potential.
8 legs and 9 lives later,
Arachne is full of life. She is weaving starlight,
building the past,
tending and attending the future.

Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, video art by Spalter.

—

Hektor

Hektor, falling to the moon
I don’t I don’t I don’t…
It was h-h-h-hard…
For me tooooooooo grasp?
Which direction I sh-sh-sh-should go in.
To … just … journey …
To … just … journey …
To … just … journey …

I heard the angel s-s-s-say,
“Go with the flow.
Don’t try to figure it out.
Go with the flow.”
So I went with the flow.

I went with the flow.
I went with the flow.
I went with the flow.

And, I don’t know.
Maybe that was it?
I don’t know what else to doooooooo.
So, I’ll go with the flow…

Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, video art by Spalter.

—

Artemis

Just a few days old, and
full of responsibility.
She protects and projects,
is responsible for the tides,
the rising and falling of the sea.
She can be seen as a woman
with a bow and arrow, or
as a cat that’s hunting mice.
She is always changing, always growing.
Her phases are changeable.
Her color is ever-changing:
silver, gold, white, red and green.
She watches over you while you sleep;
she protects your dreams.

FUTURE MYTHOLOGIES is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, sound and images by Spalter.

—

Ariadne

What is the inverse of a labyrinth?
[inverse] [opposite] [anti-]
How do we navigate [this-this-this] space?
Without the Minotaur’s dark. Without a child lost.
Without a mother dismembered, without a father
unable to find her, without her unable to find him.
Who planted this garden? Who watered it with blood?
What is the opposite of nourishment?
[opposite] [anti-] [against]
Where does the sun disappear to when it is not here?
It matters
[anti-matters]
Shadows like the sea, shadows like the stars, shadows like the sky.
What is the inverse of a labyrinth?
An overture, and an outside

FUTURE MYTHOLOGIES is a collaborative series between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, sound and images by Spalter.

—

Icarus

Flight, fall, feathers
I I I can’t even s-s-s-see the thread
I have lost my head
Dr-dr-dr-dreading the day I spent
going upward…
I I I was on a f-f-fucking spaceship
Thinking I was flying—
A middle finger to gravity,
a big FU to the earthbound.

Unidentified writing object
I am an object
I object…
To this moment.
Abject. Eject.
An Epic and an Anthology

Future Mythologies is a collaboration between Anne Spalter and Nathaniel Stern for theVERSEverse’s GenText series. It’s a series of 12 poems written in collaboration with text-based AIs, incorporated into videos produced with the help of text-to-image AI. Each explores a character from Greek mythology, with a sci-fi twist. Written and performed by Stern, sound and images by Spalter.

—

Achilles

It’s a myth. It’s all a myth. It’s mythic.
I denote, I connote, and I take what I need.
Let’s Fucking Gooooo!
I am here to liberate the monument from the museum;
to vandalize your history and be praised for it.
I’ll write a hundred-page poem about how I will break every window in your house.
I’ll make a short film about how we lost Earth’s love.
I’ll paint us all out of the story. We’ll be a tragic footnote in the autobiography of Mars.