You cannot select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
679 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
679 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
4 years ago
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cells": [
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "code",
|
||
|
|
"execution_count": 5,
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {},
|
||
|
|
"outputs": [],
|
||
|
|
"source": [
|
||
|
|
"import re\n",
|
||
|
|
"with open(\"Visceral_Facades.txt\") as f:\n",
|
||
|
|
" text = f.read()\n",
|
||
|
|
"\n",
|
||
|
|
"tt = re.split(r\"\\n+\", text)"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "code",
|
||
|
|
"execution_count": 12,
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {},
|
||
|
|
"outputs": [],
|
||
|
|
"source": [
|
||
|
|
"with open(\"visceral_facades.lua\", \"w\") as fout:\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (\"text={}\", file=fout)\n",
|
||
|
|
" for i,p in enumerate(tt):\n",
|
||
|
|
" ep = p.strip().replace('\"', r'\\\"')\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (f'text[{i}]=\"{ep}\"', file=fout)"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "markdown",
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {},
|
||
|
|
"source": [
|
||
|
|
"Now with [textwrap](https://docs.python.org/3/library/textwrap.html)"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "code",
|
||
|
|
"execution_count": 13,
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {
|
||
|
|
"collapsed": true,
|
||
|
|
"jupyter": {
|
||
|
|
"outputs_hidden": true
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
"outputs": [
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"name": "stdout",
|
||
|
|
"output_type": "stream",
|
||
|
|
"text": [
|
||
|
|
"Visceral Facades: taking Matta-Clark's\n",
|
||
|
|
"crowbar to software.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Architecture was the first art of\n",
|
||
|
|
"measurement of time and space. Ancient\n",
|
||
|
|
"megalithic structures such as Stonehenge\n",
|
||
|
|
"are the ancestors of the machine you are\n",
|
||
|
|
"reading this text on. Whereas computers\n",
|
||
|
|
"build up from the scale of electrons\n",
|
||
|
|
"rather than that of giant lumps of stone\n",
|
||
|
|
"and the tasks they complete are abstract\n",
|
||
|
|
"and changeable, rather than specific and\n",
|
||
|
|
"singular, they both remain physical\n",
|
||
|
|
"instantiations of abstract logic into\n",
|
||
|
|
"which energy is fed in order to produce\n",
|
||
|
|
"results to one or more of a range of\n",
|
||
|
|
"potential calculations embodied in their\n",
|
||
|
|
"structure.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Nowadays, as films such as Die Hard and\n",
|
||
|
|
"novels such as Gridlock are so keen to\n",
|
||
|
|
"show us, buildings and telecommunications\n",
|
||
|
|
"are profoundly interrelated. As\n",
|
||
|
|
"architecture is caught up in the mesh of\n",
|
||
|
|
"the 'immaterial', of security and\n",
|
||
|
|
"communications systems, of gating and\n",
|
||
|
|
"processing (think of an airport) its\n",
|
||
|
|
"connection to its originary development\n",
|
||
|
|
"as geometry realised in synthetic space\n",
|
||
|
|
"becomes ever more apparent. The\n",
|
||
|
|
"proliferation of special effects that\n",
|
||
|
|
"effect consciousness of time and distance\n",
|
||
|
|
"and the perception of the environment in\n",
|
||
|
|
"a context where maximum stratification\n",
|
||
|
|
"combines in the same device with maximum\n",
|
||
|
|
"fluidity, is presented as an abrupt break\n",
|
||
|
|
"with an older style of architecture\n",
|
||
|
|
"wherein power can be deciphered by the\n",
|
||
|
|
"maximum possession of space.\n",
|
||
|
|
"In a short story, Tangents, science\n",
|
||
|
|
"fiction writer Greg Bear introduces four-\n",
|
||
|
|
"dimensional beings into a three\n",
|
||
|
|
"dimensional shape: something which he\n",
|
||
|
|
"likens to looking at fish through the\n",
|
||
|
|
"corner of an aquarium. The shape that\n",
|
||
|
|
"these fourth dimensional beings appear in\n",
|
||
|
|
"is a normal, two storey house. The house\n",
|
||
|
|
"is gradually, neatly, Swiss-cheesed by a\n",
|
||
|
|
