Eliza Ludd & the Fog

After the Cloud, came the Fog. In the advent of a new computational metaphor, Eliza Ludd—the only non-male pseudonym deployed within the 19th century Luddite revolts—is re-actioned within a contemporary mythology.

A trailer was made to introduce a contextualising lecture-performance, held on the anniversary of Eliza Ludd’s 1813 letter marked ‘A’. The film is scored by the sound piece Incantation by Fog, a machinic revision of Russian Futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov’s Incantation by Laughter (1912). Neologisms of the word fog caricature Big Data’s relentless jargoning in revival of Eliza’s voice.

The research project was developed into workshop formats, delivered in the context Het Nieuwe Instituut’s NEUHAUS curriculum and the Summer Academy of Hackers & Designers. Participants were invited character build and, in turn, collectively narrate the so-called ‘New Dark Age’ via the excavation of a lost fiction.


Read: Eliza Ludd & the Fog, handout (PDF)
Read: A brief and incomplete history of Eliza Ludd, 1812–