User:Tancre/readings/Cramer on software art

Florian Cramer on Software art

2001_SOFTWARE ART

what is software art? attention on the how, which medium
(computer music, graphics, electronic literature, computer-controlled electronic installations, net art...)

digital art (made of 0 and 1)< [new] media art
historically rooted in video art but false assumption that is conventionally visualized on screens
focus on the particular media rather than the structure of programming, reinforced by the fact that the code is hidden
computer art is rich of works where programming is invisible (for example john cage - roarotorio)
>> software is overlooked as artistic material and as a factor in the concept and aesthetics of a work
this happen in parallel with the mac and windows GUI camouflage of the running on program code in their operation and aesthetics.
1997 I/O/D - the web stalker
visualize websites in their codes and structures + the code of web stalker itself. no readable conventional web but code.
>>piece of net art that analyze its medium + reflection on how reality is shaped by software
joint operation of complex systems and their generative processes create its own aesthetics, not anymore restricted but system as a whole. (what developing software is about)
if software is machine control code so digital media are literally written.
>> electronic literature not just as simple text but also text of 0 and 1
passage from all the mutually dependent layers (from binary to GUI, simple to complex) and back.
not only computer systems as media but it manipulates them when machine instructions.

software art as a shift of the view from display to the creation of systems and processes themselves, is not covered by media and multimedia as umbrella term does not imply this process.
>> net art and software art are not exclusive categories but different, focuses one on distribution and display and the other on the systemics
but is generative code exclusive to computer programing?
1961 la monte jung - composition 1961 (Fluxus)
is considered one of the first pieces of minimal music 'draw a straight line and follow it'
can be considered seminal work of woftware art + extremist aesthetic consequence in infinite space and time
but not aesthetically detached from its performance. the actual lline can be considered as a second layer instruction but as impossible to perform it phisically it becomes meta-phisical, conceptual, epistemological.
>> 1961 henry flynt's definition of concept art
"art of which the material is ‘concepts,’ as the material of for ex. music is sound."
the structure or concept is aesthetically more interesting than the product of their phisical execution
dodecaphonia is the first
>>software art is art where the material is software
mathematics to de-emphasizing attribution to scientific discovery. the same as in their contemporary computer scientist
>>1962 donald knuth - the art of computer programming
applied mathematics of programming as an art

should transmediale software art criticists consists of mathematicians and computer scientists?
what is known as concept art now is less rigorous in its immaterialism but first major exhibition was named 'Software' 1970 curated by jack burnham, 'software as a metaphor for art', stressed by cybernetical social dimension of programed systems rather than pure structure.
now software as a functional tool, not an aesthetic, not anymore like conceptualist clean-room constructs but react to these stereotype.(the web stalker)

TRANSMEDIAL.01
pc user software that acts against their codification
adrian ward - signwave auto-illustrator > mapping internal functions against their corresponding on the gui
nezvanova - nebula m.81 > mapping the signifiers of program output against human readability
artistic control vs generative iterations of machine code
generative systems not as negation of intentionality but balance between randomness and control
reflection on artistic subjectivity and extension to generative systems.

2002_CONCEPTS, NOTATIONS, SOFTWARE, ART

software and concept notation

software in the art
critics and scholars, computer as storage and display media, which transmits and reformats images, typography
reflection on the invisible layer are rare. digital art associated with digital images,sound,typography
the software which control is neglected, black box behind the scene.
Interactive installations perceived as the interaction with the viewer, not as systems running the code.
Observation valid on everything that relied on programmation and computing.
1981 John cage – roarotario > algorithmic work but nothing of the code is published.
History of digital and and computer-aid arts as history of ignorance against programming (hidden in the black box) and programmers (coding slaves who execute artist's concepts).
Software code as a conceptual notation, continuation of romanticist philosophy privileging aisthesis(perception) vs poeisis(construction). Art only what is tactile,audible,visible.
Digital arts the same when they call themselves new media art, but older, superficial justification for lumping together different technologies, such as analog video and computing, just because new in time.
If medium is something between the sender and the receiver, computer are not only media as the can send and recive, write and read, interpret and compose messages within their rules. Computer become media only because they can emulate old medias by the virtue of the analog interfaces which transform the digital 0 1 in analog and viceversa.
a crash course in programming
> dadaist poem Hugo Ball – karawane
algorithmic instructions > perl code to randomize 2 words (tumba /ba-umpf) in 8 lines
control structures, architecture and building. Computer programming collapse concept notation and execution.

