The call challenged us to think of the world in the future and I instantly felt prompted to think of something that has been occupying my mind a lot lately: water resources. How will our world look like in the near future if accessible water is limited? I discussed it with Carolina and it made sense for both to look at this in our stories.
Virgília Ferrão
Das Wasser als lebensspendendes Element steht im Mittelpunkt des gemeinsamen Projekts der österreichischen Schriftstellerin Carolina Schutti und der mosambikanischen Autorin, Juristin, Umwelttechnikerin und Übersetzerin Virgília Ferrão. Wie ist diese Thematik aus europäischer, wie aus afrikanischer Perspektive zu fassen? Und wie könnte sich die Situation dank künstlicher Intelligenz in der Zukunft, im Jahr 2040, verändert, vielleicht sogar verbessert haben?
Natur und Künstliche Intelligenz
Natur spiele, wie Carolina Schutti im Gespräch erzählt, seit jeher in all ihren Büchern eine wichtige Rolle, ebenso wie auch in ihrem Leben. Und auch mit Künstlicher Intelligenz beschäftige sie sich vermehrt, seitdem der Zugang durch Chatgpt so einfach geworden sei. Darüber hinaus stelle die Ausschreibung ›Imagine Dignity‹, die diese beiden Themenfelder umkreist, für sie eine wunderbare Gelegenheit dar, »über die Grenzen Europas hinauszuschauen«. In Virgília Ferrão, zu der der Kontakt durch ihre mosambikanische Verlegerin Sandra Tamele zustande gekommen ist, habe sie eine ideale Partnerin für das Projekt gefunden.
Natur und neue Technologien sind beides Themenkomplexe, die Virgília Ferrão interessieren und denen sie sich schon in ihren bisherigen Romanen und Kurzgeschichten gewidmet hat bzw. mit denen sie sich aktuell gerade beschäftigt; so verfasst sie etwa momentan für eine Anthologie eine Story über eine Anwendung, die romantische Beziehungen für die Nutzer*innen beendet. Insbesondere liegt der Autorin, die in ihrem »Brotberuf« als Anwältin im Bereich Umwelt arbeitet, aber der Schutz der Natur am Herzen, auch in ihren literarischen Werken. Denn die Literatur eigne sich, so Virgília Ferrão, gut dafür, den Menschen die Augen für die gegenwärtigen Probleme unserer Gesellschaft zu öffnen:
I think that my profession definitely affects, in a positive way, I hope, my literary work. One of my novels (»Sina de Aruanda«, 2021) has an environmentalist as protagonist and addresses, among other, the need of protection of environment and preservation of cultural heritage. I also have short stories and one unpublished novel that can be considered climate fiction work, and all this makes me realize the role that literature has in translating to readers some of pressing issues on society.
Virgília Ferrão
In den im Rahmen des Projekts ›frau.wasser.leben‹ entstehenden Prosatexten verbinden Carolina Schutti und Virgília Ferrão auf unterschiedliche Weise die Schlüsselrolle des Wassers für das menschliche Leben mit künstlicher Intelligenz. Gemeinsam ist beiden Ansätzen eine positive Interpretation von KI, die nicht die Menschheit zerstört, sondern in der Arbeit für eine bessere Welt eingesetzt werden kann. Der damit verknüpfte utopische Gedanke hat in der literarischen Fiktion der beiden etwa zu einer gerechten Versorgung mit Wasser geführt; zumindest in Virgílias Text schlägt die Utopie jedoch aufgrund der Gier der Menschen in Dystopie um:
In the story, new technologies were able to solve many problems for access to clean water, not only to rural areas, or deserts regions, but in general, as water scarcity is a threat to the entire world. While technology solved this and provided great help, human’s greedy and unfair distribution of resources causes problem. When that happens, injustice will persist. I guess that is what I’m trying to convey in the story. So, I think the story is tending more to dystopia.
Virgília Ferrão
Heldinnen in Schluchten
Carolina Schutti und Virgília Ferrão war einerseits wichtig, ihre Texte intensiv miteinander zu verweben, und andererseits, eine dezidiert feministische Perspektive einzunehmen. Jeweils steht eine konkrete Frauenfigur im Zentrum, die sich in einer krisenhaften Situation befindet. In dem Text von Carolina Schutti handelt es sich dabei um eine Gewalterfahrung, denn, so die Autorin:
Ich bin realistisch genug, zu glauben, dass es 2040 immer noch Männer geben wird, die ihre Frauen schlagen, beispielsweise, immer noch Vergewaltigungen geben wird, auch wenn wir KI-gestützte Kameras haben. Das wird sich so schnell nicht lösen lassen und das spielt in meinem Text eine ganz große Rolle.
Carolina Schutti
Auch Virgília Ferrãos Protagonistin findet sich in einer existentiellen Situation wieder:
In my story, the heroine is fighting to survive from a fall, and she is thinking of the current context of her society, as well as her personal choices. Basically, people were optimistic about technology, but towards 2040 there is a massive change on society structure, and things don’t turn as great as they could.
Virgília Ferrão
Die »Berührung« der Texte entsteht nicht nur durch das Thema, sondern auch durch das vorab ausgemachte Setting der Schlucht bzw. des Wasserlochs, durch welches eine räumliche Verbindung gegeben ist. Beide Frauen befinden sich, wie Carolina Schutti erzählt, »in einem schluchtartigen Umfeld, umgeben von hohen Wänden, sie sehen nur einen kleinen Himmelsausschnitt, es ist feucht, wir haben Moos, wir haben Bäume.«
Darüber hinaus fand während des Schreibprozesses ein intensiver Austausch statt. Die beiden Schriftstellerinnen haben nach Möglichkeiten gesucht, Berührungspunkte für die Texte zu finden und zu diesem Zweck auch den jeweils eigenen Text auf ihre Kommunikationssprache Englisch übersetzt. Ohne diese intensive Kommunikation miteinander, in diesem Fall mit einer Autorin aus einem anderen Kontinent, hätte das Projekt für Carolina Schutti wenig Sinn gemacht. Auch Virgília Ferrão betont die bereichernde Bedeutung des Dialogs mit der Projektpartnerin:
Working with Carolina was a particular experience, enjoyable and easy, as our communication and sharing of strategies flowed naturally and our stories instantly had common aspects as we wanted. Through the colab, I could also have a glimpse of potential concerns towards technology on people’s mind, from European perspective, and I could share, as an African author, although from a pure fiction perspective, what are some concerns from our side. This was for sure a remarkable experience.
