Software Art and why you don't know what it is. by Archie Sinclair

8/6/2019 Software Art and why you don't know what it is. by Archie Sinclair

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If(){ 1This paper will explore the creative medium that is code, and its place within the art

world, critically and historically; locating itself previously within conceptual and

instructional art and more recently amongst the digital arts. In fifty years it has

developed into one of the most exciting and dynamic art form in existence today and

yet most people still dont know what is.

When Code is used as a technical term it refers to a very specific definition of the

word, it refers to code as a method of describing a programming language in an all-

encompassing terminology that is easy to understand. When most people look at code

however it doesnt look like a normal language it looks like computer-jargon reserved

only for the technical elite. Almost all people have seen some code at some point in

their life most likely HTML2 but it could also have been when a computer they were

using encountered an error in theses cases the computer tries to tell you what is wrong

using a console or log. To the majority of people this message would have been

unreadable nonsense but to an increasing number of more computer literate people

these messages make perfect sense and reading them is no harder than reading a

newspaper. There are literally hundreds of programming languages the most popular

are currently Javaand variants of C including C# and C++3. All languages have

slightly different uses and advantages over other languages. However the reason that

we use any of them is the same; to issue instruction to a computer. Over the past fifty

1 All the chapter headings within this essay are real coding phrases used to begin classes in written code

the curly brackets are used to define the beginning and end of these classes.2 The code with which websites are constructed.3http://www.devtopics.com/most-popular-programming-languages/ - Accessed on 12 October 2010


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years we have seen the emergence of Graphical User Interfaces or GUIs4 and the

invention of the mouse. The development of computers towards theses methods of

operation is no bad thing. It has allowed computers to become universally available in

business, education and most importantly in the home. However, this is at the loss of a

more intellectual computer literacy, which we can only now begin to see, creeping back

into society, in particular within the arts. Most people are unaware of the hidden

capabilities inside even the most basic of personal computers, in order to unlock this

however you need to be able to speak a language the computer understands, this is

Code.

Since the birth of the Internet our collective knowledge has grown exponentially,

allowing us to find the answer to any question imaginable online and if we couldnt find

it then the growth of online forums, has enabled us to ask the world and receive

countless answers in a matter of hours. This has opened everything up, there is no

longer a need to trawl through expensive books in the hope that the solution will

become apparent. Since the rise of MySpace5 and Tumblr6 people have had a

reason to learn HTML and CSS7 faced with a mundane personal page the option was

there to try and make your page, more exciting, interesting and dynamic than anyone

elses, especially as a musician the need to hold peoples attention was essential. This has

led to a generation of people where a huge percentage of them are capable of basic

html editing.

4 A GUI is a Human-Computer interface that uses icons folders, windows & menus that are usuallymanipulated by a mouse; it prevents the need for a user to have a knowledge of code to operate it.5

Social networking site that allows manual editing of HTML.6 Online Blogging site that allows manual editing of HTML.7 Programming languages used to design websites.


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Ben Fry and Casey Reas released the Processing Language8 ten years ago now, its

distribution as a free and accessible programming language opened up the possibilities

of producing software art to a whole new group of artists and creatives that had never

even considered that as an option previously. Providing an easy to use interface and a

simplified form of Java that was developed specifically for people interested in creating

generative visual arts. Arduino9 was released a few years later in 2005, this then

opened up a whole new realm to people working with code, it provided and free and

easily available alternative to the PIC microcontroller10 system that was expensive and

difficult to use unless you were well versed in electronic engineering and programming.

Suddenly people could create installations that were aware of their surroundings and

could respond appropriately not just on screen but also in the physical world. This was

a massive step in the revival of Code as an artistic medium.

This paper aims to bridge a gap between the works of Coders11 from the last fifty years

and the artists and artworks that have coexisted during this time, but rarely crossed

paths. The likes of Sol Lewitt, John Cage and Allan Kaprow, who have gained critical

acclaim and are infamous within the art world. Producing work that is incredibly close to

their software artist contemporaries, but created on the whole without the use of a

computer. A lot of their work is in essence still algorithmic12 this is one of the key points

this paper will address. The question then is why the aforementioned artists are known

worldwide and why until now, Software Art13 has been largely ignored within critical

art theory. The work of Myron Krueger for example is respected and admired by a

8 A Programming Language released in 2001 and developed at MIT.9 An open source electronic prototyping platform, with a similar interface to Processing (see 8).10 A form of microcontroller manufactured by Microchip Technology, they are reprogrammable chipsused for electronic products and prototyping.11 A term used to describe people who work with code and are comprehensive in one or more software

languages. In this case specifically artists working with Code.12 A finite sequence of well defined steps that provide a method for completing a certain task.13 Art created using Code as the platform for creation.


