PHP 3

Prof. AlvaradoMDST 3705

31 January 2013

Business• Course Schedule posted

– Include project days in April that may be used for more content, depending on progress

Review• Hackers = builders

– Coders and Painters are both hackers– Building is a way of knowing (praxis)– Coders and Painters have different skills

• Hacking involves awareness of two levels– LEVEL 1: Rules, methods, techniques– LEVEL 2: Effects, emergence, products– The two levels interact– The two levels are in tension

Programs like 10 PRINT and Conway’s Game of Life exemplify the difference and relationship between

levels

Finite RulesInfinite Patterns

Digital art is created by algorithms

like these

What happens when we want to study “real” art and literature?

How can we use the computer to help in the task of interpretation?

(The digital humanities is about interpreting the art, literature, and other products of

human intellectual labor)

We can view works of art and literature as patterns generated by rules

What about text?

Claude Shannon showed that English is governed by probabilities

It is possible to generate sentences that almost make sense, using a random generator, like the 10 PRINT program, governed by probabilities for each letter or word

Let’s experiment …