Virgília Ferrão
Das ganze Gespräch mit Carolina Schutti: https://www.literaturdialoge.at/folge-19-frau-wasser-leben/
Acht Fragen an Virgília Ferrão
NK: When Carolina asked you to work together with her, what did interest you about these topics and this setting in general?
VF: I was very happy to receive Carolina’s invite (thanks to the support of Sandra Tamele from publisher 3009), because I love the theme of artificial intelligence. Actually, I have a strong interest in literature projects that involve technology and progress, and I like to discuss/think of how this impacts my continent. I’m fond of speculative fiction, Afrofuturism, for instance, which somehow deals with progress, advance, past and future, from African perspective. The call challenged us to think of the world in the future and I instantly felt prompted to think of something that has been occupying my mind a lot lately: water resources. How will our world look like in the near future if accessible water is limited? I discussed it with Carolina and made sense for both to look at this in our stories.
NK: You have a Master’s Degree in Environment and also work as an Environment Attorney. How does this profession affect your literary work? Is it something that accompanies you throughout all your novels and stories?
VF: The connection is undeniably, and I think that my profession definitely affects, in a positive way, I hope, my literary work. One of my novels (»Sina de Aruanda«, 2021) has an environmentalist as protagonist and addresses, among other, the need of protection of environment and preservation of cultural heritage. I also have short stories and one unpublished novel that can be considered climate fiction work, and all this makes me realize the role that literature has in translating to readers some of pressing issues on society.
NK: Have you also occupied yourself with AI in your prior works?
VF: Yes. I have a couple of another short stories about AI, and how the use of it can impact on different ways on human lives and society. I’m currently organizing an anthology that will encompass short stories of several authors, and this anthology is focused on speculative fiction produced by African authors. In this project, I’m contributing with a story about an advanced application that sorts romantic relationships on behalf of humans. Its all about thinking of possibilities of humans’ (good) intentions and unforeseen results, as well as the creation of parallel realities, which tend to happen all around us, if we think for instance of what social media has been doing lately. I love to explore these themes in my literature work.
NK: Carolina told me that choosing a feminist approach was an important precondition for you two to do the project. Why was this important for you and can feminist aspects be found in all your works?
VF: Well, I guess it was something that occurred to both of us naturally, and for me it was really important to have a female protagonist to portray the role of woman, especially in what concerns to management and exploitation of natural resources, which is something that we are trying to protect, raise awareness, in my country, especially in the rural context. In general, though, if I think about it now, feminist aspects can definitely be found in some of my works, and that’s perhaps because of the need to somehow help woman have their voices heard. I like to think of female characters as both strong and fragile, just like we all can be, and show this in stories. Social expectations, gender roles, family issues, love, freedom, education, are all aspects I like to include in my literature fiction work. I was very honored to see my last novel wining last year (in second place), a Brazilian literature award, Bunkyo Prize, which theme that year was »woman as the leading character«. Books and stories are powerful tools to portray our voices, our concerns, even to fight for what we believe, and share our female universe.
NK: In Carolinas story the situation of women has improved in general by the year 2040, nevertheless her heroine has to deal with violence. What’s about your story, is your approach similar optimistic/realistic?
VF: Yes, and Carolina story is so amazing, I was mesmerized! The goal was to have connection between both stories, but my approach is a bit different. In my story, the heroine is fighting to survive from a fall, and she is thinking of the current context of her society, as well as her personal choices. Basically, people were optimistic about technology, but towards 2040 there is a massive change on society structure, and things don’t turn as great as they could.
NK: The project focuses on water as fundamental source of living. How do you combine water and new technologies in your story? Do you tend towards utopia or dystopia?
VF: In the story, new technologies were able to solve many problems for access to clean water, not only to rural areas, or deserts regions, but in general, as water scarcity is a threat to the entire world. While technology solved this and provided great help, human’s greedy and unfair distribution of resources causes problem. When that happens, injustice will persist. I guess that is what I’m trying to convey in the story. So, I think the story is tending more to dystopia.
NK: Have you done such a collaborative writing project before or was it your first time? / your first time with someone from Europe? Was it an interesting experience for you?
VF: Yes, I had the opportunity of doing collaborative writing projects before and its always an amazing, yet challenging process! Sometimes its hard to align on ideas and comply with deadlines, but eventually it’s a rewarding experience. To work with an author from Europe is the first time (except contribution to European anthologies, which I have done before). Working with Carolina was a particular experience, enjoyable and easy, as our communication and sharing of strategies flowed naturally and our stories instantly had common aspects as we wanted. Through the colab, I could also have a glimpse of potential concerns towards technology on people’s mind, from European perspective, and I could share, as an African author, although from a pure fiction perspective, what are some concerns from our side. This was for sure a remarkable experience.
NK: What do you enjoy about working with others in terms of literature?
VF: Learning from them! Its amazing, I always learn a lot when working with other authors, about their styles, different ways of approaching writing, and well, not only about technical aspects, but also about what’s important from them to bring to their stories. Their readings. Its always an enriching experience.