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Scripting for Agency

Scripting for Agency

By: Katarina Ranković
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 Scripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a lecture series based on Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies. New episodes every Sunday and Thursday until 14.12.25. YouTube series: https://bit.ly/sfa-series Thesis PDF: https://bit.ly/sfa-pdf Thesis art: https://bit.ly/sfa-artKatarina Ranković Art
Episodes
  • 5.3a Running Over States of Mind, Or: Who Should be Writing This Thesis Anyway?

    5.3a Running Over States of Mind, Or: Who Should be Writing This Thesis Anyway?
    Nov 23 2025

    About this Episode

    This episode explores how the character adopted during a process of research or writing unconsciously influences the kind of knowledge that that process can produce. The video asks: Who is really doing the writing in academic contexts? And how does the character of scholarly rigour sometimes produce unintended outcomes?

    This chapter continues the exploration of a “politics of inner self,” highlighting the momentum and blind spots that even supposedly neutral character frames can carry. Performance, art, authorship and critique intersect here in a candid analysis of the forces shaping knowledge production.


    About this Series

    Scripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a video lecture series based on Dr Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies.


    Links

    Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/sfa-series

    PhD thesis (PDF format): https://bit.ly/sfa-pdf

    Thesis artworks: https://bit.ly/sfa-art


    References

    - Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

    - Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin, 1990.

    - Hayles, N. Katherine. My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

    - Ranković, Katarina. “The Shape of a Thinking Thing.” In Goldsmiths PhD Art Publication, edited by Marie-Alix Isdahl, Dani Smith and Nina Wakeford. Independently published in an edition of 500, 2021.

    - Samanani, Farhan. How to Live with Each Other: An Anthropologist’s Notes on Sharing a Divided World. London: Profile Books, 2022.

    - Wolfram, Stephen. A New Kind of Science. Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, 2002.
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    21 mins
  • 5.2 Tethered and Tangential: Classifying Characters by Social Tetheredness

    5.2 Tethered and Tangential: Classifying Characters by Social Tetheredness
    Nov 20 2025

    About this Episode

    In this video, we explore the classification of character types through the lens of performative research, culminating in a new distinction: tethered versus tangential characters. How do different characters within us get assigned power, expression time, or even social legitimacy? From early taxonomies like “fictional vs real” to “dominant vs subordinate,” this episode investigates how we unconsciously manage our inner diversity—and what happens when one character dares to speak back.

    Through an experimental letter written by a rarely-expressed character to her more dominant counterpart, we witness a confrontation with the very politics of selfhood. What does it mean for a character to be tethered to social expectations, while others are allowed to emerge freely, if briefly, in artistic space?

    This episode is a continuation of Chapter 5: Classes of Character and a Politics of Inner Self from the Scripting for Agency series.


    About this Series

    Scripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a video lecture series based on Dr Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies.


    Links

    Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/sfa-series

    PhD thesis (PDF format): https://bit.ly/sfa-pdf

    Thesis artworks: https://bit.ly/sfa-art


    References

    - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, ed. J. W. Burrow (London: Penguin, 1985).

    - Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).

    - Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (London: Vintage, 2011).

    - David L. Stern, “The Genetic Causes of Convergent Evolution,” Nature Reviews Genetics 14 (2013): 751–64. doi:10.1038/nrg3483.

    - Ros Gray and Shela Sheikh, “The Coloniality of Planting: Legacies of Racism and Slavery in the Practice of Botany,” _The Architectural Review_, 27 January 2021. https://www.architectural-review.com/....

    - Chief Seattle, “Chief Seattle’s Speech,” Suquamish Tribe website. https://suquamish.nsn.us/home/about-u....
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    16 mins
  • 5.1b Politics of Inner Self: Implications of the Performance Experiment

    5.1b Politics of Inner Self: Implications of the Performance Experiment
    Nov 16 2025
    About this EpisodeIn this video, the second half of a dialogic performance experiment unfolds as two distinct characters—both played by the same person—reflect on what it means to share a single consciousness. We explore comparisons to chair work therapy, internal dialogues, dissociative identity and performance art to deepen the notion of a “politics of inner self.” What does it mean when one version of you dominates the stage of selfhood? Can character role play serve as a philosophical or therapeutic tool? Join us as we interrogate the ethics, complexities and possibilities of inner multiplicity.While Episode 5.1a described the performance experiment, this section discusses its implications.About this SeriesScripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a video lecture series based on Dr Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies.LinksSeries Playlist: https://bit.ly/sfa-seriesPhD thesis (PDF format): https://bit.ly/sfa-pdfThesis artworks: https://bit.ly/sfa-artPolitics of Inner SelfReferences- Clarkson, Petrūska. Gestalt Counselling in Action. London: Sage, 2004.- Dennett, Daniel. Freedom Evolves. Harlow: Penguin, 2004.- Falconer, Morgan. “Group Dynamics: Andrea Fraser Interviewed by Morgan Falconer.” Art Monthly, no. 464 (2023): 1–4.- Fraser, Andrea. This Meeting is Being Recorded. Video. 2021.- Graeber, David, and David Wengrow. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. London: Allen Lane, 2021.- Kellogg, Scott. Transformational Chairwork: Using Psychotherapeutic Dialogues in Clinical Practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.- Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. London: Penguin, 1999.- Linville, Patricia W. “Self-Complexity and Affective Extremity: Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in One Cognitive Basket.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52, no. 4 (1987): 663–76.- Passmore, Jonathan, and Tracy Sinclair. “Gestalt Approach and Chairwork.” In _Becoming a Coach_, 133–38. Cham: Springer, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-531....- Phillips, Robert, and Truddi Chase. “Oprah Interviews a Woman with 92 Personalities.” The Oprah Winfrey Show. Aired 21 May 1990. King World.- Terbeck, Sylvia. Informal communication, 2022.- WebMD. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder).” Medically reviewed by Smitha Bhandari. Last modified 22 January 2022. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/d....
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    18 mins
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