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great number of people working with software however you will not find his work

alongside more formal artists in the multitude of art history books that have been

written about art during the 60s and 70s. Can this be put down to a single reason; was

the work not as creatively exciting as the work of his contemporaries? Was it not

considered art due to the method of presentation? Or did it just never attempt to

enter the world of contemporary art and therefore, remained within the world of

computing and technology? I will also address the issues surrounding the form and

presentation of this sort of work; can the final product or indeed the process stand

alone as a comprehensive piece of work? Or as is implied in the essay The Aesthetics of

Generative Code14 is it impossible to succeed without displaying both the methods of

production and the final outcome.

}

void setup(1,0){In the 1960s when software art was established, all software artists were coders, it

was impossible not to be, as the computers at the time had no graphical interface, and

therefore without the appropriate knowledge of code it would have been impossible to

make the computer do anything let alone generate interesting and detailed artworks.

The coders that are considered the first software artists included people like Michael

Noll and the Japanese Computer Technique group who were firm believers that the

code was of the upmost importance creatively. As Michael Noll famously said The true

14 The Aesthetics of Generative Code, (2001),Geoff Cox, BA, MA (RCA), Alex McLean, BSc, Adrian

Ward, BSc, http://www.generative.net/papers/aesthetics/ - Accessed on 10 September 2010


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largely inaccessible media. However Knowlton did create a series of 8 films using Beflix

in collaboration with filmmaker Stan Vanderbeek entitled Poemfield. These films were

abstract techno-structuralist works that used mainly computer graphics and text to

create abstract cinematic experiences. These films were first exhibited in The Machine:

as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age16 and more recently in the Past-Potential-

Futures17 event at Tate Modern.

The program ART1 was developed by Katherine Nash and Richard Williams and

released in 1970 it was the first computer program designed as a tool for artists

interested in creating art with computers without using code. It used cards with holes

punched in them, which were then inserted in to the computer. This enabled users to

draw on screen without writing code, although it was never very successful, it was the

start of programs developed specifically for artists and designers who wanted to use

computers without learning a complex programming language. This now the primary

way artists interact with them, using programs like Maya18 or those contained within the

Adobe Master Collection19. Art created using these programs is referred to as soft

digital art, and is not considered software art which is a term reserved for work that

has been created by either an artist who writes code or an artist working in close

collaboration with a programmer such as the works produced by Ken Knowlton and

Stan Vanderbeek.

16 Exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 25 November 1968 9 February 196917 Film Screening at Tate Modern, London, 25 May 2008.18

A 3d animation software developed by Autodesk.19 A collection, of Graphic design, photo editing, video production and web development applicationsdeveloped by Adobe.


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Myron Krueger20 is the creator of VIDEOPLACE(1969)21 a fully immersive installation,

which was one of the first examples of Augmented reality22. Developed over a period

of several years the installation used a number of cameras and projectors to create an

on screen environment that was the product of 2 people in separate rooms. Other

elements were then added to the screen environment, which either of the participants

could interact with simultaneously.

Krueger actually coined the term Artificial Reality in 1973 and is still considered one of

the great pioneers of software art. Although at the time he was rejected by the art

world, and his work was not considered art until many years later, this was maybe

down to the fact that no art department, had a computer at their disposal so the use of

computers within the arts was still incredibly limited. This caused computer-scientist

artists like Krueger to be all but ignored by the visual arts until much later. Even though

his work with technology has been appreciated by the world of computer science

earning him the title The father of Virtual-Reality23 they rejected his views on

20 American born computer scientist & artist, who was one of the first to develop interactiveenviorments.21http://www.jtnimoy.net/itp/newmediahistory/videoplace/ Accessed on :26th November 2010.22

A term for a live view of a physical reality which is augmented by the sensory input of a computer, suchas 3d models, images, text or sound.23 New Media Reader, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Montfort, (2003), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, p377

fig.2 Myron Krueger; Videoplace (1969) http://www.flong.com/texts/essays/essay_pose/


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aesthetics, due his focus more on the creative than the scientific in his work. He was

interested in how interaction could become an artistic method and the work would not

be the installation but the interactions and experiences of the people who visited it. In

his words Response is the medium!19

There is another argument for the lack of attention from the visual arts that is raised by

Noah Wardrip-Fruin in his book New Media Reader19. This was that it was due to

Kruegers interest in experience and response instead of producing saleable art objects

that casued him to be ignored. Although at the same time as Kruegers Videoplace

was created, the work of Allan Kaprow and the Fluxists24 had gained mass media

attention and was incredibly successful. Kaprows focus was on similar issues to those of

Kruegers, namely that of experience over object. The only visible difference is that

Krueger had been working as a computer scientist previously whereas Kaprow was a

fairly well known painter who had studied art at New York University.