"series of cones, columns, and spheres as\n",
|
||
|
|
"the dimensions intersect.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Possibly, this might be the kind of\n",
|
||
|
|
"effect you'd worry about if you'd invited\n",
|
||
|
|
"Gordon Matta-Clark around to your home.\n",
|
||
|
|
"An artist who trained as an architect,\n",
|
||
|
|
"Matta-Clark was born in New York City in\n",
|
||
|
|
"March 1943 and died in 1978. His most\n",
|
||
|
|
"prolific period, between 1971 and 1976,\n",
|
||
|
|
"occurred within a rich context of\n",
|
||
|
|
"experimental and anti-commercial\n",
|
||
|
|
"dematerialization in both art and\n",
|
||
|
|
"architecture, (although certainly within\n",
|
||
|
|
"the field of 'authorised' architecture,\n",
|
||
|
|
"much of this work remained on a\n",
|
||
|
|
"theoretical and propositional basis).\n",
|
||
|
|
"Matta-Clark carried out his\n",
|
||
|
|
"investigations of architecture and space\n",
|
||
|
|
"through performance, drawing, sculpture,\n",
|
||
|
|
"photography, video, film and material\n",
|
||
|
|
"interventions known as 'cuttings'.\n",
|
||
|
|
"One action carried out in 1974,\n",
|
||
|
|
"Splitting, involved taking a simple\n",
|
||
|
|
"detached wooden house in Englewood, a New\n",
|
||
|
|
"York State dormitory town, and bisecting\n",
|
||
|
|
"it. The house, already slated for\n",
|
||
|
|
"demolition, is cut exactly in two, from\n",
|
||
|
|
"the roof, down the walls and through the\n",
|
||
|
|
"floors to the raised foundation of\n",
|
||
|
|
"building blocks. In the short film which\n",
|
||
|
|
"documents the process a shard of sunlight\n",
|
||
|
|
"streams through the split, effacing the\n",
|
||
|
|
"wall, energising the new structure. The\n",
|
||
|
|
"next stage is to take the rear half of\n",
|
||
|
|
"the house and, supporting it on jacks,\n",
|
||
|
|
"gradually knock away the upper surface of\n",
|
||
|
|
"the foundation at an angle of five\n",
|
||
|
|
"degrees. The back of the house is then\n",
|
||
|
|
"tilted away from the other half of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"structure back onto the now sloping\n",
|
||
|
|
"foundation. Throughout the film, Matta-\n",
|
||
|
|
"Clark can be seen working away at the\n",
|
||
|
|
"building. A scrawny longhair in jeans and\n",
|
||
|
|
"boots doing with a simple toolkit the\n",
|
||
|
|
"serious structural re-adjustment that\n",
|
||
|
|
"only the most deranged of do-it-\n",
|
||
|
|
"yourselfers can dream about.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Another short film, Conical Intersect,\n",
|
||
|
|
"made in 1975 documents an intervention\n",
|
||
|
|
"which is even more reminiscent of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"transdimensional interference of\n",
|
||
|
|
"Tangents. Made during the Paris Biennial\n",
|
||
|
|
"in the area of Les Halles, tellingly\n",
|
||
|
|
"close to the construction of the Centre\n",
|
||
|
|
"George Pompidou - a politically inspired\n",
|
||
|
|
"scheme reminiscent of that other artiste\n",
|
||
|
|
"démolisseur, Baron Hausmann - the cut\n",
|
||
|
|
"probes into two adjoining seventeenth\n",
|
||
|
|
"century 'mansions'. Appearing from the\n",
|
||
|
|
"outside as a series of receding circles,\n",
|
||
|
|
"the cut punctures the building at the\n",
|
||
|
|
"fourth storey and moves upwards towards\n",
|
||
|
|
"the sky. When the outer wall goes\n",
|
||
|
|
"through, the film shows the trio of\n",
|
||
|
|
"people working on the hole perform a\n",
|
||
|
|
"brief can-can on a soon-to-be-demolished\n",
|
||
|
|
"section of floor.\n",
|
||
|
|
"In a 1976 film, Substrait (Underground\n",
|
||
|
|
"Dailies), Matta-Clark explored and\n",
|
||
|
|
"documented some of the underground of New\n",
|
||
|
|
"York City. Grand Central Station, 13th\n",
|
||
|
|
"Street and the Croton Aqueduct are filmed\n",
|
||
|
|
"to show the variety and complexity of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"hidden spaces and tunnels in the\n",
|
||
|
|
"metropolitan area. Somewhat reminiscent\n",
|
||
|
|
"of the ultra-dull documentaries made by\n",
|
||
|
|
"the Canadian National Film Board in the\n",
|
||
|
|
"same period, this film develops an\n",
|
||
|
|
"intimate concern with the material\n",
|
||
|