Contrary to conventional data (img,snd,txt) algorithmic instruction code allows a generative process. Computer for computation, not only storage, display, transmission media. This distinguish program code from non-algorithmic digital code, algorithmic composition vs data storage CD,mp3/ hypertwxt /graphical computer /video tape.
You can use computer without programming but is impossible to not use programs so who programs? No data without programs, no digital arts without software layers.
>>software art, pay attention to how and by whom programs are written. Separation between data and programs as a convention, instead data could be directly embedded inside the code and used for transmission and output.

software art

executable code in art if software as logical instructions, so it is not limitated to computers. Dadaist poems as software, only requirement to be executable by a human being or machine. Piano score as software. Text as software.

VS Kittler's media theory - there is no software (at least without the hardware running it).
Because of mental execution, ex. Programming handbooks that provides examples not really executed. Mind computation. Or dadaist poem's instructions (tzara).

software art vs concept art
what is software and how it is related to non-electronic art >> 1970 Burnham 'software' exhibition, first show of concept art. (Nelson – Xanadu, hypertext system)
what in common between concept art and software art?
-the collapsing of concept notation and execution into one piece
-the use of language, instructions or concepts. (flynt – concepts bound with language so its material its language)
>> software as literature in formal language
software art exposes its instructions and codedness, is a subset of conceptual art.
La monte young – composition 1961 > 'draw a straight line and follow it' only a concept
1971 Sol Lewitt – plan for a concept art book > instruction to draw lines or strike out letters material, graphic art
but more minimalist than conceptualist. Lewitt - plan
combinatory language speculations (sefer jezirah, ecstatic kaballah, raimundus lullus – ars, mallarme – livre)
meaning is the terror, of the concept, of the algorithm, grounded in the minimalist conception and totalitarian execution and collapsed in the code. Sade – 120 days of sodom > as a recursive programming of excessand its simultaneous reflection in the medium of prose
Knuth – art of computer programming > then in hacker culture, levy – 'tou can create art and beauty with computers', hacker more related with classicist notion of art as beauty than avant-garde
software art aesthetics includes ugliness and monstrosity as much as beauty, plain dysfunction, pretension and political incorrectness. Also software art not out of nothing but already available software code vs tzara poem, synthetic clean-room construction. Postmodern dimension of reflecting, manipulatin and recontextualizing pre-existing software.

software formalism vs software culturalism contemporary software art discourse in Matthew Fuller and Graham Harwood, I/O/D and Mongrel.
'webstalker' > link structure as 'social software' to empower non-literate users to design their own digital systems, 'natural selection' > politically manipulated web search engine.
Fuller – cultural analysis of microsoft word UI + 'software as culture'
Adrian Ward – 'auto-illustrator' /Alex McLean – forkbomb.pl /Geoff Cox – generative.net + dorkBot gatherings
Opposite position to software criticism:
cultural, politically coded construct VS formal poetic and aesthetic+individual subjectivity in algorithms
software art >> art which material is formal instruction code and/or which addresses cultural concepts of software

2002_CONTEXTUALIZING SOFTWARE ART =

contextualization of art and software

contextualizing and de-contextualizing. Art as software and computer software as art. 2 levels:
artists who use software as a material or reference / juries and curators who decide whether a piece of software is interesting as art or not (a person can be both)
Moscow festival 'read_me' > Alexei Shulgin – anonymously entered a cracker software which disturbed visually Microsoft Windows desktop interface into the software art competition. Question on what include into the category of software art.

1. Jodi – surgery/havoc ( Net.art ) > no C, java or basic, so no software/algorithm, only graphical mock-ups of algorithms.
   

de- or miscontextualizes it as software + aeshtetic and cultural reflection of software.
Example of how software art doesn't have to be real software.

