There is a new opportunity offered by the unoriginality of AI-authored texts: by reading between human-authored originals and AI written versions we can find a new kind of semiotic depth, not apparent in the human version alone. The nature of human writing is brought to light by the presence of a parallel authorship, and we can occupy a new kind of scholarly position as a result.

A tool for generating 'texts that could be otherwise' is one of the esoteric methods we might (and in fact do) find in a post-digital library. Others include: machines that invent new words by glitching old concept-silos; impossible special collections that occupy virtual space; auto-theory written on bedsheets; reading groups that deliberately mishear texts read aloud. In this seminar, a mix of presentation and discussion, we will explore parallel texts and libraries, rooms and books that could be otherwise, as esoteric scholarly method. The idea is to suggest that, rather than purely "speculative" propositions, new artistic experiments in writing and archives can be used to reveal latent aspects of language and study in the present day.