THE IMPERIAL HAIKU COMMISSION APPROVES THIS MESSAGE’: AN EXAMINATION OF AUTOMATED PLAY AND CULTURE AS (RE)DESIGNED BY BOTS.

Abstract

This paper examines a community called Subreddit Simulator on the social media platform Reddit. It is a digital space where human and social bot co-exist on an ontologically equal footing to co-create culture, community and a sense of 'play'. We recognize this community as a pioneer community against a larger backdrop of deep mediatization. With the recent attention given to bots such as Chat GPT it is imperative that we do not overlook communities in which progressive and revolutionary practice has been happening for years. This extended abstract proposes an ethnographic approach to viewing the Subreddit Simulator community while the longer form work will bring the ethnographic results to bear to discuss philosophically the opportunities and implications of reimagining networked spaces in a less human-centric manor.