1. Eldar Karhalev, Ivan Khimin – screen saver > the opposite, simply step-by-step instruction to configure the windows screensaver for a monolithic display of a square moving and changing colour. (Malevich – black square) but why software art? No hardcore computer programming. But software in 2 ways
   

• post- or meta-sfotware in the manipulation of existing software (vs from scratch)
• plain English instruction for misconfiguring the software is a formal instruction code itself, algorithm

what is software art, or: what could it be?

If software-ness why software art? Critics and scholars first considered computer in Storage/display/transmits/reformats img/sound/typography but no reflections on the invisible layer of software history of digital and computer-aided arts as history of ignorance against programming and programmers. Programs locked into black boxes, programmers as slaves. Software as conceptual writing. Problem in the fact of digital art as new media art so lumped with unrelated technologies as analog video. Computers not as medium but senders and receivers too, capable of write and read, interpret and compose messages within the limitation of software rule. Software art VS meaningless term media in arts and criticism.

1. a crash course in programming

software as a logical score put down in a code. Doesn't matter which sign system (0-1,alphabet,morse code). 1924 tzara - dada poem > shuffling words, algorithm, piece of software which may be written for a computer transcription from English to Perl, from non machine software to machine software. You could do in the same way the opposite. You can execute the program as well in your mind. VS kittler – there is no software without hardware software (program code) allows generative process VS non-algorithmic digital code(storage,transmission,hypertext) No data without programs, no digital art without software layers. Discuss software art means not to take software for guaranteed, but pay attention to how and by whom programs were written.

software art, executable code in art

concept art and software art - what software is and how it relates to non-electronic contemporary art? 1970jack burnham 'software' first concept art exhibition / henry flynt definition of software art) / ted nelson -xanadu software art as art whose material is formal instruction code. 2 things in common with concept art: -collapsing concept notation and execution into one piece -use of language (software art – instructions / concept art – concepts) in both the material is language software art differs from software-based art as it exposes its instructions and codedness la monte young – composition 1961 / lewitt – plan / Sefer Jezirah and ecstatic Kabbalah / raimundus lullus – ars / mallarme – permutational poetry / 1771 quirinus kuhlmann' sonnet concept art as terror of the concept, software art as terror of the algorithm, from minimalist concept notation and totalitarian execution in a single medium of instruction code. Sade – 120 days of sodom > as a recursive programming of excess and its simultaneous reflection in the medium of prose popularity of spamming and denial-of-service code as proof of this perverse double-bind between software minimalism and self-inflation > transmediale.02 – tracenoizer, forkbomb.pl + jodi + screen saver all those pieces of art in common the hacker.-approach to software. Even with attempt to hack software itself as a concept. Is software art an arty repackaging of hacking, lowbrow version of what is written in hacker and free software communities? It is a question of contextualization donald kunth – the art of computer programming / steven levy – you can create art and beauty with computer but romantic notion of art as beauty and elegance in code, aesthetic conservativism in engineering and hard-science culture fractal graphics of neo-pythagorean digital kitsch In contemporary art software art aesthetic includes also ugliness, monstrosity, plain dysfunctionality, pretension and political incorrectness. Also code not out of nothing but re-work from abundance of available sources (post-modern art condition) reflection,manipulation, recontextualization.

free software and software art the relationship between software art and non-software art is not easily dismissed. First community to understood software as intertextual was the FLOSS which produced software like GNU and Linux, many of their software can be successful as software art if properly contextualized. >> Www.sweetcode.org aalib – transform computer graphics real time into typogrammatic text code (img, video, games - doom and quake) ASCII art > demonstration bb / net.art – ASCII art ensemble (porn 'deep throat' in ASCII)

software art >> danger: premature cano abolishes barriers + new ones / contextualization = disciplining / software programming and digital art as two net.cultures + conflict is productive

2003_TEN THESES ABOUT SOFTWARE

what is not in 2003 wiki – software art definition as addressing graohic design of visual elements in software as GUI,Icons...

what is use of digital software to produce works, digital data made up of symbols and instrumete comprised entirely in those symbols. As writers that produce artworks that are not language-so, like recursive loop. 0-1 of digital arts related to the 0-1 of the instruments with wich they are not only created,displayed,produced.