|
"qualities of the structures under\n",
|
||
|
|
"investigation, and perhaps provides for\n",
|
||
|
|
"the New York sewage system a precursor to\n",
|
||
|
|
"the geek art of the internet. It is\n",
|
||
|
|
"possible to imagine a film of its travels\n",
|
||
|
|
"through the nets made by a software worm,\n",
|
||
|
|
"being of remarkable similarity.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Some of Matta-Clark's work could have\n",
|
||
|
|
"only been produced by someone deeply\n",
|
||
|
|
"familiar with the strange reality of\n",
|
||
|
|
"realty. In Reality Properties: Fake\n",
|
||
|
|
"Estates he bought up fifteen minuscule\n",
|
||
|
|
"sections of land that had been left over\n",
|
||
|
|
"in property deals, or that teetered just\n",
|
||
|
|
"off the edges of architectural plans\n",
|
||
|
|
"drawn slightly out-of-whack: a foot strip\n",
|
||
|
|
"down somebody's driveway, and a square\n",
|
||
|
|
"foot of sidewalk, tiny sections of kerbs\n",
|
||
|
|
"and gutters. Buying up this ludicrous\n",
|
||
|
|
"empire was again part of Matta-Clark's\n",
|
||
|
|
"project of the structural activation of\n",
|
||
|
|
"severed surfaces. It is also an example\n",
|
||
|
|
"of the idiosyncratic manipulation of\n",
|
||
|
|
"rule-based behaviour to achieve different\n",
|
||
|
|
"ends.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Along with the dematerialised art that\n",
|
||
|
|
"provided a context in which this work can\n",
|
||
|
|
"be sensed, the period it was produced in\n",
|
||
|
|
"was also the peak of minimal art. Whilst\n",
|
||
|
|
"Matta-Clark's work is in part concerned\n",
|
||
|
|
"with formalism, the application of\n",
|
||
|
|
"procedures and the revelation of\n",
|
||
|
|
"structural properties, it is precisely\n",
|
||
|
|
"because his work is formally non-\n",
|
||
|
|
"reductive and purposely heterogenic that\n",
|
||
|
|
"it is profoundly at variance to an art\n",
|
||
|
|
"that was only supposed to speak of itself\n",
|
||
|
|
"and of the immaculate connoisseurship of\n",
|
||
|
|
"its audience. This is an artwork that is\n",
|
||
|
|
"exactly the reverse of autonomous. It is\n",
|
||
|
|
"openly dependent on a network of\n",
|
||
|
|
"coincidences and interconnectedness: on\n",
|
||
|
|
"being seen by chance passers-by; on the\n",
|
||
|
|
"receipt or avoidance of bureaucratic\n",
|
||
|
|
"permissions; on the functioning of\n",
|
||
|
|
"recording devices; on good weather; on\n",
|
||
|
|
"not being discovered when acting in\n",
|
||
|
|
"secret; on the theatre of its enaction\n",
|
||
|
|
"being an oxygenation of the still\n",
|
||
|
|
"smouldering embers of history. At the\n",
|
||
|
|
"same time as it articulates the space in\n",
|
||
|
|
"sculptural terms it also complexifies it\n",
|
||
|
|
"in terms of its placehood, as an object,\n",
|
||
|
|
"and within its social, chronological and\n",
|
||
|
|
"economic contexts.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Knowing that there is freedom in suprise,\n",
|
||
|
|
"it is along this fault line of\n",
|
||
|
|
"rationality and the non-rational that\n",
|
||
|
|
"Gordon Matta-Clark runs his fingers.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Fingers which he also uses to tease\n",
|
||
|
|
"another split - that between art and\n",
|
||
|
|
"architecture. Comparable to his\n",
|
||
|
|
"relationship to minimal art, rather than\n",
|
||
|
|
"partaking in the functionalist urban\n",
|
||
|
|
"sublime of the glass and steel skyscraper\n",
|
||
|
|
"typified in the architecture of Mies van\n",
|
||
|
|
"der Rohe - with its interior opened to\n",
|
||
|
|
"make it more governable - Matta-Clark's\n",
|
||
|
|
"work operates a dis-enclosure of urban\n",
|
||
|
|
"space: its malfunctions, voids, shadows.\n",
|
||
|
|
"The tension inherent in such spaces is\n",
|
||
|
|
"portrayed well by Gilles Deleuze in\n",
|
||
|
|
"describing \"any-space-whatever\" the half-\n",
|
||
|
|
"urban, half-waste lands often used as\n",
|
||
|
|
"sets and exteriors in post World War Two\n",
|
||
|
|
"films: \"Any-space-whatever is a perfectly\n",
|
||
|
|
"singular space, which has merely lost its\n",
|
||
|
|
"homogeneity, that is, the principle of\n",
|
||
|
|
"its metric relations or the connection of\n",
