RE: [-empyre-] some introduction ::

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

Re: Visual Basic - my programming as you probably know is absurdly simple
in it. But I can manipulate the mathematics part easily - it's the rest
that would be difficult were I to create a tool such as you describe. I
tend to work with 'part objects,' nothing more than functions that I can
hand-manipulate and call on; my programs are very short, unrefined.

I think we might all have these 'vocabularies' we apply and are
comfortable with. I know when I'm making music, on just about any
instrument I have riffs that I can apply when I'm at a loss or lazy - the
trick is getting around them, inverting them, or ignoring them altogether.

- Alan


On Wed, 5 Nov 2003, Jim Andrews wrote:

>
> > > Hi - Can you say more about this? I'm not at that stage vis-a-vis
> > > programming - I have to consciously make decisions, test things
> > > visually/aurally. How do you achieve a state where you can really
> > > do what you want?
>
> It isn't exactly the case that one finds that what one wants 'is a shell, an
> empty husk of meaning from which the purpose breaks, if at all, only in
> fulfillment,' but as with writing and most of the other things we create,
> there's the intention and then there's the realization, and these can differ
> in all sorts of ways. Sometimes productively, as one responds not only to
> what one has created but the possibilities at hand, sometimes
> disappointingly. A feel for the possibilities of chance is, as always,
> useful.
>
> I have spent most of the last year creating a tool I hope to use to create
> some art. What I wanted to do was not possible with the tools at hand. Much
> of the year has been spent in making the tool usable by others, and salable
> to others. But this process also makes the tool more flexible and granular
> than it would have been had I made it for only my own use. And it will
> finally be easier to use by me, too, as well as others.
>
> If you really insist on doing what you want, it can take quite a while. So
> you have to be kind of selective about what you insist on. But if you don't,
> you can be guided rather a lot by the easy possibilities at hand, which can
> 'cliche out' quickly. I skipped among technologies for several years,
> leaving them when I felt I cliched them out. I have been using Director
> since 99, however, and don't feel I've done that yet, don't feel that
> possibility as imminent (or is that immanent?). I note you are using Visual
> Basic now, Alan. How are you finding that?
>
> > yes, sometimes things interact in a different way that one expected
> > it's the 'accident',  and it can be highly creative
> > and you can play with this 'chance', as a new tool
>
> Yes, the accident can be productive. Many of the accidents are unproductive,
> ie, the thing just won't run, bugs out, but occassionally the happy accident
> arises. Being receptive to such possibilities is important, I agree.
>
> ja
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>

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