In 1970 Jack Burnhams renowned Software: information technology: its new meaning

for art25 exhibition took place at the Jewish museum in New York. Burnham was at the

time one of the leading writers for New Yorks Art Forum Magazine. It was the only

major show he curated in his career and joined a few other exhibitions, which focused

on technology and the arts. Burnhams particular focus was the aesthetic applications

of technological apparatus using software as a metaphor for art. In a paper he wrote

the previous year entitled The Aesthetics of Intelligent Systems."26 He stated the

challenge with using new technologies within art was discovering a program's memory,

interactive ability, and logic functions," He was especially interested in how "a dialogue

24

A famous international network of artists, and anti-art movement.25 Jewish Museum, New York, September 16th November 8th 1970.26www.volny.cz/horvitz/burnham/aesth-sys.pdf - Accessed on 10th October 2010


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evolves between the participants - the computer program and the human subject - so

that both move beyond their original state." 27

The exhibition was the first to have an interactive exhibition catalogue; designed by Ted

Nelson28 and aptly named labyrinth it allowed people to browse through documents

relating to the exhibition and the artists featured in it. It did this using the earliest form

of Hypertext 29 this allowed, users of the catalogue to read way beyond the basic

catalogue, accessing documents relating to specific artists that were featured in the

exhibition and even some that were not. It could be described as an simplified form of

intranet, with links to other relevant pages within the text, the catalogue could be read

through as with any other but there was also the option to divert down different lines

of enquiry whilst reading it. The exhibition was incredibly influential despite being a huge

disaster financially (so much so that the director of the museum Karl Katz was formally

dismissed when the exhibition closed.) it succeeded in providing a new approach to

technology and illustrated Burnhams theories relating to System Aesthetics30.

John Maeda31 gives a personal account of the problems he faced at school trying to use

computers32, indicating that his earliest experience of this was at school where the act

of using a computer involved simply sitting passively in front of it staring at a small green

blinking rectangle. Anything you might type into the computer would be evaluated by

the computer with great insignificance. SYNTAX ERROR, it would retort.32 He

27 The Aesthetics of Intelligent Systems Jack Burnham (1969), in On the Future of Art, (1970) NewYork: Viking Press, p.11928 American sociologist, writer and creator of hypertext.29 Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or various other electronic devices that contains hyperlinks

to other documents, or parts of the same document. The word was coined by Nelson in 1963.30 A study of the interactions and relationships between objects as well as the objects themselves31

Infamous Japanese-American Computer Scientist artist and Graphic designer.32 The infinite Loop John Maeda (2001) Post Digital, in Ars Electronica 2003 Code: The Language OfOur Time; Christine Schopf, Gerfried Stocker, (2003) Hatje Cantz. Ostfildern. P.168


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continues to say that if it werent for his wealthy friend that owned a similar machine he

would never had managed to get anything out of it but instead he learned that by

typing the simple phrase PRINT MAEDA32 he could get the computer to display his

name, and with a few extra lines could get the computer to display his name in an

infinite loop. It is possible to argue that these early machines, whilst not capable of a

fraction of the functions of even the smallest modern machine, had greater potential

than the ones we use now, where we are constantly involved in an infinite loop of

yes-no-cancel queries32. This loop which most people who use a computer regularly

are familiar with, is something that we accept everyday without question. Maeda is a

serious opponent of this loop and this is clear in the work he produces.

Two examples of his works that although useless in their function, make a statement

and are in themselves a rebellion against computers and the programs that we are

forced to rely on, daily. The first is Misspell (2007)33, a program written by Maeda that

can be accessed by anyone online. The program forces spelling mistakes into a piece of

text, this is contrary to pretty much every other writing program we use, which will

either, auto correct our mistakes or draw red lines underneath them to direct our

attention back to our errors. The second work is the slightly older Illustrandom

(1993) 3 a program based on Adobes well known Illustrator drawing program,

Illustrandom, had the same basic functions as Illustrator. However, Maeda inserted an

extra function, any number of points can be selected to undergo a randomization

process, the extent of this can be controlled by the dial that can be seen on the right of

the screen. This dial causes the points to wiggle with increasing ferocity this defiance of

the static and highlighting of the capabilities of computers beyond the world of print,

33http://www.maedastudio.com/index.php - Accessed on 12th December 2010


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was to earn him the title of wacko34 in 1993. However it is now clear he was part of

a generation of forward thinkers that have pushed technology in the last twenty years.