|
||
|
|
"its own parts, so that linkages can be\n",
|
||
|
|
"made in an infinite number of ways\" This\n",
|
||
|
|
"tension between particularity and\n",
|
||
|
|
"obliteration found in the European\n",
|
||
|
|
"bombsite translated well into the\n",
|
||
|
|
"conditions in which Matta-Clark worked\n",
|
||
|
|
"out of necessity and choice: buildings\n",
|
||
|
|
"eviscerated by the progress of urban\n",
|
||
|
|
"restructuring.\n",
|
||
|
|
"\"There is a kind of complexity that comes\n",
|
||
|
|
"from taking an otherwise completely\n",
|
||
|
|
"normal, conventional, albeit anonymous\n",
|
||
|
|
"situation and redefining it,\n",
|
||
|
|
"retranslating it into overlapping and\n",
|
||
|
|
"multiple readings of conditions past and\n",
|
||
|
|
"present\"\n",
|
||
|
|
"As an aside, this too easy lock-down into\n",
|
||
|
|
"textuality implied by the use of the word\n",
|
||
|
|
"'reading' is of his time, (and one\n",
|
||
|
|
"replicated in perpetuity by artists\n",
|
||
|
|
"hungry for the valorising seal of textual\n",
|
||
|
|
"authority) but it rather understates the\n",
|
||
|
|
"multiple sensory affect of the work. It\n",
|
||
|
|
"is this aspect, of working with material\n",
|
||
|
|
"that is in the process of being made\n",
|
||
|
|
"anonymous, generic - yet turning it into\n",
|
||
|
|
"an engine of connotation - that is\n",
|
||
|
|
"particularly suggestive for a context\n",
|
||
|
|
"that, in its apparent dematerialization\n",
|
||
|
|
"seems most likely to resist it: software.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Software lacks the easy evidence of time,\n",
|
||
|
|
"of human habitation, of the connotations\n",
|
||
|
|
"of familial, industrial or office life\n",
|
||
|
|
"embedded in the structure of a building.\n",
|
||
|
|
"As a geometry realised in synthetic\n",
|
||
|
|
"space, it is an any-space-whatever, but\n",
|
||
|
|
"dry-cleaned and prised out of time.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Use of the computer happens at many\n",
|
||
|
|
"levels, both hard and soft. A crucial\n",
|
||
|
|
"difference with how we traditionally\n",
|
||
|
|
"understand architecture, rather than what\n",
|
||
|
|
"it is becoming under the impact of\n",
|
||
|
|
"information technologies, is that\n",
|
||
|
|
"everything necessarily happens at human\n",
|
||
|
|
"scale. That the size, and to a certain\n",
|
||
|
|
"extent the organisation, of people has a\n",
|
||
|
|
"determining effect on the shape of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"building. Conversely, the axiomatics that\n",
|
||
|
|
"channel and produce the behaviour\n",
|
||
|
|
"necessary for use of computers happen at\n",
|
||
|
|
"both human and subscopic scale. The hard\n",
|
||
|
|
"organs of the computer: mouse, keyboard,\n",
|
||
|
|
"modem, microphone, monitor, though all\n",
|
||
|
|
"matched to greater or lesser extents to\n",
|
||
|
|
"human form, all snake back to the CPU.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Whilst what is of interest here is an\n",
|
||
|
|
"investigation of the moment of\n",
|
||
|
|
"composition between user and computer,\n",
|
||
|
|
"and not a reiteration of text-book\n",
|
||
|
|
"schematics, it is worth noting that\n",
|
||
|
|
"simply because they occur at the level of\n",
|
||
|
|
"electrons the axes of software are\n",
|
||
|
|
"impossible to find for the average user.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Just as when watching a film we miss out\n",
|
||
|
|
"the black lines in between the frames\n",
|
||
|
|
"flashing past at 24 per second, the\n",
|
||
|
|
"invisible walls of software are designed\n",
|
||
|
|
"to remain inscrutable. However, the fact\n",
|
||
|
|
"that these subscopic transformation of\n",
|
||
|
|
"data inside the computer are\n",
|
||
|
|
"simultaneously real and symbolic; where\n",
|
||
|
|
"the most abstract of theoretical terms to\n",
|
||
|
|
"be found in mathematics becomes a thing,\n",
|
||
|
|
"allows the possibility of a kinaesthetic\n",
|
||
|
|
"investigation. An investigation that\n",
|
||
|
|
"opens up a chance for dialogue between\n",
|
||
|
|
"the smooth running of the machine and\n",
|
||
|
|
"material that might be thought of as\n",
|
||
|
