[-empyre-] to jacob & homay

[Zach Blas]

hi all--

i’ve also been busy with micha putting together a curated set of
videos for mix nyc, a queer experimental video festival.

since this week is broadly on the topic of computation and the
nonhuman in queer media art & theory--and since it’s the last day on
this topic, i’d really like to bring in jacob and homay. while
michael, jack, and ian have really heated up the discussions on sr and
ooo, homay and jacob have different approaches to these topics that
i’d like to not let get completely side-lined.

jacob, micha and i for awhile have been interested in viruses. i was
thinking about viruses in relation to your work on uncomputability. in
the exploit, galloway and thacker talk about viruses as illegible and
incalculable. the virus also shows up in shu lea cheang’s new work
UKI, which she refers to as a live viral code spam performance.
http://www.u-k-i.co/index-project.html i’m also thinking about ricardo
dominguez and the electronic disturbance theater and how they’ve
conceptualized some of their work as viruses infecting capital and
dominant systems of power. i wonder if you have any thoughts on the
virus. perhaps it can be paired with the glitch. but the nonhuman in
queerness could also be approached through nonhuman things that have
strongly impacted queerness, and the virus would certainly be one of
those things. there’s a new issue of women studies quarterly on the
viral. maybe some people are addressing these questions in there? i’m
asking these questions and bringing up the virus because i’m curious
about building the repertoire of queer tech logics you’ve discussed
through and beyond failure and the glitch.

homay, micha shared your work on turing with me. and i remember in
your article you attempt to work through how Turing’s scientific and
computational research could be infused with his erotic desires. could
you say more about this? and maybe how turing helps you investigate
how queer desire can shape or affect computation?

--
zach blas
artist & phd candidate
literature, information science + information studies, visual studies
duke university
www.zachblas.info