Wired? Packet? Lecture? Whuhuh?

Okay, I'm not sure whether I should be posting about the lecture, Wired, or that stack of fantastic articles. So I'll do a little of all and see where that goes.

First off, the Cory Arcangel speak was fantastic. I really enjoyed his work; he definitely works in mediums, and does projects very similar to things that I am interested in, and can relate to. He was very clever and came off as very humble and unpretentious, which I felt was very welcome. He genuinely seemed to enjoy what he did, and did it out of pure enjoyment rather than "because people expect it" of him, which is what it should all be about.

Damn. Too bad my Commodore 64 and Atari 800 are in storage up at my parent's place. I've got my Amiga 4000 to hold me over in the mean time I guess.

Articles! One of the articles in the stack that Rachel handed out was titled "If () then ()" by Jutta Steidl (boss name!) and deals with programming language vs. poetry. It discusses poetic works from the past conforming to fit within grids, shapes, step by step like works that create images "reflecting speech as a medium in itself."

It goes on to discuss poetry done as code; which when executed by a machine will produce further text; however it is felt that code poetry requires an understanding of coding to appreciate the art form. But I believe that's like anything; you must be educated in many cases in order to fully appreciate the work.

I for one would understand the code for a "foreign" programming language about as well as I understand "classic" poetry. I don't really understand or enjoy it, but I can at least respect it, and the work the artist does. If that makes sense.