|
"contamination within the terms of its\n",
|
||
|
|
"devices.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Much of the 'legitimate' writing and\n",
|
||
|
|
"artistic production on information\n",
|
||
|
|
"technology is concerned with expanding\n",
|
||
|
|
"the application of the theoretical\n",
|
||
|
|
"devices used to recognise replication and\n",
|
||
|
|
"simulation, (what constitutes 'the real')\n",
|
||
|
|
"and of those used to recognise\n",
|
||
|
|
"surveillance. These themes, carried over\n",
|
||
|
|
"most commonly from debates around\n",
|
||
|
|
"photography and architecture, are of\n",
|
||
|
|
"course suggestive and in some cases\n",
|
||
|
|
"useful, but in the easiness of their\n",
|
||
|
|
"translation we should not forget that\n",
|
||
|
|
"they are moving into a context that\n",
|
||
|
|
"subsumes them and is not marked by their\n",
|
||
|
|
"boundaries. In acknowledging the distinct\n",
|
||
|
|
"interconnectedness of the symbolic and\n",
|
||
|
|
"material, this is also an approach which\n",
|
||
|
|
"is opposed to the conception of\n",
|
||
|
|
"'virtuality' being taken as the desired\n",
|
||
|
|
"end state of digital technology: taking\n",
|
||
|
|
"virtuality as a condition which is\n",
|
||
|
|
"contained and made possible by the\n",
|
||
|
|
"actuality of digital media.\n",
|
||
|
|
"To provide the skewed access to the\n",
|
||
|
|
"machines that such an investigation\n",
|
||
|
|
"requires we can siphon some fuel from the\n",
|
||
|
|
"goings-on of Gordon Matta-Clark: use\n",
|
||
|
|
"faults; disturb conventions; exploit\n",
|
||
|
|
"idiosyncrasies.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Faults arise in systems when the full\n",
|
||
|
|
"consequences of technical changes are not\n",
|
||
|
|
"followed through before the changes are\n",
|
||
|
|
"made, or are deliberately covered up.\n",
|
||
|
|
"This is an enormous game of hiding and\n",
|
||
|
|
"finding being played by a cast of\n",
|
||
|
|
"millions and one which has wide\n",
|
||
|
|
"ramifications. Perhaps the most crucial\n",
|
||
|
|
"faultlines being traced at the moment are\n",
|
||
|
|
"those around security: the world of\n",
|
||
|
|
"minutiae that compose the integrity of\n",
|
||
|
|
"existence in dataspace and the way it\n",
|
||
|
|
"maps back onto everyday life.\n",
|
||
|
|
"The profoundest restructuring of\n",
|
||
|
|
"existence is taking place at the levels\n",
|
||
|
|
"of the electron and the gene. Technical\n",
|
||
|
|
"complexity, commercial pressure and the\n",
|
||
|
|
"mechanisms of expression management are\n",
|
||
|
|
"blocking almost all real public discourse\n",
|
||
|
|
"on the former. They are less able to do\n",
|
||
|
|
"so to the latter.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Whether radical or reactionary,\n",
|
||
|
|
"traditional political structures have,\n",
|
||
|
|
"either deliberately or through drastic\n",
|
||
|
|
"relevance-decay, abdicated almost all\n",
|
||
|
|
"decision making in these areas to\n",
|
||
|
|
"commercial interests. From a similar\n",
|
||
|
|
"catalogue of stock characters to that of\n",
|
||
|
|
"the artist, the pariah/hero figure of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"hacker has largely set the pace for any\n",
|
||
|
|
"critical understanding of the changes\n",
|
||
|
|
"happening in and between information\n",
|
||
|
|
"technologies.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Picking up a random copy of the hacker\n",
|
||
|
|
"zine 2600 - summer 1996 - the scale and\n",
|
||
|
|
"ramifications of issues being dealt with\n",
|
||
|
|
"in this area becomes apparent. Subjects\n",
|
||
|
|
"covered include: an editorial on the\n",
|
||
|
|
"position of hackers in the legal system\n",
|
||
|
|
"and media; the code of a LINUX program to\n",
|
||
|
|
"block internet sites by flooding them\n",
|
||
|
|
"with connection requests; a list of free\n",
|
||
|
|
"phone carriers in Australia; acquiring\n",
|
||
|
|
"phone services under imaginary names; the\n",
|
||
|
|
"telecommunications infrastructure in\n",
|
||
|
|
"Prague and Sarajevo; encryption; consumer\n",
|
||
|
|
"data security; catching passwords to\n",
|
||
|
|
"specific multi-user computer systems;\n",
|
