Dear List,

Victoria asked me to chime into the discussion to talk about my work in this area and my thoughts in general on the topic of “Performativity of Code”. Over the years both in my own research, projects, and various writing that I have done about digital art and code-based projects, I have seen this terminology being used in many different connotations and contexts.

Some information about me, I’m an artist / designer / professor / critical theory aficionado hybrid working primarily within the context of networks and networked art practice. My PhD thesis was entitled “Deconstructing Networks” and it outlined a methodology for effectively deconstructing the thematic and practical representations we typically hold with networks and how they “should” function by creating a themed array of projects that challenge and subvert these intended forms of use. Several of my projects are programmed with “code” and exist only in digital form, while others explore the hybrid relationships we have between physical interfaces and digital interfaces. Since the early introduction of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), there has been a sense of performativity in play, especially with the fact that we must use our bodies to control and interact with digital systems. 

Whether this interactivity takes the form of the simple use of a computer mouse, trackpad, or keyboard, there needs to be some kind of physical action that connects us to the screen. This relationship has been further expanded by the advent of Physical Computing interfaces and micro-controllers that allow us to connect sensorial inputs to digital interfaces in order to elicit more qualitative input from the public who are interacting with these projects. Attempting to syphon the breadth and depth of human emotions and relationships throughout a mouse pointer is limiting on too many levels to acknowledge.

In my own work I’ve created several projects that connect our physical bodies through actions to processes that occur online as well as some that have a performance-based aspect to them. One project from 2004 called “SimpleTEXT” allowed the public to interact with and ultimately create a performance on the fly by sending text message from their mobile devices to drive a live, interactive audio / visual set. Individually, one of my older projects, “Crank The Web” employed a hand crank (a 2000 year old invention) to connect to a browser so that one could manually crank the handle and download a website. This form of interface allowed us to engage physically with digital objects and processes an in effect “perform” the act of downloading or other similar digital processes. Other obvious examples of performativity of code come from projects like Golan Levin’s “Dialtones” (2001) project that turned the audience into a musical instruments through their cell phone’s ringtones and more recent projects like Petra Cortright’s “Bridal Shower” (2013) that integrates the body into a digital landscape of emotional connectivity.

More recently with the advent of social media we are seeing a new form of performance emerge within the spectrum of microblogging such as Twitter and Facebook status updates. An early project in this realm was Lee Walton’s “Fbook, What My Friends Are Doing On Facebook” (link: http://www.leewalton.com/work/projects/fbook/) that had the artist in a video performing the status updates that his friends wrote on Facebook. This is a form of performance that integrates the networked reality that we live in and although it does not deal with code directly, it is built on the backbone of proprietary code owned by Facebook that enables this kind of sharing to be commonplace. Similar type performances have surfaced such as those on Jimmy Kimmel live where Kimmel asks celebrities to read mean tweets about themselves and thus performs “Twitter” to some degree (link: http://bit.ly/meantwts ). 

So from the art perspective and from the media / social perspective we are seeing a wide range of performance examples that integrate code into theory and popular culture - sometimes without making it very explicit and sometimes by making it very obvious. I think there is plenty potential to advance these forms of performance within the field by integrating more technologies and patterns of use with the social problems and dilemmas that we face daily as individuals and in society.

Looking forward to reading more about the discussion!

Jonah


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Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Ph.D.

AIM: coinop29
Skype: coinoperated
Twitter: @coinop29, @scrapchall
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Artist, Writer, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Parsons, MFA, Design & Technology and ADHT
Co-Founder Dublin Art and Technology Association
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http://www.coin-operated.com - Interactive Networked Projects
http://www.scrapyardchallenge.com - Scrapyard Challenge Workshops
http://www.gadgiteration.org - Workshops for Kids
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