}

void draw(2,0){Whilst all this was happening in 1960s America, a different and in comparison very well

known group of artists were making seemingly very different work. Sol LeWitt was

creating beautiful and complex wall drawings, John Cage was established as the one of

the most important experimental composers of a generation and Allan Kaprow was

now well recognized as the creator of The Happenings and was continuing to push

the Fluxus movement. LeWitts wall drawings are a good example of algorithmic

work, take the following for example:

PROPOSAL FOR WALL DRAWING, INFORMATION SHOWWithin four adjacent squares,

each 4 by 4,

Four draughtsmen will be employed

at $4.00/hour

for four hours a day

and for four days to draw straight lines

34http://www.maedastudio.com/index.php - Accessed on 12th December 2010

fig.3 John Maeda; Illustrandom (1993) http://www.maedastudio.com/index.phpt


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4 inches long

using 4 different colored pencils;

9H black, red, yellow and blue.

Each draughtsman will use the same colour throughout

the four day period,working on a different square each day.35

The instructions for this work are so specific and methodically laid out that there is little

or no room for error, but at the same time it is completely open and no one could

ever know exactly how the work would look. He could have made it more specific by

adding extra parameters if hed wanted a greater control of the outcome. He also

created other less specific works including wall drawing #118: Fifty randomly placed

points all connected by straight lines. 36 Both of these although they differ slightly in the

explicitness of their instruction, are essential founded on algorithms. As were all of

LeWitts wall drawings, in doing this he managed to reconfigure the way we think about

art as a tangible object. As Ward, McLean & Cox explain in their essay The Aesthetics

of Generative code37:

Digital artwork is not valued in the same way. It can be copied infinitely and there is

therefore a corresponding crisis of value. It has been argued that under these

conditions of the dematerialised artwork, it is process that becomes valued. In this

way, the process of creation and creativity is valued in place of authenticity,

undermining conventional notions of authorship.37

In the same way LeWitts wall drawings, are the perfect example in that they, could be

bought as simply a set of instructions and then replicated numerous times.

35 Form and Code, in design art and architecture (2010), Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, LUST,Princeton Architectural Press36 The Writing on the Walls: Sol LeWitt at Dia:Beacon (2006), Danielle O'Steenvia: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/21215/the-writing-on-the-walls-sol-LeWitt-at-diabeacon/

- Accessed on 17 October 201037 The Aesthetics of Generative Code, (2001),Geoff Cox, BA, MA (RCA), Alex McLean, BSc, AdrianWard, BSc, http://www.generative.net/papers/aesthetics/ Accessed on 10 September 2010


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Florian Cramer argues that LeWitts work belongs to a concept art that rather should

be called a concept notation art or blueprint art; an art whose material is not graphics

and objects, but which was instead realized in the form of a score.38 It is this idea of

LeWitts work taking the form of a concept notation instead of purely a concept, that I

would like to investigate more thoroughly. If we consider the work of LeWitt as a

notation of a concept, then it becomes more obvious that there is a direct relationship

between his work and the work of software artists His work could even be considered

software, in that it takes the form of original algorithms, it is simply the language used

that separates it from a computer program. To illustrate this I have written the following

piece of code that when executed will produce a version of Wall Drawing #97. The

picture that follows it is the resultant drawing that was generated within a second and

will be completely different each time it is regenerated. This program could even be

modified to control a pen plotter39 which could draw the resultant output on a wall

therefore fulfilling the intended form of Lewitts drawings, perhaps more perfectly than a

draughtsman ever could.

38 Concepts, Notations, Software, Art (2002) Florian Cramer,http://www.netzliteratur.net/cramer/concepts_notations_software_art.html - Accessed on 17 September201039

A printing device widely used especially within the design industry, before the invention of moremodern inkjet or laser printers, the device uses a pen that can move over 2 axis in order to perfectlyreplicate vector graphics.

Fig.4 Archie Sinclair; #97 (2010), Processing Code


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John Cages Roaratorio (1979)40 appears to the listener to be a collection of sound

recordings from different cities world wide, cut together with Irish folk music and a

collage of spoken word based on Finnegans Wake by James Joyce edited together

using standard sound editing equipment. However Roaratorio is actually an algorithmic

piece, it uses a complex system of mesostychs41 (using the name James Joyce) to extract

from the novel the words that would become the spoken section of the play. Whilst

the sound recordings and music were created using a computer at the IRCAM Studios

in Paris, this computer generated a random score using the recordings, which was then

layered underneath the spoken word. Cage released a book/cd set of the recording and

accompanying notes Within the book there are reprints of the text that Cage read, as

well as interviews and information about the original music and cities where the sound

was recorded. There was only one page given to the generated score, and there is not

a single mention of the program that created it. For this reason Cages Roaratorio is

40 John Cage Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake (1979) Premiered on Klaus Schning show

on West German Radio October 22nd

08.15pm.41 A technique developed by Jackson Mac Low and used exstensively by John Cage is a method ofselecting words from a pre-existing text, by using a phrase that intersects vertically through the text.

