infome

Because of their specific history, we think of computer languages and code as symbolic abstractions of natural languages, and computers as universal machines manipulating these symbols. However, today every computer exists in relation to the Internet, whether it is connected or not. Every software is potentially a networked software, a building block of the networks we live within and through. Because of this, code is no longer Text, a symbolic representation of reality - it is reality. To write code is to create and manipulate this reality. Within it, artist-programmers are more land-artists than writers, software are more earthworks than narratives, this creates new and fascinating issues in terms of referentiallity and meaning for the coding artist to delve into.

The papers in this issue reveal a range of conceptions of code. The reading here is doubly satisfying, not only for the clear presentations of these engaging projects, but for the sense of code as undercurrent, the way encoding, language, and artistic expression are separate undertakings, but inescapably intertwined.

(Source: Editorial)