20 | 2001

Browsing 20 | 2001 by Subject "code"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Article
  • Article
    Digital Code and Literary Text
    Cramer, Florian (2001-10-22) , S. 1-8
    Digital code as text. Can notions of text that were developed without electronic texts in mind be applied to digital code, and how does literature come into play here? My talk is based on the general (yet disputable) assumption that the theoretical debate of literature in digital networks has shifted, just as the poetic practices it is shaped after, from perceiving computer technology solely as an extension of conventional textuality (as manifest in such notions as 'hypertext', 'hyperfiction', 'hyper-/ multimedia') towards paying attention to the very codedness of digital systems themselves. Several phenomena may serve as empirical evidence: - The early focus of conceptualist Net.art on the aesthetics and politics of code; - in turn, the impact of Net.art aesthetics on experimental literature / poetry in the Internet; - the close affinity of Net.art with political activism in the Internet; - which itself increasingly affiliates itself with an older, technical 'hacker' culture (of Chaos Computer Club, 2600, etc.); - the strong interest for (a) Free/Open Source Software and (b) network protocol standardization in all these camps; - the fact that hacker aesthetics, Net.art aesthetics, code aesthetics and network protocol aesthetics have a tremendous impact on contemporary writing in the Internet. (See the work of mez, Alan Sondheim, Talan Memmott, Ted Warnell and others.) I wll discuss how "Codeworks" (Alan Sondheim) fit notions of text that were crafted without digital code (and most importantly: machine-executable digital code) in mind and vice versa. Is it a coincidence for example that, reflecting the low-level codes of the Internet aesthetically, codeworks ended up resembling concrete poetry? And, apart from aesthetic resemblances, how do computer programs relate to literature? Is that what is currently being discussed as "Software Art" a literary genre? Since many of these positions remain debatable, I would like to put up questions in my presentation rather than give answers.
  • Article
    WYSIWYG or WYGIWYS: Notes on the Loss of Inscription
    Beiguelman, Giselle (2001-10-16) , S. 1-4
    "Content = No Cache" is a curious tag. Placed in the html code it updates the content of any on line page, erasing what was written before. It attributes a new role for writing. From now on it does not inscribe anymore. It is recycled and fades the idea of the original source. In fact there is not any difference between originals and copies just a continuous movement of reorganization of data and fluxes of information. They are identical resetting of the same informative code. But they are not identical for the experience and this is the fascinating of the clone logic. Its possibility of being identical being different. But all those dynamic elements, no matter if they are images, texts or sounds, are now made to be seen on the move, from inside the car or any other vehicle, on the walls, in moblie phones and PDAs, in accordance to entropy and acceleration logic. And also according to a lack of logic of the market, which makes what it is seen a resultant of traffic path, connection speed, browser... Digital culture does not assure visual unit, that kind of unity that allowed Mallarmé to revolutionize poetry, trusting the materiality of the page. In this sense, the loss of inscription points to shifts in perception, visuality and reading and poses an interesting question: How to deal with an art form conceived to be experienced in between, while doing other things?