RE: [-empyre-] Re:it's the flow through

[Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>]

> Well that¹s one way to get a lurker onto the printed page ­ quote her. Hello
> Jim, hello everyone.
>
> I really think  that in the case of the French artists, programming
> facilitates; they know the programming  language (Lingo).  One of them has
> said that he can speak it as well as his native French. Which means to me
> that the programming operates more like an open door, allowing the artists
> energies to flow through it and create an experience for the hungry user.
> But neither energy nor experience originate there.
>
> Rather (I think) they derive from ³a collaboration between mind and heart²
> (Nikos Kazantzakis),  an integration that then because of an almost perfect
> use of  the new language allows its energy to flow through the work, making
> an experience possible for the user/audience.   Those who write well; or
> sing well, who have learned to use their talents so they flow through the
> technologies of choice  are the ones who create experiences for us. (the
> writing, the singing, the multi-media work) ..
>
> I yearn for this on the net. And do believe that  among the young  -- those
> who have grown up speaking these language in their art, we are beginning to
> see it.
>
> Cheers, Helen
>
Hi Helen,

Yes, I think you're right, Helen, to place the focus on integration of the mind and heart. When
we look at the gap between the cultures of science/technology and art, that's what comes to
mind, that's what we take to heart.

Mind    heart
concept experience

And this is the 'value' of understanding the media/technology we work with, so that the human
energy, mind, heart, concepts, and experience can be expressed/manifest/(or at least)
interpretable, not overwhelmed and defocussed by the machine or medium.

Actually, the delay in sending the first part of 'The Roles of Programming in Digital Art' is
because of trying to deal with the very issue you raise, rather than appearing to emphasize the
importance of programming without acknowledging how it relates to the above issues.

I got an email today from Patrick Henri Burgaud, a French poet. He says, in describing a
position taken by a group including Alexandre Gherban, Philippe Bootz, Tibor Papp, Jean-Pierre
Balpe, Patrick-Henri Burgaud, Ambroise Barras from Geneva, Philippe Castellin, editor of Docks,
and digital artists: Antoine Schmitt from Paris / Connexion, Michel Bret, Louis Bec: "nothing
radically new can come from the screen based poetry if programing is not considered as a main
component inside the totality of this particular communication system."

Why?

I think the conviction rests on the observation that the single most important phenomenological
observation one can make about computers is that they are programmable. That is what sets
computers apart from other machines and provides their radical poetential flexibility as
machines.

And understanding the phenomenology is important to being able to "allow the artists energies to
flow... and create an experience".

By the way, I profited formatively from the work you did and also edited and published in the
80's concerning the phenomenology of radio and recorded sound. That was important to me being
able to finally come to a sense of composition in radio and recorded sound.

ja