Code as Muse:: Process + Product :: Instructional Art ::

Software Art ::

Process over Product• can creative thinking/composition

be simply a matter of composition and selection of found (i.e., already made) materials?

• can creative thinking and making be simply a matter of creating parameters for action?

• (if so, who is the artist? what is the art?)

Process over Product

• dynamics over stasis

• fluxus

• John Cage

• chance operations/ I Ching / aleatoric music

• moving beyond personal intention

• 4’33”

• Yoko Ono

• selected Instruction Pieces

• Cut Piece, 1964

Composition/ Performance

• Lee Walton, F’book: What My Friends are Doing on Facebook, 2009

Software Art

• software

• software art : Computer instructions or data. Anything that can be stored electronically is software. The storage devices and display devices are hardware.

• art made with software (photoshop) vs. software as art (adrian ward’s autoshop & auto-illustrator- offline - misuse at the level of utility)

Software Art

• in the case of “code as muse,” software art, instructional-based art, the muse might become the variance, chance, or difference that might occur with each execution of the code or the code itself....

Code Aesthetics• CodeDOC curated by Christiane Paul• “In traditional art forms, the ‘signature’ and ‘voice’ of an artist

manifests itself in aesthetics of visuals and execution. Every medium may have its specific language but in digital art, this language has a quite literal rather than figurative manifestation. The visual results of an artwork are derived from the language of code. Languages are defined by grammar and complex rules and at the same time leave space for individual forms of creative expression. Our identity and the roles we play are expressed in our use of language. One might assume that the aesthetics of artists who write their own source code manifest themselves both in the code itself and its visual results. How much of a personal signature is found in an artist’s source code?

• ‘CODeDOC’ takes a ‘reverse’ look at artists’ projects by focusing on and comparing the back end of the code. A dozen artists are invited to code a specific assignment in a language of their choice and to exchange the code with each other for comments. The emphasis is placed on process and data while the results are made visible only after the code. The project explores both the artist’s creative expression on the level of source code and the linguistic universe of code.”

Code As Muse• some code artists also take care to write the

code is an artistic way

• cleverness

• Anna Krautgasser, Pedigree

• Mez / Mezangelle (misuse at the level of syntax)

• elegance

• Martin Wattenberg

• minimal, terse lines of code, highly executable

• Alex Galloway (misuse at the level of syntax)

Conceptual Art meets Algorithmic, Generative, or Software art• Algorithm: A finite set of

instructions for how to accomplish a task. Think: calculation or processing data or maybe even painting.

• Sol Lewitt

• John Baldessari on Lewitt

• Sol Lewitt on working with assistants

• Sol Lewitt’s legacy

Conceptual Art meets Algorithmic, or Software art

Software Art• Consider: varying interpretations

• structure, implementation, interpretation, material, process

• Casey Reas {Software} Structures:

“The catalyst for this project is the work of Sol LeWitt. I had a simple question: ‘Is the history of conceptual art relevant to the idea of software as art?’ I began to answer the question by implementing three of LeWitt's drawings in software. [Implemetations with permission of Sol LeWitt]”

Software Art

• Consider: painting on wall v. on screen

• Casey Reas {Software} Structures:

Do these differences distort the result? If this is a work of conceptual art, the concept should remain regardless of the medium.

Other Process based artists of note:

• Lia: Dextro & Turux

• Mark Napier/ Potatoland

Is Code Free Speech?

• It is arguably expressive....

• Gallery of CSS Descramblers

• in response to DMCA: Digital Millenium Copyright Act of June 20th

Assignment 2• Write an “instructional” using

typical conditional statements and syntax like you’d see in a programming language like processing.

• Think about whether you want your instructional to be formal like Sol Lewitt or dreamy like Yoko Ono (or some combination of the two).

Some terms in programming

• functions

• variables

• statements

• comments

Syntax• functions often look like this:

my_fuction();

• statements usually have a semi colon at the end of the line: statement 1;

• conditionals usually have the condition in parentheses and the statements within curly brackets: for (int 1=0; i<5; i++){ dosomething; }

Logical Operators

• && --> and

• || --> or

• ! --> not

Conditional Statements

• If statements

• For loops

• While loops

Assignment 2

• Write an “instructional” using typical conditional statements and syntax like you’d see in a programming language like processing.

DANM EXHIBITION: Permutations