The poet as experiencer – poetic consciousness and nonhuman intelligence

In this talk, I present my recent monograph, The Poet as Experiencer: Wallace Stevens and Nonhuman Intelligence (Punctum Books, 2025) which proposes modernist poet Wallace Stevens as a perceiver of nonhuman intelligence (NHI). Drawing from my research journey—spanning continental philosophy, literary theory, and interdisciplinary teaching—this work frames poetic consciousness as a unique epistemology, one that engages intelligences beyond human cognition through metaphor, ambiguity, and relationality.

Stevens’ prose and verse, particularly his concept of “the intelligence,” challenges anthropocentric logic, offering a poetic theōria that precedes technoscientific rationalism. By integrating phenomenology, design theory, and speculative inquiry, I explore how poetic awareness can inform human-machine interfaces, AI ethics, and post-anthropocentric design. This talk invites scholars, designers, and technologists to consider poetry’s role in navigating the incommensurable—be it machine, alien, or other—reimagining how we think, feel, and connect in a more-than-human world.

Dr Adam Staley Groves is a theorist, and artist exploring poetics, epistemology, and nonhuman intelligence. He holds doctorates in Philosophy and Modern Thought, and has taught in Singapore for over a decade. His recent monograph, The Poet as Experiencer: Wallace Stevens and Nonhuman Intelligence (Punctum Books, 2025) proposes poetic consciousness as a speculative interface for engaging intelligences beyond human cognition. Integrating literary theory, design thinking, and AI ethics, Adam’s research invites new frameworks for awareness, interface design, and knowledge creation in more-than-human futures.