Coding Contingencies is not a written as a text, but runs a simulation.
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.
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 Code Golf 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.
@ -28,20 +27,20 @@ Using the simulation as a writing machine we can articulate these CC with some b
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, with the possibility of magnifying details.
Discrete steps can be grouped together, that results in the ability of zooming in and out a story.
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, preserving memories. (Ingold)
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. (Haraway)
4. Orientation
Zooming out from the particular, we get a glimpse of a more gradient and diffuse process.
A subtle sense of direction emerge through (simulated) randomness.
(By design) this simulation sees software as a mean to orientate these trajectory.
Zooming in and out from the particular, we get a glimpse of a more gradient 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.
@ -121,6 +120,7 @@ then we need to combine thigs from the three categories
07 student, javascript, work
08 student, javascript, fun
09 graphic designer, haskel, research
...
side note
@ -141,6 +141,7 @@ 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?
@ -153,6 +154,7 @@ 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.