||
|
|
"passenger in-flight communications\n",
|
||
|
|
"systems; phreaking smart pay-phones;\n",
|
||
|
|
"starting a hacker scene; the\n",
|
||
|
|
"transcription of part of a court case\n",
|
||
|
|
"involving the show trial of hacker,\n",
|
||
|
|
"Bernie S; plus pages of small ads and\n",
|
||
|
|
"letters. (Perhaps noticeable in comparing\n",
|
||
|
|
"the importance of these scenes with that\n",
|
||
|
|
"of art is that the second-order\n",
|
||
|
|
"commentary on the work comes mainly from\n",
|
||
|
|
"the media/legal system rather than just\n",
|
||
|
|
"critics).\n",
|
||
|
|
"The faults identified by hackers and\n",
|
||
|
|
"others, where ethico-aesthetic situations\n",
|
||
|
|
"are compounded under sheer pressure into\n",
|
||
|
|
"technical ones, are implicated in wider\n",
|
||
|
|
"mechanisms. These technical situations\n",
|
||
|
|
"can be investigated from any point or\n",
|
||
|
|
"development within these wider mechanisms\n",
|
||
|
|
"regardless of the degree of technical\n",
|
||
|
|
"proficiency. Cracking open technical\n",
|
||
|
|
"situations with the wider social\n",
|
||
|
|
"conditions within which they occur is an\n",
|
||
|
|
"increasingly necessary task. Doing so in\n",
|
||
|
|
"a manner that creates a transversal\n",
|
||
|
|
"relationship between different, perhaps\n",
|
||
|
|
"walled-off, components, and that\n",
|
||
|
|
"intimately works the technical with other\n",
|
||
|
|
"kinds of material or symbolic devices is\n",
|
||
|
|
"something that remains to be developed.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Tracking the faults, the severed\n",
|
||
|
|
"surfaces, of technology is one way in\n",
|
||
|
|
"which this can begin to be done.\n",
|
||
|
|
"This intimacy, as well as concerning\n",
|
||
|
|
"itself with the cracks and disjunctures,\n",
|
||
|
|
"the faults in systems, can also become\n",
|
||
|
|
"involved in situations where they appear\n",
|
||
|
|
"to be most smooth. For the average user,\n",
|
||
|
|
"the conventions of personal computers\n",
|
||
|
|
"appear secure, rational, almost natural,\n",
|
||
|
|
"if a little awkward and tricky at times.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Like many social protocols, computer use\n",
|
||
|
|
"is a skill which is forgetful of its\n",
|
||
|
|
"acquisition. Perhaps that user can\n",
|
||
|
|
"remember back to when they first got hold\n",
|
||
|
|
"of a machine, when they were waving a\n",
|
||
|
|
"mouse in the air to get the cursor to\n",
|
||
|
|
"move towards them; afraid to touch the\n",
|
||
|
|
"wrong key in case it damaged something;\n",
|
||
|
|
"saving files all over the place; trying\n",
|
||
|
|
"to draw curves in Pagemaker; putting\n",
|
||
|
|
"floppies in upside-down; trying to work a\n",
|
||
|
|
"cracked copy of CuBase with something\n",
|
||
|
|
"missing; learning how to conform to the\n",
|
||
|
|
"machine in order to make the machine\n",
|
||
|
|
"conform to them...\n",
|
||
|
|
"In computer interface design the form-\n",
|
||
|
|
"function fusion is made on the basis of\n",
|
||
|
|
"averages, a focus grouped reality based\n",
|
||
|
|
"on peoples' understanding of a context in\n",
|
||
|
|
"which it is impossible for them to\n",
|
||
|
|
"function unless they develop the\n",
|
||
|
|
"understanding already been mapped out for\n",
|
||
|
|
"them. Perhaps in this context, the user\n",
|
||
|
|
"will always be the ideal user, because if\n",
|
||
|
|
"they are not ideal - if, within this\n",
|
||
|
|
"context at least, they do not conform to\n",
|
||
|
|
"the ideal - they won't be a user.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Interface design is a discipline that\n",
|
||
|
|
"aspires to saying nothing. Instead of\n",
|
||
|
|
"trying to crack this invisibility, one\n",
|
||
|
|
"technique for investigation is to tease\n",
|
||
|
|
"it into overproduction. Why use one\n",
|
||
|
|
"mouse-click when ten-thousand will do?\n",
|
||
|
|
"Why use any visual information when\n",
|
||
|
|
"navigation is perfectly possible with\n",
|
||
|
|
"sound alone? Why just look at the\n",
|
||
|
|
"interface, why not print it out and wear\n",
|
||
|
|
"it? Why read text on screen when a far\n",
|
||
|
|
"better technology is paper? Why use a\n",