Fig.5 Archie Sinclair; #97 (2010), Generated Output.


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not considered software art, although there is really no difference in its production, only

in its post-production presentation.

This is not an uncommon theme in art, a lot of the time works that use software or a

computer; try their best to hide it. Cages work in general is seemingly very algorithmic,

and also relies heavily on elements of randomness allowing natural phenomenon to

dictate the structure for a piece of music For example in his 1961 piece Atlas

Eclipticalis42 he place blank score paper on top of astrological charts, and then added

the notes according to the stars seen through the paper.

The third artist I would like to focus on in this chapter is Allan Kaprow, who coined the

term Happenings as a word to describe a piece of art that takes the form of a

performance, situation or event. They started in New York, the first being Kaprows 18

Happenings in 6 Parts (1959) from which the term was taken. These first happenings

were strictly orchestrated and rehearsed unlike his later happenings, and still retained a

feeling of spontaneity. Due to their unusual settings, and the nature of them, which was

far removed from any familiar theatre of the time. It was one of Kaprows main aims to:

Attempt to enlarge the realm of art beyond gallery display and museum situations,

many of the happenings have been performed in such untraditional settings as lofts,

stores, gymnasiums and parking lots.43

This format was incredibly successful and Kaprow continued to work in this way

throughout the 60s, however it is not only this method of participatory theatre that is

of interest now but the format in which these works have been documented and the

42

Atlas Eclipticalis, John Cage, Premiered on 3 August 1961, Thetre La Comedie Canadienne, Montreal.

43http://www.ubu.com/historical/kaprow/index.html - Accessed on 3 November 2010


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way in which these would have been used. Kaprows documentation of happenings was

in the form of a long and strictly structured set of instructions. For this reason we can

look at the work of Kaprow using similar criteria to those by which we have assessed

Cage and LeWitt, and draw a set of comparisons between this work and the work of

software artists from then until now. Below is the set of instructions for one of

Kaprows Happenings entitled Birds (1964):

Birds(For participants only. Commissioned by the University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, performedFebruary 16, 1964.)

Sett ing:A patch of woods near a lake on the campus. A road leading to a small wooden bridge over adry brook filled with rocks. On the bridge, a patio table loaded with packages of cheap whitebread and strawberry jam, a bright beach umbrella opened over this. Women in trees arewidely separated and some can only hear each other. Below each woman is a mass of oldfurniture hung on ropes.

Events :1.Tree women swing hanging furniture,

and bang trees with sticks.Wall men build wall of rocks on edge of bridge.Bread man hawks bread and jam,Bread! Bread! Bread!, etc.,blows toy pipe whistle.

2.Bread man silent.Wall workers go to tree women, taunt them,bang with sticks and rocks on trees.Tree women drop furniture.

3.Wall workers carry furniture to pileunder edge of bridge.Tree women blow police whistles.Wall workers bomb furniture with rocks from wall.Bread man resumes hawking.

4.Wall workers leave quietly one by one when finished.Bread man continues hawking.Tree women silent after first wall worker leaves.

5.Bread man slowly bombs rubble with bits of bread,


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leaves when finished.Tree women rhythmically yell in unison Yah! Yah!Yah!, like crows, as Bread man does this, and when heleaves they are silent.

}

void redraw(3,0){I would like to start this chapter with a definition of software art from the read_me 1.2

festival (2002)44: Art based on code as formal instructions, or art offering a cultural

reflection of software.45

It is here we can see that the artists working with instructions

or algorithms, could very easily be considered software artists, it is only the lack of a

computer, which distances them from their software artists contemporaries. Florian

Cramer makes a point in his essay Concepts, Notations, Software, Art.46 Describing

how we make art, there are three steps that follow a logical progression in the

production of art they are; Concept, Concept Notation and Execution. He argues

that both conceptual art and code art, share an ability to combine the second and third

steps of this process:

Concept art as an art of which the material is concepts, as the material of for ex.music is sound (Henry Flynts definition from 1961 and software art as an artwhose material is formal instruction code seem to have at least two things incommon:(1) the collapsing of concept notation and execution into one piece;(2) the use of language; instructions in software art, concepts in concept art. Flynt

observes: Since concepts are closely bound up with language, concept art is a kindof art of which the material is language.47