there is no digital without software > all digital art are software art as at least software-aided software art where is not regarded as external aid but part of its own aesthetic.

need not be digital or electronic socialfiction.org – .walk > psychogeographical computer (from situationism) fluxus / concept art / brecht,la monte young, lewitt,cage/ turing machine

is not synonymous with concept art 1961 brecht – lamp event > binary instruction on.off VS.walk >>conceptual that address software VS opposite software art contradict the equation of 1970 burnham – 'software' exhibition and first issue 'radical software' not anymore paradigm of conceptual but since PCs and Internet is a contingent culture not relation of symbols. Net.art by jodi/alexei shulgin/ vuk cosic/ I/O/D / aestheticised this culture, liberating digital art from academic and industrial sleekness Jodi > from 1996 experiments with screen graphics and network communication, first work rebelling against the limitations of its software context (OSS) then reprogramming of softwares (Quake) finally reduction of visible object to simple BASIC sourcecode (10 programs written in BASIC 1984).

similarity with concept art in use of minimalist form, but contradictory, not reflect spirit of lucy lippard – 'six years', dematerialisation of the art work from 1966 to 1971, because today software art is understood as material. Precondition of the understanding of today codeworks:jodi/antiorp/mez/alan sondheim/johan meskens/lanny quarles syntactic elements from programming languages, network protocols, system messages, computer-cultural slang. Pascale gustin > email

is not synonymous with algorithmic art software defines algorithms but different from algorithmic and generative art philip galanter - generative art > "Generative art refers to any art practice where the artist creates a process, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other mechanism, which is then set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art." software art involve autonomy as in burnham essay influenced by cybernetics and general system theory but sub-genres of game modification and experimental browser, not concerned with autonomy of algorithmic processes but more on irritative cpuplings of sftwr, humans, network data. In generative art software is only one possible means, that may only contribute, does not see it as part of its aesthetic, but permit it work in the background. Generative in software art only in the metaphorical rather than the technical sense when it writes dysfunctional and imaginary software.

is not being made in vacuum, but part of a software culture software not as generative process control, but material. Not conceptual and generative art as pure syntax (in the 70 research on software and hackers as elite) but semantic with aesthetic, cultural and political aspects (free software, monopolies, patents, adware, spyware). Software criticism exist in scattered effort, Wolfgang Hagen/Matthew Fuller and mailinglist softwareandculture by jeremy hunsinger.

is not programmer's art gap between using/programming results from GUI by apple and microsoft. Assigned 2 methods of operation usage/programmation. Programming becomes a black art, mystified as elitist, specialist knowledge. Myth of the hacker as the romantic ideas of the genius.

Danger of continue this discourse in software art, but dysfunctional software and manipulation of existing ones doesnt require programming expertise. Software not only as material but also as the object of its reflection, can be set into different material, julia guther,jakob lehr – 'n:info' at 'browserday' festival 200 > browser in the form of a portable window frame VS iconic PC software by analog device metaphore of digital software exploring the web browsing as cultural technique, mode of perception and thought.

genre clichés could make software art boring danger of stereoptypes also when no specific material (like Fluxus). In software art if narrowed down to experimental web browsers, data visualizations, modified computer games, cracker codes (viruses and fork bombs). Another problem, association with media art system, that interesting computer programs (like GNU/linux or free software) do not reach software art competiotions, festivals and exhibitions.

discussion whether software art can be called art at all is not actually concerned with software art naïve version, software as engineering, more complex, multifaceted culture (art in the sense of ars, artifice. but this question the concept of art itself). Thanks to hacker immagination of free software programmers is possible to collect declared artistic or not in software art, festival exhibition curated by Alexei Shlugin. Lev manovich – don't call it art: ars electronica 2003 > new variant, because as focused in a specific material it doesnt belong to 'contemporary art'. But in museum exhibitions the contemporary art that can be seen display a neutral attitude to their material. Large format painting and photo art for private collections VS academic, video-aided, installation art in the field of cultural studies. Software as a generic term (as painting,video,sound,script) defined by critics and curators, not by artists, who observed a trend in using software as its material in contemporary digital art. Legitimate because it results from contemporary art produced in the form of software, demanding a theory and criticism of software art.