I just wish to make a couple of comments, not in response to any
specific thought but to the larger flow of ideas which is happening
here. Very exciting discussion, I might add. Please forgive me if you
find my ideas somewhat ridiculous and outlandish, but that's the way
I like it.
1. ((machine))
Firstly, livecoding practice so far has mentioned computers
and machines synonymously, which is fine but the problem I
see is that 'machine' and 'computer' are two words that
encompass a world much larger than the microcosm inhabited
by personal computers, whether it be a Mac/Linux/Windows.
In this context I find the following text by my friend Wilfried
Hou Je Bek very provocative:
*" The sundial might be hardware, but the way meaningful information
is derived from it, is the first instance of programming: If (shadow>line):
equinox.
The next step was the development of a formal language in which calculations
based on data, accumulated after years of sundial observation, could be
extrapolated. The first program recreated and analysed the movement of
the sun. The runtime of this program might well have been an animation
of the sun drawn in the sand. Abstraction of time had given to man the
power to simulate the future." *
http://socialfiction.org/sun.html
I would go so far as to say that ANY musical instrument is a kind of
computer, and leave the statement open to debate.
2. ((Interaction))
This notorious word has gained a lot of currency in the past few decades,
but to me it's usage remains somewhat bogus. For me interaction is basically
Newton's Third Law, which guarantees that every time you hit your head
upon a wall, you will feel a lot of hurt. Now over time you may feel that
hitting
a wall with your head may not be such a wise thing to do, and then what
remains
in adulthood is the subconscious definition of wall - 'not to be struck with
head'.
I think the physics of our world is interactive at every level, and
therefore
to say that interaction is a result of automative sensor-response
computations is
not very wise.
3. ((language/linguistic))
Surely the title of this thread should have been "non-textual programming",
since even visual flowcharts or coding systems are languages in the formal
sense?
------- -.-
1/f ))) --.
------- ...
http://www.algomantra.com
Received on Wed Jan 09 2008 - 06:57:44 GMT