44 read_me festival is an infamous digital and software art festival.45 Public CulturalProduction Art(software){, Christane Paul in Ars Electronica 2003 Code: TheLanguage Of Our Time; Christine Schopf, Gerfried Stocker, (2003) Hatje Cantz. Ostfildern. P.12946 Concepts, Notations, Software, Art (2002) Florian Cramer,http://www.netzliteratur.net/cramer/concepts_notations_software_art.html - Accessed on 17 September201047

Concepts, Notations, Software, Art (2002) Florian Cramer,http://www.netzliteratur.net/cramer/concepts_notations_software_art.html - Accessed on 17 September2010


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This last statement from Henry Flynt48 and its reference to language is important

because it is in literature that we can find many of the pre-computer examples of

software art. If we look at Dadaist49 poets of the early 20th century, Hugo Ball and

Emmy Hennings for example, we begin to see examples of algorithmic processes that

were used to generate poetry. The popular Cut-up technique for instance, taking a

section from a newspaper or book, and cutting words and sentences out that were

later rearranged either at random or through an algorithmic process of selection new

paragraphs, stories and poetry could be constructed. William Burroughs and other beat

poets later adopted this process in the 50s, most famously in Burroughs Nova

Trilogy50 which was created

using the Cut-up Technique.

This method of production can

be easily replicated using

software, and you can now find

Dadaist poetry generators

online that do just that.51

In 2005 alongside the Dutch

sound poet and virtuoso vocalist Jaap Blonk, Golin Levin52 created a piece called

Ursonography based on Kurt Schwitters infamous sound poem Ursonate53 (1922-

48 Henry Flynt (1940), is a avant garde musician and philisopher, he often collaborated with La MonteYoung and other Fluxist Musicians, however he distanced himself from the Fluxist movement and theirbeliefs.49 Dada; early 2oth century art movement that originated in Zurich, one of the first anti-art movements, itincluded such infamous artists as Marcel Duchamp and Hans Richter.50 The Nova Trilogy, William S. Burroughs, 1961-196451http://www.nullibicity.com/dadapoem.php http://www.poemofquotes.com/tools/dada.php - Accessed

on 17 November 201052 Golan Levin (1972) contemporary software artist, composer and performance artist.53http://www.costis.org/x/schwitters/ursonate.htm - Accessed on 27 October 2010.

Fig.6 Golan Levin, Jaap Blonk; Ursonography (2005)http://www.flong.com/projects/ursonography/


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32). Levin created a piece of software that was aware of the original text, and through

intelligent speech-recognition software was able to provide live and kinetic subtitles to

the poem. So as Blonk recited Ursonate, which is one of the things he is famous for and

claims to have done it over a thousand times, his face appeared on a large screen

behind him with the subtitles appearing in real-time all around him on screen, the work

was performed at the ARS Electronica Festival 2005.

We can see other instances of code relating back to literary references in the form of

Perl poetry, Perl is a programming language that was developed in the late 80s and

has become and incredibly popular language, Perl poetry is the use of Perl to re-write

poems or write original works but using the Perl language. A particularly famous Perl

poem is Eric Andreycheks Jaberwocky a version of Lewis Carrols famous nonsense

verse ported into the Perl language:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$brillig and $toves{slithy};for $gyre ( @wabe ) {} for $gimble ( @wabe ) {}map { s/^.*$/mimsy/g } @borogovesand $mome{raths} = outgrabe;

if(my $son = fork) { warn "Beware the Jabberwock!";jaws && bite, claws && catch;warn "Beware the Jubjub bird" and $shun,$Bandersnatch{frumious} == 1; }else{

$_{hand} = \$sword{vorpal};seek FOE, $manxome, (4_294_967_296 * time);sleep ($tree{Tumtum} = $_);while (study) { stand }

while (study($uffish)) { $_{stand} == 1; }unless ($Jabberwock = fork) { $Jabberwock{eyes} = flame,$Jabberwock{movement} = wiffle, $Jabberwock{location} = $wood{tulgey}+;while ($coming=1) { burble }}

(1, 2), (1, 2) and through and through;$sword{vorpal}{blade} = snicker-snack;


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(kill 9, $Jabberwock), $head = (chop $Jabberwock);sub{ return $_, $head }; }

tell $son, "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?"."Come to my arms, my beamish boy! ".

