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thesis/chapters/00. Coding Contingencies.md

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Notes for the intro

-   with a clear structure the simulation can be more heterogeneous
-   aggregate materials and references

-   no need to be SUPER discoursive
-   could be evocative
-   think are.na channels on instagram
-   intro as a readme file
-   Could be interesting to read What the Dormouse Said

SETUP

Notes:

  • simulation as writing machine

  • outline simulation key points:

    • Suspension of judgment
    • Discrete temporality
    • Partiality
    • Orientation

  • aknowledge software as cultural object

  • and propose software documentation as a surface

  • to renegotiate the making of software

  • to create entry points

  • to question who gets to participate

  • plan

This introduction is not a written as a text, but runs a simulation.

Coding Contingencies (CC) is a procedural take on how different characters got to code.

How did they choose a particular programming language, a coding paradigm, a development environment, an infrastructure where to run the code, and so on? These are not just technical choices, but rather coding contingencies.

Personal decisions, trending technologies, curiosity and boredom, to name a few. A talk on esolangs as form of frugality, a collegue passionate about live coding that drags you to an algorave night, a crypto-boyfriend, the tech stack of a company, a drastic turn of events, etc. etc.

These contingencies are situated in precise contexts. Programming then is not just sharing code, but sharing context. It's providing a point of view and a perspective to look at the world, before attempting to get some grip onto it with a script.

Using the simulation as a writing machine we can articulate these CC with some benefits:

  1. Suspension of judgment

    Within the scope of the simulation it's not necessary to label good or bad choices. (That would have been the case for a machine learning writing device, for example) One character could decide one morning to write their own operative system from scratch using Red Stone circuits in Minecraft, and it would be fine. Due to the nature of the process, even the most absurd starting point it's a valid and powerful narrative device. In this way it becomes easier to explore marginal cases, improbabilities, and non-conform situations.

  2. Discrete temporality

    A simulation does not happen all at once, instead it is a process that evolves through time. This happens in both discrete steps and long-term iterations. Discrete steps can be further subdivided or grouped together, with the possibility of magnifying details, and the ability of zooming in and out a story. Long-term iterations are a way to keep asking what's next? what's next? to the machine. At every cycle, the simulation reaches out to each partecipant and asks for an update. In this way all the actors and relations develop in parallel.

  3. Partiality

    Partecipants entangle gradually, and do not come as a monolithic block. They can be imagined as lines: merging together and branching away, tying and loosening knots. (Ingold) This leads to multi-facets characters, where not all the elements needs to interact with each other all the time. Their interfaces can be loose, they don't need to be one hundred percent compatible to come together.

  4. Orientation

    Zooming in and out from the particular, we get a glimpse of a more gradual and diffuse process. A subtle sense of direction emerge from the initial randomness. (By design) the simulation sees software as a mean to orientate these trajectories. How does certain programming languages facilitate certain ways of thinking, and totally block some others?

This procedure helps us to think about software as cultural object. Something "deeply woven into contemporary life –economically, culturally, creatively, politically– in manners both obvious and nearly invisible." (Software Studies, 2009), and not just as technical tool existing in a vacuum.

REQUIREMENTS

Notes:

  • need things to simulate

  • not only

  • the software and hardware circumstances of code (Marino, 2020)

  • but also

  • the relations with non-code entities (Mackenzie, 2006)

  • actors

  • programming languages

  • use cases

  • Generate data

  • possible references to build the dataset

    • Weathering Software Winter (100R)
    • Close to the Machine, Life in Code (Ulman) (focus on episode)
    • Pattern of Software, (Gabriel) (focus on episode)
    • Red Stone Focus?
    • P5js accessibility issues?
    • Paged.js?
    • Screenless Office?
    • Tidal Cycles?
    • Python and diataxis?
    • SI16?

first we need things to simulate:

  • actors
  • programming languages
  • use cases

the simplest simulation

aha how do we define actors?

it reminds me of this OOO statement: objects sink into themselves that is an effective and graphical way to describe technical reference pages and auto generated API specs, with nested nested nested layers of list.

to avoid that let's define actors not for what they are but for what they do (that is fun bc then i wrote grandma, that means functional grandma, that means not someone that has grandchildren but someone that does grandparent functions ??? ok this is not fun anymore and i am sorry)

