Carl-Johan Rosén

The book At the Catastrophy-Point: The analytical observer's notes on Complementary Cubes presents my artistic and media archeological analysis of the film Complementary Cubes1 by artist Manfred Mohr. It is both a visual and theoretical account of how the original programming code that created Complementary Cubes is reconstructed from digital video material.

The film Complementary Cubes presented itself to me as I was looking for some kind of visual material generated from code. Manfred Mohr wrote a computer program in 1974, and that program created Complementary Cubes. In this book I use it as a starting point for an artistic and media archeological exploration of a field between surface and code, between the product of a computer program and the programming code. My first intention was to use Complementary Cubes merely as an example that would initiate a general discussion of a field between surface and code. But as my research evolved, my interests gravitated toward the main topic of Mohr’s work: the cube, and my work became inseparable from his. I have sought the code that Mohr wrote and I have tried to find a path from the product to the program in reverse.

The catastrophy-point, according to Mohr, is where the illusion of a three-dimensional cube collapses into a visual impression of lesser dimensions. I build on this notion of collapse into different dimensions to acknowledge that already the digital video is dependent on an illusion, and threatens to collapse into digital material of other dimensions.

Word embeddings are the contemporary machine's way of understanding human language. They are used for text analysis and composition, language modelling and text search, in automatic recommender systems and in many other contexts involving human language.

But how do machines perceive human language and text? Can humans even begin to understand?

The book I speak myself into an object is also a computer program by the same name. They contain each other. The book contains the computer program as text spread over its pages. The computer program contains the book as the potential result of its process: when the program is run it lays out its own code as a book.

Apart from giving form to and presenting the code/text, the program create all paratext including the list of content, pagination, cover and references. The references are code libraries1 written by others that I speak myself into an object build on. The book contain six such reference libraries presented in binary form (as columns of black and white pixels) in the final part of the book.

The story of the cover is presented in the chapters Cover and ScreenTools. There it is told how the program chooses a small area of the screen on the computer running the program, and expands it. How the title and name of the author are positioned on the spine and front through a number of operations. Additionally how a thin gray surface cover what will become the spine, and how a light noise is applied to the whole cover.

All of this is revealed to the reader. The text speaks of nothing but the construction of the book, but it is written in a language rarely seen in print: C++. It is one of the most popular programming languages, read and written by thousands around the globe. Precisely read and written, because it lacks common pronunciation. It is primarily a written language, and it is through digital writing that its potential as agent and transformer is considered to be realized. As spoken language or analogue writing (as in I speak myself into an object) the language is shifted outside the typical context. When the text is read (both quietly and aloud) we have the opportunity to understand the code differently, beyond efficiency and function.2

En ek i slänten ner mot åkern har kapats en knapp meter över marken, och lagats igen. För att trädet skall kunna leva vidare har stor omsorg lagts på att sammanfoga de två snittytorna så att barken kan fortsätta transportera vatten upp till trädets krona. Återupprättandet av trädet skedde julen 2011. Knappt tre år senare syns inga tecken på liv. Det finns dock hopp om att trädet en vår åter skall knoppas.

Conference poster2 presented at Popular Culture and World Politics. In collaboration with Olof Sjölund and Claes Wrangel.

Computers and other software-based apparatuses belong to a group of actors called digital units. A digital unit is something loosely defined in the area of software and electronics. It has the distinct property of not being reducible to the sum of its parts, and exhibit non-simple behaviors. Also, it does not allow itself to be described in metaphors of organic life; like “life” or “reproduction”.

The question approached in No translation given is what it means to communicate with this digital unit and how the communication changes the horizons of both parties. What amount of respect do humans owe this digital other before, after and during the process of interpretation of its experiences? I search for common grounds between a being who see the world through a keyboard, a wind-sensor or a stream of bits, and a being who sees the world through eyes, arms and natural language.

No translation given was selected to be part of the generative art anthology Written Images. The initiators describe the project as "a generative book that presents programmed images by various artists. Each print in process will be calculated individually – which makes every single book unique."1

On digital beings was presented and published at the European Conference on Computing and Philosophy 1. The article argues for uniqueness as a distinct value of digital beings (also: digital units.) Using earlier works as illustrations, the argumentation takes a stance against the anthropocentrism and simulation of animal behaviors in technology, as a the only tool for bridging the gap between humans and digital units. Instead, the article suggests an acceptance of the radical otherness of digital units, and of the uniqueness of every digital unit.

Three digital units were created in connection to this article, and also presented at the conference. Each unit has a sensor through which it registers the world (like a light or wind sensor), and an actuator through which it can act in the world (like a lamp or fan). What the unit register determines how it acts, and its action influences its perception of the world. This dependency between perception and action is controlled in a very simple algorithm, but even so the behaviors of the three units do appear complex due to influence of the environment.

A heuristic algorithm was constructed to analyze facts/memories from a persons life. The algorithm finds mathematical equations describing fluctuations of thirty six selected values (hope, faith, longing, naivety ...) Through the equations, the method allows us to make predictions about the future. In this particular case until the year 2016.1

Between the equations grew a wider picture of the future. Comparing the equations revealed correlations that appear surprising, but still plausible. The thirty six equations was interleaved in different second order representations in order to expose new points-of-view on the data set.

The analysis is presented both as animated documentation of the mathematical fitting algorithm, and as printed overviews of intersections between equations.

In 2009, this project was reworked and transformed into the dance performance Partners in Crime together with Diggapony.2

Predator is a minimal game/installation where the audience interact with an abstract actor. The audience are represented by white squares and the abstract actor by a black square. The black square is bound by a virtual leach, while trying to terminate all audience within its reach. Predator is study in virtual reality immersion; exploring the minimal connection between real life and the virtual.1

Later, Predator has been used to exemplify the meeting point for humans and digital units, and the possibility for the human to recognize the uniqueness of the digital unit.2

"Saliga observs a place that arises and disappears, and is a study of what it can be to believe. What is faith? What is a community? How is a common mental room created? For one week every summer, thousands of christians gather at Hönö in the Gothenburg archipelago, to sing, pray, study the Bible and be strengthened in their faith."

2018

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006