Deep Blue Rhapsody wins the 19th Lletra Prize
K Team
18 September 2019
“Deep Blue Rhapsody” has been selected as the winner of the 19th Lletra Prize for the best digital initiative to promote Catalan literature, organised by the Prudenci Bertrana Foundation and the Open University of Catalonia’s Lletre Project.
The project was presented at Kosmopolis 2019, the Amplified Literature Fest held by the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), within the context of the Stories Lab. It takes the form of an experiment in artificial intelligence applied to creating texts, where a neural network reads all the sonnets of Josep Pedrals and learns to write poetry.
The performance, which took place on 23 March at the CCCB, was a face-off between man and machine – Pedrals vs. The Bad Student – in a live poetry impro battle:
In the words of the Prize’s jury, “this production offers an innovative way to open up new fun and participative spaces dedicated to poetry performance. ‘Deep Blue Rhapsody’ expands literature through technology, broadening the poetic tradition on both the conceptual and social levels. We are impressed by the drive to explore and experiment of ‘Deep Blue Rhapsody’ and its creators, a transdisciplinary and plural team and an example of how real horizontal cooperation makes it possible to take risks.”
The original idea for the project came from Maria Farràs Drago and Eulàlia Guarro Rosell, and was co-created by Josep Pedrals, Taller Estampa and Carles Pedragosa, with the collaboration of Marisol López, Eugenio Tisselli and José Luis de Vicente.
The awards ceremony for the Girona Literary Prizes was held at the Auditori de Girona on the evening of Tuesday 17 September.