  • actors

    • web designer
    • interaction designer
    • graphic designer
    • musician
    • teacher
    • student
    • grandma

  • programming languages

    • c
    • javascript
    • python
    • vvvv
    • pure data
    • haskel
    • rust

  • use cases

    • research
    • work
    • art
    • fun
    • activism

then we need to combine thigs from the three categories

  1. web designer, rust, activism
  2. teacher, python, work
  3. grandma, rust, fun
  4. interaction designer, vvvv, art
  5. musician, pure data, work
  6. musician, haskel, research
  7. student, python, art
  8. student, javascript, work
  9. student, javascript, fun
  10. graphic designer, haskel, research

...

side note the first in a series NOT is the series on theory in italian by NERO editions their first pubblication was Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher and it was a declaration of intents. at some point every first is a declaration of intents. but is that so also in random generated series? at first one is tempted to write: no the random generated series is random, and its first element is random as every other. but taking a step back, zooming out, one wonders: which element is the first? where is the declaration of intents? could the command that generate the random series be the first, significative, element of the series itself?

ITERATE

Notes:

  • Explore a combination

  • Visit each element and elaborate on it

  • Highlight aspects of simulation

  • Repeat

  • Repeat with other combination

  • Need to understand how to format this!

  • Meaning: One after the other or all in parallel?

  • TBD

  • Different ways to approach the relation betwen software and context

  • Discrete Temporality

    1. Temporality could also be a way to explore events of the past not every simulation must be set in the present

      ie: Ulman account on childish developers culture (Close to the machine, Life in code) ie: Richard Gabriel timeline for example (Pattern of software)

    2. Temporality could also be non uniform! ie: updating using commits in a version control system, gradually fading away when a project stops being maintained

  • Suspension of Judgement

    1. exploration of margins uncommon or absurd setup why are they absurd? what is the norm?

    2. proxy exploration exploring thing we dont understand software as unknown?

      ie: esolangs

    3. a way to investigate and build on disproportion of means: ie: contemporary infrastracture to code a TODOs app ie: quest for frugality in permacomputing projects

  • Partiality that could also be read as multiplicity

    1. Focus on the same actor in different contexts:

      ie redstone circuits used to develop a virtual minecraft into minecraft itself but also cited by hito steyerl refering to the overflowing of internet into real life, as well as the sinking of real life into internet (steyerl) but also expanded by modders to build different red stone dialects, forking the original one

      ie reclaimed technology tech deployed for military purposes recontextualized for medical uses (find exact references maybe in ways of being) (bridle)

  • Orientation

  • level of details

  1. zoom out to outline trends

    ie coding language hype how languages get popular and then forgotten trending on yt, threads on twitter, conferences, investors! sponsor! etc.

    less about single characters more about their surroundings online communities!

  • When things are vivid enough go on

now that the setup is done, the simulation can start.

to build something meaningful out of these random combinations we can balance between what is defined and what is not. leveraging on the unknown of the simulation gives room for narrations.

so for example we have #04


a musician what is their background?
which kind of music do they play?
where are they based?

using pure data an open source visual programming language
works in real-time
focus on interaction and sound design

for work which kind of occupation?
is it for interactive installations?
to teach sound design?
for live gigs?

see how there are a lot of open questions in the first and third fields, while the programming language is slightly more defined and fixed. this is a good starting point. obviously a programming language is vast and complex and with dozen of features one could be interested in, but for the sake of our system it is useful to leave these things unsaid.

we can use the software as a pivot to orientate the relation between the actor and their intentions.

from where they are coming and where do they want to go? who took them there? what do they need? which particular aspect of pure data resonates with their view of the world? is it the open source nature and the licensing of the source code? the welcoming community thriving around the programming language? or the visual paradigm that facilitates the thinking about and connecting abstractions together?

INSERT DOCUMENTATION AS ELEMENT

Notes:

  • introduce documentation as new element in each simulation
  • look what it does, how it ripples through the system
  • which other element relates with documentation?
  • who has to write, who get to write, who is addressed, how is sustained, etc
  • articulate critical points

WRAP UP

Notes:

  • software as a mean to orientate narratives

  • narratives as a mean to orientate software

  • documentation as a surface to explore

  • how to situate our use of code in the world

  • which context ? situated software

  • why it matters for me!!!!!