In response to Victoria’s question about class/function/variable names reflecting the work, the idea of the post-structural database, and Bill and Mez’s aesthetic treatment of posts, I was compelled to look through my email archives of the lev.calarts and max lists from the late 90s/00s (yes, I’ve been lurking that long and keep almost everything, lol). nato.0+55 was THE thing and I loved reading NN’s prose. The funny thing is, It’s easier to read now (neural plasticity?). I was learning to program back then and remembered something she said that was important to me at that point. I couldn’t remember the context, but I found it. It was a spat with David Zicarelli over the idea of creating a Max external that would input/output text from the clipboard. Her response was:

one which nato.0+55 already implements 4 1 year.

ideas = matter. + you lack them.

any fool can program + most do.

As someone who was being told, “you’ll never be a programmer!” at the time, it was comforting to believe that ideas were just as important as technicity. From the beginning, the aesthetics of code were important to artists and often reflect the fractured, poststructural way our minds work. I suspect code written by just about any artist reflects content in this manner.

Classic nato performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcug2oqL57U

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Beyond the look of code, though, what interests me these days are various strategies to unpack ideology in code, or ways power, though code, is formed/masked via its operation in culture. Critical Code Studies, Software Studies, Platform Studies, E-Lit, and “digital humanities” (troublesome as the term may be) in general, are exciting in this regard. Cinematic practice is changing and is a potential point of intervention. Reconsidering subjectivity through the lens of speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, non-philosophy, and others has a bearing here. In terms of performativity, I think what interests a lot of artists right now is how/if we can make a difference in the world. DOING something/anything has never been more important. For me, this is where practices developing in the Humanities are useful and creatively nourishing for artists. The MCA (Shanken’s term for Mainstream Contemporary Art) thinks it’s going to do this with little workshops in museums (sorry for the snarky dig at so many RA practices). I think artists working with technology have the potential to contribute at a more foundational and socially relevant level, even if it just means how to tune out. Exciting times! 

Jack


On Mar 4, 2014, at 3:31 PM, Victoria Bradbury <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Jack, you raise many good points.  You say that performativity is embodied
> in your work literally “in the naming of the classes, functions, and
> variables”.  I am very interested in ways that artists use performativity
> directly in the writing of code and would love to hear more about this from
> you Jack or from others who do the same in their own work.