[-empyre-] (n) formative states

[jonCates <joncates@criticalartware.net>]

in a recent post to the generative art listserv "eu-gene", which was 
the result of [cross-posting/pollinating w/] conversations happening 
on the .micrcosound + PureData "PD-List" listservs, Saul Albert 
participated in a discussion of the term "software-art".  responding 
to a post from Philip Galanter, Saul Albert proposed introducing 
greater ambiguity + confusion into taxonomical 
[structures/constructions].

"Philip Galanter wrote:
> >  We do need to be more careful about how we define and categorise our
> >  work. It's hard to do when there are few precedents and doing so may
> >  even feel counterintuitive.

Saul Albert wrote:
> No! Be less careful, define and categorise a thousand times a day, 
> and keep on doing it until nobody >believes in the stability of 
> those categories as meaningful *in themselves* anymore. It's so easy 
> when >there are few precedents!"
...

> "I also suggest a new slew of categories for software art, derived 
> from Borges' observations about the >problems of John Wilkins' 
> taxonomic language system:
>
> "These ambiguities, redundancies and deficiencies remind us of those 
> which doctor Franz Kuhn attributes >to a certain Chinese 
> encyclopedia entitled 'Celestial Empire of benevolent Knowledge'. In 
> its remote pages >it is written that the animals are divided into:
>
> (a) belonging to the emperor
> (b) embalmed
> (c) tame
> (d) sucking pigs
> (e) sirens
> (f) fabulous
> (g) stray dogs,
> (h) included in the present classification,
> (i) frenzied
> (j) innumerable
> (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush
> (l) et cetera
> (m) having just broken the water pitcher
> (n) that from a long way off look like flies."
>
> -----------------
> from 'The Analytical Language of John Wilkins', by Jorge Luis Borges
> http://www.alamut.com/subj/artiface/language/johnWilkins.html
> -----------------"

data.src:
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:45:50 +0000
From: Saul Albert <saul@twenteenthcentury.com>
To: generative art <eu-gene@generative.net>
Subject: Re: [eu-gene] [Fwd: [microsound] 'Code as Art' Digest [from 
the PD-List]]

i was particularly taken w/this exchange for mini reasons, among them 
the crossing of [wires/threads] between the 3 listservs, the 
questions of opaqueness + transparency in the 
linguistic/{il|l}ogical] constructions + the [stability/impermanence] 
of such [structures/definitions]. i was also drawn into this 
conversation b/c i greatly respect the work of both Philip Galanter + 
Saul Albert.
specifically, Philip Galanter's Generative Analog Videos (1993 - 
1998) provide a link between video art + artware in that they are 
feature "video feedback as a chaotic generative system" + function as 
[executables/systems/applications/programs], connecting to Jack 
Burnham's "systems aesthetic".
Saul Albert's 'Artware - Art, Software and conceptualism'
http://twenteenthcentury.com/saul/artware.htm
[article/essay] [is/was] deeply [inspirational/informative] to the 
development of criticalartware. when i first read the text i was 
elated by the word 'artware' (this was i think the 1rst time i read 
'artware' as a term applied to the conflux of [concepts/constructs] 
that were of such great interest to me. later, the group of people 
that would become the coreDevelopers of criticalartware began 
discussing the connections between conceptual art, minimalism, 
performance, expanded cinema, video art, hacking, Radical Software, 
systems aesthetics, the internet, network cultures, genealogies, 
software, current version systems, instructions sets, art as 
executable code, etc, etc, etc...
--
//jonCates
 ---> criticalartware coreDeveloper
http://www.criticalartware.net