|
||
|
|
"cursor when the object you're actually\n",
|
||
|
|
"pointing at can function perfectly well\n",
|
||
|
|
"to indicate the mouse position?\n",
|
||
|
|
"In any other social context, what because\n",
|
||
|
|
"of the arbitrary nature of the abstract\n",
|
||
|
|
"machine appear as protocols, would be\n",
|
||
|
|
"revealed as mannerisms. (Take a fast taxi\n",
|
||
|
|
"through the ruined neighbourhoods of\n",
|
||
|
|
"cyberspace by travelling through\n",
|
||
|
|
"emulators of old computers: punch a hole\n",
|
||
|
|
"in the surface of your shiny new machine\n",
|
||
|
|
"by loading up the black hole of a 1k\n",
|
||
|
|
"ZX81). When the construction of machines\n",
|
||
|
|
"from the fundamental objects of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"hardware: bits, bytes, words, addresses,\n",
|
||
|
|
"upwards are realised to be synthetic\n",
|
||
|
|
"rather than given, or even necessarily\n",
|
||
|
|
"rational - though produced through the\n",
|
||
|
|
"application of rationalisation, logic -\n",
|
||
|
|
"they become subject to wider\n",
|
||
|
|
"possibilities for change. Software as an\n",
|
||
|
|
"aggregate of very small sensory\n",
|
||
|
|
"experiences and devices becomes an\n",
|
||
|
|
"engine, not just of connotation, but of\n",
|
||
|
|
"transformation.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Some of those transformations in\n",
|
||
|
|
"occurrence can be sensed in the sheer\n",
|
||
|
|
"idiosyncrasy of much software. In the\n",
|
||
|
|
"Atrocity Exhibition and other books, J.G.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Ballard mixes flat, technical\n",
|
||
|
|
"descriptions of body positions as they\n",
|
||
|
|
"come into composition with the synthetic\n",
|
||
|
|
"geometry of architecture, automobiles,\n",
|
||
|
|
"furnishings, to produce an investigation\n",
|
||
|
|
"of machined erotics. He continues and\n",
|
||
|
|
"intensifies the Surrealist stratagem of\n",
|
||
|
|
"cutting together transgressed\n",
|
||
|
|
"functionalities in order to regain entry\n",
|
||
|
|
"to the order of the symbolic. To an\n",
|
||
|
|
"objective observer, the transitory point\n",
|
||
|
|
"at which a thigh comes into convergence\n",
|
||
|
|
"with a table also suggests the way in\n",
|
||
|
|
"which the original Microsoft Windows\n",
|
||
|
|
"interface was bolted on top of the old\n",
|
||
|
|
"DOS language. The tectonic impact of two\n",
|
||
|
|
"neural landscapes performs an operation\n",
|
||
|
|
"called progress. The software is tricked\n",
|
||
|
|
"into doing something more than it was\n",
|
||
|
|
"intended for. Instead of dramatic breaks,\n",
|
||
|
|
"hacks and incrementally adaptive\n",
|
||
|
|
"mutations are often the way things are\n",
|
||
|
|
"made to move forward. (For instance on\n",
|
||
|
|
"Apple computers, the desktop is already\n",
|
||
|
|
"being bypassed by the absorption of some\n",
|
||
|
|
"of the functions of the finder into\n",
|
||
|
|
"various applications. From being a\n",
|
||
|
|
"grossly over-metaphoric grand entrance\n",
|
||
|
|
"hall, it has become a back alley). When\n",
|
||
|
|
"they work well they are elegant usable\n",
|
||
|
|
"collages. Often they are botch jobs. In\n",
|
||
|
|
"both cases, the points at which the\n",
|
||
|
|
"systems mesh, collide, or repel, can, at\n",
|
||
|
|
"the points of confused demarcation,\n",
|
||
|
|
"produce secret gardens, car parks, lamps\n",
|
||
|
|
"that fuck.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Idiosyncrasies can also develop when a\n",
|
||
|
|
"software system is applied to a situation\n",
|
||
|
|
"in toto. Perhaps most obviously,\n",
|
||
|
|
"databases. The production of software\n",
|
||
|
|
"dedicated to knowledge organisation and\n",
|
||
|
|
"information retrieval, a field largely\n",
|
||
|
|
"seen as the domain of linguists and\n",
|
||
|
|
"computer scientists, immediately brings\n",
|
||
|
|
"with it a range of problematics that are\n",
|
||
|
|
"at once both cultural and technical. The\n",
|
||
|
|
"technology underlying search engines and\n",
|
||
|
|
"databases - set theory - is based on\n",
|
||
|
|
"creating classifications of information\n",
|
||
|
|
"according to arbitrarily or contingently\n",
|
||
|
|
