Hi Alan, Thanks for the comments. I guess by "the essence" of the work, I'm considering the absolute minimum that it takes to bring to mind "Seedbed" when looking at the code. In that sense, I think this and "Sleep" are among the best Microcodes yet because it doesn't take an accomplished programmer to understand the relationship given the commands "touch $myself" and "sleep((8*60)*60)" featured prominently in otherwise sparse code.
Regarding the body/psycological/"dis/comfort", these are interesting only because I'm dealing with entities that are entirely void and/or incapable of any of these. No matter what I make the machine do, it's never going to experience and psychological effects nor discomfort. I could attempt to create a script that disables the CPU fan and then compiles the linux kernel in an infinite loop, causing the computer to heat up and possibly even destroy the cpu (I don't know if this could actually be done) but the machine still wouldn't feel any "discomfort" because, despite sensors, it really doesn't "feel" anything and that is an import aspect of what I'm doing with, for instance, "Seedbed" in code. I do understand, to an extent, what you mean but I think we're simply approaching things from entirely different angles. I see the machine as nothing more than that. There is no body, no feeling, no sensation at all. If we attribute any of that to the machine then it's more about our own body, feelings, sensations than the machine's. This is what happens with "Seedbed" in code. If anyone looks at the code and thinks the work has anything to do with autoeroticism, then it's their own autoeroticism that is coming into play, not the machine's. There's nothing inherently erotic about the "touch" command and the "$myself" variable could be called anything at all and it wouldn't change the functionality of the program. best r. Pall On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:27 AM, Alan Sondheim<[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi Paul, > > The essence it seemed to me wasn't self-referentiality or touch (good unix > command too), so much as it was about targeting the ab/use/er, as well as > dirtiness. And code's always clean; even dirty code's clean, so there's that > barrier which is interesting and the question is - which for me parallels > the clean/dirty avatar phenomenology - how can that be broken down > psychologically - how can that sort of dis/comfort be recreated, or can't > it? With avatar, it's useful to create a kind of iconicity which also > functions on an indexical plain - texturing a human face or sexual body for > example. But code/ascii (pre-compiling which brings up, maybe it's in the > binaries that this stuff lies) has a different kind of clarity and it's hard > to see how dis/embodiment might function, even comfortably, this way. The > difference between code as medium (strict code) might be clearer than ways > of smudging it. Obviously I don't code, or code poorly, so in a way I don't > know what I'm talking about, and I admire what you're doing - I'm just > wondering about things like the body of code, the coded body, the decoded > body... > > - Alan > > > On Thu, 2 Jul 2009, Pall Thayer wrote: > >> Hi Alan, >> >> One of the primary reasons that I've "redone" a number of known pieces >> by other artists in these Microcodes is more to point out the >> difference between code as a medium and other media. So the point >> isn't necessarily to emulate the work as closely as possible but >> rather to capture a single "essence" of it in very compact code. I >> think that trying to work the incline and fantasies into this >> "version" of the work would result in considerably more code which >> would in turn make the work overly complex. >> >> On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Alan Sondheim<[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> >>> I knew Vito well back then and visited Seedbed many times - you're >>> missing >>> the grittiness & the compression of the incline - hope you can write them >>> in! The work was obviously uncomfortable, and anyone on the slope was the >>> target of his fantasizing, not to mention the reverse as well - Alan >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, 1 Jul 2009, james morris wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> Ahh! I deleted them! But they're archived on the net. >>>> >>>> >>>> a less clear version of seedbed: >>>> >>>> >>>> #!/usr/bin/perl >>>> $myself = `id -un`; >>>> $mybody = "/home/$myself"; >>>> while(1){ >>>> `touch $mybody`; >>>> print `ls -ld $mybody`; >>>> print `finger $mys...@localhost`; >>>> } >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> james >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On 1/7/2009, "Pall Thayer" <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> ....revisited electronically. Those who follow the list closely may see >>>>> immediately that this was inspired in part by James Morris' >>>>> 'Microcrudities' a while back. Trying to emulate such human activities >>>>> in short code is really interesting. >>>>> >>>>> http://pallit.lhi.is/microcodes/index.php?code_id=29 >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> ***************************** >>>>> Pall Thayer >>>>> artist >>>>> http://www.this.is/pallit >>>>> ***************************** >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> | Alan Sondheim Mail archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ >>> | Webpage (directory) at http://www.alansondheim.org >>> | [email protected], [email protected], tel US 718-813-3285 >>> ! http://www.facebook.com/alan.sondheim >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> ***************************** >> Pall Thayer >> artist >> http://www.this.is/pallit >> ***************************** >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> > > > > | Alan Sondheim Mail archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ > | Webpage (directory) at http://www.alansondheim.org > | [email protected], [email protected], tel US 718-813-3285 > ! http://www.facebook.com/alan.sondheim > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- ***************************** Pall Thayer artist http://www.this.is/pallit ***************************** _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
