User:Steven Rushton/LensbasedMethods

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Sara’s interview of Steve 1st edit: (192 words)

https://hub.xpub.nl/fabulousloopdeloop/index.php/Main_Page

Lately I've been working on a wiki called the Fabulous Loop de Loop (FLOOP).

It's about a particular discourse around cybernetics (the science of feedback systems) The text originated from research for a PhD. The wiki form seemed appropriate for that material; it was the best way to contain the research I had done and to integrate that with the new texts I was writing.

This interest goes back a long way. I started a research group called Signal Noise in London comprising artists, academics and curators and we organised a series of events around the idea of feedback and cybernetics at The Showroom in London.

https://www.theshowroom.org/projects/signal-noise

I think FLOOP takes a different emphasis to this earlier projects. It goes into detail and studies how a discourse came into existence. I study seven particular feedback machines which, over a period of one hundred years, helped develop the discourse of feedback, adaptation and ecology. Throughout I’ve been interested in how the idea of feedback, which is an engineering concept, became a cultural concept. The idea has a great talent for change and adaptation.

Changing to the wiki format was a very significant difference for me because that the way I organised the things I'd written previously, and it changed what I subsequently wrote. The wiki provided a particular structure.



Sara’s interview of Steve, raw material: (439 words)

First version: Lately I've been working on a wiki called the fabulous loop de loop it's about a particular discourse around cybernetics which is the science of feedback systems yes that's my initial and that takes a lot of a lot of hassle it's OK I'm happy for it to do that next question please I'm making it because originally the text started as a PhD and then it took on the wiki form which seemed to be appropriate for the subject because the subject is about feedback and have one how the action informs the subsequent action and that was happening with the text so the wiki was the best way to contain that the form of the weekly was the best way to contain that and I've been working with wiki is quite a lot in this course and with the ex-pub students and I wanted to find a way of extending my skills in using the wiki well a few years ago now I started the group of research group called signal noise in London and that conducts that composed artists and academics and curators and we organised a series of events around the idea of feedback and around these ideas of cybernetics which originated in the 1940s and became very influential until the 1960s and more or less ubiquitous in SoC today how is it different distressingly similar to other things I have done it seems to be a little obsession of mine that I've been hammering away at over over decades now I think there is a difference in the depth of knowledge that I have if I look back at the first things I wrote on this subject and generally what I've been interested in is how this idea of feedback which is an engineering concept became a cultural concept so that now we all give each other feedback on various different devices that was my original observation and my original interest in researching it so so so really I think the fabulous loop the loop is is much more of a I could demick sort of document in the other things I did different sources I think changing to the wiki format was a very significant difference because that changed a lot of the way I organised the things I'd written previously and it changed what I subsequently wrote because then suddenly I had a form which I could get have an overview of which gave me a particular structure so those are the two significant thing so reasons that I was the most significant thing wiki thank you and now my


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Opening the text up.

This is a picture of a machine.

Lately I've been working on a wiki called the Fabulous Loop de Loop (FLOOP).

It's about a particular discourse around cybernetics (the science of feedback systems. The wiki form seemed appropriate for that material; it was the best way to contain the research I had done and to integrate that with the new texts I was writing.

This interest goes back a long way. I started a research group called Signal:Noise in London comprising artists, academics and curators. We organised a series of events around the idea of feedback and cybernetics at The Showroom in London.

https://www.theshowroom.org/projects/signal-noise

I think FLOOP takes a different emphasis to this earlier projects. It goes into detail and studies how a discourse came into existence. Central to FLOOP is the idea that the 19th century question of how energy is distributed gave way, in the 20th century, to the question of how information is distributed. I study this shift in emphasis through an examination of seven feedback machines which helped develop the discourse of feedback, adaptation and ecology over a period of one hundred years. These machines played a performative role in changing people's attitude to this issue.

Changing to the wiki format was a very significant difference for me because that the way I organised the things I'd written previously, and it changed what I subsequently wrote. The wiki provided a particular structure.