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! ",$_{joy} = chortle if $son;

$brillig and $toves{slithy};for $gyre ( @wabe ) {} for $gimble ( @wabe ) {}map { s/^.*$/mimsy/g } @borogovesand $mome{raths} = outgrabe; 54

This particular poem is a good example in that, as well as remaining true to the Perl

Language in its perfect Syntax, but it is also a working piece of code and if executed it

will print on screen Beware the Jaberwock! and Beware the Jubjub Bird. This poem

was also been ported in to ActionScript55 (another Programming language) later as a

way of updating the older Perl version. There are also a lot of much less inspiring Perl

poems, and as a whole the Perl poetry movement has never really had any success as

on the whole the only people that take pleasure from reading them are programmers

who can understand Perl, and appreciate the complexity of the structure. This has been

an issue with a lot of software art, especially when it has been more focussed on the

programming than the aesthetics of the outcome. In The Aesthetics of Generative

Code56 the following is stated in reference to the production of software or generative

art:

Generative art needs to acknowledge the conditions of its own making - its poesis(from the Greek poiesis, poetic art or creativity from poiein - to make). This needs to

be made transparent in the spirit of open process, and open source.56

This opinion that in order for a piece of software art to reach its full potential it must be

able to acknowledge the methods of its creation. This is the problem with a lot of the

54http://www.runme.org/feature/read/+londonpl/+34/ - Accessed on 10 October 201055 Object oriented programming language developed by Adobe.56

The Aesthetics of Generative Code, (2001),Geoff Cox, BA, MA (RCA), Alex McLean, BSc, AdrianWard, BSc, http://www.generative.net/papers/aesthetics/ Accessed on 10 September 2010


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conceptual artist that were discussed previously, although Lewitts wall drawings are

created via a strict set of instructions or algorithms, when the work is displayed, there is

no reference to the method of creation, the works are simply titled Wall Drawing No.

with the appropriate number. Although it cant be denied the output is aesthetically

pleasing despite this lack of acknowledgement, once the viewer is aware of its method

of production there is instantly another element to the work which encourages the

viewer to consider further the production of the work and therefore provides a more

stimulating experience. The same methodology can be applied to the work of Golan

Levin, when the piece Ursonography is performed, although the majority of the work

is done already by the program he has written earlier specifically designed to present

the subtitles in time with Jaap Blonks performance of the piece, Levin is still present at

the performance sitting behind a monitor and computer that is controlling the subtitles.

He has placed himself in a prominent position where it is impossible for the audience to

ignore, the presence of him or the equipment surrounding him. In doing so he makes

the audience aware of himself, the creator, and the computer, with which he has

created the program. This acknowledgement of the method of creation enhances the

viewing experience of his audience, even if it doesnt fully explain the method, the

audience, are aware of his presence. As stated in The Aesthetics of Generative

Code57 in reference to the writings of Georg W. Hegel and his writings on aesthetics58;

It is now generally accepted that sense perception alone is simply not enough

unless contextualised within the world of ideas

57

The Aesthetics of Generative Code, (2001),Geoff Cox, BA, MA (RCA), Alex McLean, BSc, AdrianWard, BSc, http://www.generative.net/papers/aesthetics/ Accessed on 10 September 201058 Georg W. Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (1823) trans. B. Bosanquet, London: Penguin, 1993.


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This can be applied to all art forms especially Software, and conceptual art, with the

later especially it is essential to reveal in some way the process and notation of

production to allow the audience to fully experience the work.

}

void final(4,0){ Throughout this paper several issues pertaining to the production and presentation of

software art have been raised. It has explored the origins of software art, from the early

sixties up to more recent artworks and the differences in the presentation of these

works. How the opinions of these artists have changed over the years, when we look at

the opinions of early coders such as Michael Noll who believed that the art lay in the

creation and not in the output, in comparison to Golan Levin who has tried to create a

balance between production and presentation. It has also examined the work of several

conceptual artists that have been creating work during the same period of time as their

software contemporaries. Specifically Sol LeWitt, John Cage and Allan Kaprow, these

artists have an incredibly similar practice to their software counterparts, in that their

work is largely algorithmic. The main difference between these two groups of artists is

the presence of a computer or lack there of, and where a computer was used for

example in Cages Atlas Eclipticalis, which used a computer in its production, but the

evidence of this was disguised in the presentation of the finished work. These artists

gained international acclaim, whilst software artists such as Noll, Krueger, Knowlton and

many others received little or no recognition and were largely ignored by the art world.

The issue here lies not in the methods of production, but in the methods of

presentation, if we look at Sol LeWitt his work focuses on an aesthetic output, despite


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the algorithmic nature of its production. His wall drawings have all been executed by

skilled draughtsmen according to strict parameters that have been put in place by the

artist and yet when these drawings are displayed there is no reference to these

instructions. I believe that these works would have been stronger if there had been

reference to these instructions as it would have given the viewer a fuller understanding

of the work and provided a more engaging experience. The same theory can be applied

to the work of Michael Noll, for him the creation of the software used to generate his

work was more important than the aesthetic value of the generated output, this was to

his detriment. It reduced his audience to an elite group of computer literate computer

Scientists and programmers who knew enough about the subject to understand the

mechanics of what he was doing. Works like John Cages Roaratorio gained notoriety

within the arts, due to their presentation that ignored the presence of software in its

method of production. I believe that this and many other works, created in a similar

why could be greatly enriched by being more open in the display of their production.

