Alexia Achilleos

ΑΠΟαποικιοΠΟΙΗΣΗ (APOapikioPIISI), a word-play between the Greek words “decolonisation” (αποαποικιοποίηση) and “poetry” (ποίηση), is an artistic investigation on the topics of colonialism/decolonisation in Cyprus, in both historical and digital context. It is concerned with the compilation of a community-created dataset of written Cypriot Greek (CyGr), and the subsequent publication of a poetry collection, through the collaboration of 9 writers with a custom-trained Natural Language Processing (NLP) AI model.

An important challenge was that CyGr is a non-standard language variety with no officially codified writing system and with limited language resources; to reduce “noise” in our data, we had to homogenise the orthography of the created corpus. Another challenge was the ethical dilemma of whether or not to allow open access to the corpus of a language variety that is globally spoken by a small population (therefore, not profitable) and that has been stigmatised by hegemonic narratives. 

The project aims to contribute to the de-stigmatisation of CyGr and the spreading of a more systematic homogeneous way of spelling. It also aims to provide technological agency to an island on the peripheries of the global AI infrastructure, where the legacies of colonialism are still evident. While Cyprus is currently at the early stages of adopting AI technologies, ΑΠΟαποικιοΠΟΙΗΣΗ attempts to sow the first seeds towards a framework of what a decolonised Cypriot AI could look like from a local perspective, and open a dialogue about the role and influence of AI in our lives. It also provides an opportunity for CyGr speakers to interact with technology in the language variety they use in their daily lives.

A production of Ypogeia Skini NGO – Synergeio Cultural Space, Limassol, Cyprus

Linguist: Dr. Spyros Armostis

Participating authors:

Rania Iakovou, Marios Agathokleous, Marios Kostantinou, Artemis Evagorou, Konstantina Ioannou, Nayia T. Karakosta, Michalis Vrionidis, Antonis Georgiou, Sonia Christofi.

Volunteers:

Konstantina Achilleos, Maria A. Ioannou.

The project is funded by the Cultural Services of Cyprus