agAInst is a vital and impassioned broadside against artificial intelligence, the latest creative tour de force by writer Michael John Gerard Higgins and published by The Artel Press (Liverpool, UK) in Spring 2026.
agAInst is a performance piece in free verse exploiting the power of the human imagination to eviscerate the false narrative of AI as a creative tool.
Higgins’ power as wordsmith is unleashed to a quite remarkable extent, structured around an ostinato riff of the AI acronym and – cleverly interleaved within – its raging manifesto against the machine.
He writes:
it cAnnot snIff out a truth – only recycle one’
The sheer force of the language however never detracts from its poetry:
Invoke the apotropAIc to Avert thIs appAllIng ApotheosIs!’
This new title will be of interest to anyone with an interest in performance art or authentic experimental texts. It promises to be an important addition to a growing canon of works from artists pushing back against AI, copyright infringement and the slow annihilation of the imagination.
Higgins presciently leaves us to ponder:
CAn we conceIve of the extent of the apArtheId to come?’
Michael John Gerard Higgins was born on the Wirral in 1971 and lives in York. He studied Music at the University of East Anglia and now teaches as a Steiner Waldorf educator. As a composer he has published over 200 works with Universal Edition. This is his seventh title with The Artel Press.
agAInst
ISBN 9781739900380
18pp A4 paperback
RRP £8
#Philosophy
Publication date 03.04.26