Also that many pieces of software art including Perl Poetry that refused to properly

display their methods of production or indeed their aesthetic value of their output,

could have been greatly enhanced by allowing these things to be present in their

presentation.

Florian Cramer reminds us exactly how elitist this world of Code was to the majority of

people at the time and how this situation has changed, despite still being a lack of

critical writing surrounding software art;

.software development-was an academic matter, and even hacker culture was

limited to elite institutes such as MIT and Berkeley, today there is a mass culture

and everyday aesthetics of software.


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.. However, cultural criticism of software only exists in scattered efforts.59

This growth of a mass culture59 surrounding software has led to a greater appreciation

of software art, and since Cramer wrote this in 2003 we have seen this culture increase

exponentially. We are able to access thousands of resources, blogs and journals relating

to the production of creative software. However the art world is still only just beginning

to recognise and accept it as a valid art form and this community is still dominated by

dealers with a desire to create saleable and tangible objects; it is this that limits the

acceptance of Software art within this community.

The focus on the purely perceptual aesthetics of art is a straight continuation ofromanticist philosophy and its privileging of aisthesis (perception) over poeisis(construction), cheapened into a restrained concept of art as only that which istactile, audible & visible. 60

I believe it is these prejudices that have limited the success of software artists past and

present and as a result there are still exhibitions of work all over the world, where

software art is being displayed without any reference to its creation, and pieces of

software art that are being ignored due to their rejection of an aesthetic output, and a

desire to remain pure to software and code.

}textSize (6169,words);

59 10 theses about software, Florian Cramer (2003) Via:http://cramer.pleintekst.nl:70/essays/10_thesen_zur_softwarekunst/10_theses_about_software_art.pdf -Accessed on 17 September 201060

Concepts, Notations, Software, Art (2002) Florian Cramer,http://www.netzliteratur.net/cramer/concepts_notations_software_art.html - Accessed on 17 September2010


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import.library(bibliography){textMode(print){Ars Electronica 2003 Code: The Language Of Our Time: Christine Schopf, GerfriedStocker, (2003) Hatje Cantz. Ostfildern.

Digital Visions: Computers and art; Cynthia Goodman, (1987) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,Everson Museum of Art

Form and Code, in design art and architecture (2010), Casey Reas, ChandlerMcWilliams, LUST, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.

}textMode(web){The Aesthetics of Generative Code, (2001),Geoff Cox, BA, MA (RCA), Alex McLean,BSc, Adrian Ward, BSc, http://www.generative.net/papers/aesthetics/ - Accessed on 10September 2010

Concepts, Notations, Software, Art (2002) Florian Cramer,http://www.netzliteratur.net/cramer/concepts_notations_software_art.html - Accessedon 17 September 2010

The House That Jack Built: Jack Burnham's Concept of "Software" as a Metaphor for Art(1998), Edward A. Shanken.http://www.artexetra.com/House.html - Accessed on 26 September 2010The Aesthetics of Intelligent Systems Jack Burnham (1969), in On the Future of Art,(1970) New York: Viking Press, p.119.Via: www.volny.cz/horvitz/burnham/aesth-sys.pdf- Accessed on 10th October 2010

10 theses about software, Florian Cramer (2003) Via:http://cramer.pleintekst.nl:70/essays/10_thesen_zur_softwarekunst/10_theses_about_software_art.pdf- Accessed on 17 September 2010

http://www.devtopics.com/most-popular-programming-languages/ - Accessed on 12October 2010

http://www.jtnimoy.net/itp/newmediahistory/videoplace/ - Accessed on 26th November2010.

http://www.runme.org/feature/read/+londonpl/+34/ - Accessed on 10 October 2010

http://www.costis.org/x/schwitters/ursonate.htm - Accessed on 27 October 2010.


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http://www.nullibicity.com/dadapoem.php - Accessed on 17 November 2010

http://www.poemofquotes.com/tools/dada.php - Accessed on 17 November 2010

http://www.ubu.com/historical/kaprow/index.html - Accessed on 3 November 2010

http://www.ubu.com/historical/kaprow/index.html - Accessed on 3 November 2010

http://www.maedastudio.com/index.php - Accessed on 12th December 2010

http://www.flong.com/projects/ursonography/ - Accessed on 2 December 2010

}}

Documents

Software Art and why you don't know what it is. by Archie Sinclair