"meaningful schemes. It is in the\n",
|
||
|
|
"application and development of those\n",
|
||
|
|
"schemes with all their inevitable biases\n",
|
||
|
|
"and quirks that the aesthetics of\n",
|
||
|
|
"classification lies.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Attuned to quantifying; organising;\n",
|
||
|
|
"isolating and drawing into relationships,\n",
|
||
|
|
"particular cases of the possible and\n",
|
||
|
|
"working them till they bleed some kind of\n",
|
||
|
|
"relevance, databases exist firmly on the\n",
|
||
|
|
"cusp of the rational and non-rational.\n",
|
||
|
|
"When the Subjective Exercise Experiences\n",
|
||
|
|
"Scale locks onto the Human Genome\n",
|
||
|
|
"Initiative processing library stock-\n",
|
||
|
|
"holding data: prepare for something\n",
|
||
|
|
"approaching poetry.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Perhaps in some ways sensing into the\n",
|
||
|
|
"future this destratification of\n",
|
||
|
|
"conventions is the architecture of the\n",
|
||
|
|
"internet. This, (almost despite its\n",
|
||
|
|
"position within and between various\n",
|
||
|
|
"political, commercial and bureaucratic\n",
|
||
|
|
"formations) after all, is a network which\n",
|
||
|
|
"functions on a basis of being broken,\n",
|
||
|
|
"continuously finding the shortest route\n",
|
||
|
|
"between nodes: even as a squatter will\n",
|
||
|
|
"always see the empty buildings on any\n",
|
||
|
|
"street before those that are full. At\n",
|
||
|
|
"these shifting, transitory points where\n",
|
||
|
|
"sensoriums intermesh, repel, clash and\n",
|
||
|
|
"resynthesize are the possibilities for a\n",
|
||
|
|
"ludic transdimensionality. Knock through\n",
|
||
|
|
"a wall, and beyond the clouds of brick\n",
|
||
|
|
"dust clogging up and exciting your eyes,\n",
|
||
|
|
"tongue, palate and throat, there's\n",
|
||
|
|
"another universe: an empty,\n",
|
||
|
|
"unclassifiable complex seething with\n",
|
||
|
|
"life.\n",
|
||
|
|
"Matthew Fuller, May 1997\n",
|
||
|
|
"I/O/D\n"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
],
|
||
|
|
"source": [
|
||
|
|
"with open(\"Visceral_Facades.txt\") as f:\n",
|
||
|
|
" text = f.read()\n",
|
||
|
|
"tt = re.split(r\"\\n+\", text)\n",
|
||
|
|
"\n",
|
||
|
|
"import textwrap\n",
|
||
|
|
"\n",
|
||
|
|
"WIDTH=41\n",
|
||
|
|
"\n",
|
||
|
|
"for i,p in enumerate(tt):\n",
|
||
|
|
" p = p.strip()\n",
|
||
|
|
" lines = textwrap.wrap(p, WIDTH)\n",
|
||
|
|
" for line in lines:\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (line)\n"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "code",
|
||
|
|
"execution_count": 22,
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {},
|
||
|
|
"outputs": [],
|
||
|
|
"source": [
|
||
|
|
"def esc (t):\n",
|
||
|
|
" return t.replace('\"', r'\\\"')\n",
|
||
|
|
"\n",
|
||
|
|
"with open(\"visceral_facades.lua\", \"w\") as fout:\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (\"text={}\", file=fout)\n",
|
||
|
|
" for pid,p in enumerate(tt):\n",
|
||
|
|
" p = p.strip()\n",
|
||
|
|
" lines = textwrap.wrap(p, WIDTH)\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (f'text[{pid}]={{}}', file=fout)\n",
|
||
|
|
" for lineid, line in enumerate(lines):\n",
|
||
|
|
" print (f'text[{pid}][{lineid}]=\"{esc(line)}\"', file=fout)"
|
||
|
|
]
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
{
|
||
|
|
"cell_type": "code",
|
||
|
|
"execution_count": null,
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {},
|
||
|
|
"outputs": [],
|
||
|
|
"source": []
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
],
|
||
|
|
"metadata": {
|
||
|
|
"kernelspec": {
|
||
|
|
"display_name": "Python 3",
|
||
|
|
"language": "python",
|
||
|
|
"name": "python3"
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
"language_info": {
|
||
|
|
"codemirror_mode": {
|
||
|
|
"name": "ipython",
|
||
|
|
"version": 3
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
"file_extension": ".py",
|
||
|
|
"mimetype": "text/x-python",
|
||
|
|
"name": "python",
|
||
|
|
"nbconvert_exporter": "python",
|
||
|
|
"pygments_lexer": "ipython3",
|
||
|
|
"version": "3.7.3"
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
"nbformat": 4,
|
||
|
|
"nbformat_minor": 4
|
||
|
|
}
|