These are the things Bill has offered me that may be of interest in my pursuit of
the Jabberwock.
What follows is only a symbolic representation of my journey milestones and the cognitive pegs I
will hang information on.
It is equally deadly for a mind to have a system or to have none. Therefore, it will
have to decide to
combine both.
Frederich Schlegel
We are in the midst
of profound technological changes that impact upon how people
communicate, share knowledge and learn.
Genetically engineered
DNA prepared by transplanting or splicing genes from one species into
the cells of a host organism of a different species. Such DNA becomes part of the host's
genetic makeup and is replicated.
(used with a
sing. or pl. verb) 1. Literary criticism that deals with the nature, forms, and laws
of poetry. 2. A treatise on or study of poetry or aesthetics. 3. The practice of writing
poetry;
poetic composition.
Intelligent architectures
both physical and conceptual will need to exist in a the state of
continuous transformation to meet the needs of contemporary society.
The information
architects of this communication environment... "fine" artists, urban planners,
architects, industrial designers, engineers, graphic artists, technological developers and
programmers, will have to take on the increasingly important role of enhancing advanced
communication through cross-fertilization of disciplines in order to facilitate the implementation
of such advanced systems.
Collisions of
Informations and Interfaces
With any new technological
apparatus comes a new set of behaviors and uses of space.
Portable mobile
work or entertainment spaces will also enable access to the kinds of software
environments mentioned above.
One goal of the
use of computer systems is to come to better understand ourselves. Computers
can function as mechanisms of discourse, enabling the exploration of embodied models made
operative through interactive mechanisms. Within this computer- based context, through the
exploration of nonsense, one can witness a contrasting critique of sense. The subtle
displacement of a particular element from a selected context can actually help to illuminate
aspects and/or qualities of functionality. In the Philosophy of Nonsense by Jean- Jaques
Lecercle, the author states:
Could an artist,
using the computer as vehicle of research, define an art practice where the
subject of that practice was an examination of meaning? As computer- based systems and
technological sensory extensions change our relation to both nature and language, we need to
create mechanisms that function at the highest possible level of human/machine interaction in
order to reflect upon this complex plethora of emergent relations. Given the limitations of
language to reflect the complexity of lived experience, we need to move toward the creation of
more sophisticated systems of communication that will allow us to both share and create new
reflective experiences. A rich variety and complexity of experience requires equally complex
transformative technological systems to reflect upon that experience. In the light of this
comment, might we seek to engender new forms of poetic expression to reflect upon the nature
and construction of meaning?
A work of art can
be seen as an organism like vehicle of content that is both generated and
experienced through interaction. Roy Ascott, very eary on, saw this potential. In his paper
entitled Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision published in 1966, Ascott articulated the
following vision:
Behaviourist Art constitutes, as we have seen, a retroactive process of human
involvement, in which the artefact functions as both matrix and catalyst. As matrix, it is
the substance between two sets of behaviours; it neither exists for itself nor by itself. As
a catalyst, it triggers changes in the spectator's total behaviour. Its structure must be
adaptive implicitly or physically, to accomodate the spectator's responses, in order that
the creative evolution of form and idea may take place. The basic principle is
feedback. The system Artefact/Observer furnishes its own controlling energy; a
function of an output variable (observer response) is to act as an input variable, which
introduces more variety into the system and leads to more variety in the output
(observer's experience). This rich interplay derives from what is a self-organising in
which there are two controlling factors; one, the spectator is a self-organising
subsystem; the other, the artwork is not usually at present homeostatic.
There is no prior
reason why the artefact should not be a self-organising system; an organism,
as it were, which derives its initial programme or code from the artists creative activity, and then
evolves in specific artistic identity and function in response to the environment which it
encounters. (Ascott, 1966, p. 11)
I am seeking to
define a particular approach to the authoring of systems that enable engagement
with specific forms of operable media. "Re-embodied intelligence" can be defined as the
translation or encoding of authored media-elements and/or processes into a symbolic language,
enabling those elements and processes to become part of an interactive computer- based
system. Artworks that explore "Re-embodied Intelligence" do so on a case by case basis,
where the author and programmer encode a particular set of art related processes, concepts,
or aesthetic attributes, into a computer-based, operative form. Specifically, the output of such a
system seeks to manifest the encoded sensibility of its author.
The encoded model
of the sensibility of the artist is rendered operative within such an
environment such that the system appears to exhibit intelligent behaviour, i.e. In one case it can
be engaged to build a virtual world informed by this sensibility. Most of us would consider the
building of a virtual world a task that requires intelligence. In this particular case, "Re-embodied
Intelligence" seeks to encode this sensibility such that the computer, functioning autonomously
or in conjunction with a user, can generate environments informed by the artist's mind set.
1. Andreas
