David
Hartley

The Generative Author
~ Prima Vista International Literary Festival, Tartu, May 2026 ~

Tuesday, 12th May: I will be AI.

I will ask for inputs and commands from the audience. I will pass those inputs through the LLM of my brain. My LLM brain will consult the memories, experiences, and anxieties it has swirling around in its storage. I will generate a new short story, projecting it live in real time to the gathered humans. They will see my mistaks, my moments of failure, my moments of triumph. By the end, a new story will have emerged from the aether.

The Hall of Love, Aparaaditehas, Tartu, as part of the 'Opening the Black Box' takeover by Frances Gene-Rowe & Erica Masserano.

~ more here ~

About

Writer, Performer, Artist, Editor, Tutor

I write strange stories about strange things for strange people. I am preoccupied by animals, neurodiversity, folklore, and untapped possibilities of storytelling forms. I've performed my work within bus stations, ancient libraries, decaying edgelands, a Swedish train station, and among a forest of tattooed bodies. I have collaborated with spectral musicians, Estonian performance artists, and a plant orchestra. I'm always interested in creative partnerships. Get in touch with me below.

~ PhD Creative Writing, University of Manchester

~ Fauna (Fly on the Wall Press) - short story collection

~ Incorcisms (Arachne Press) - short(er) story collection

~ Writer-in-Residence: Tartu, Estonia, 2024: 'The Forest of Ink & Skin'

~ Lead artist: 'The Embassy of Utopia', Festival of Libraries 2024 & 2025

~ Workshop Tutor for 'Beyond the Spectrum' with Writing East Midlands

~ Editor: Obscura: New Uncanny Tales (Comma Press)

~ Former lecturer in Creative Writing, The University of Manchester

Picture: Nic Chapman