Research 3: Production Concept

1. Concept
The project will be focusing on the possibilities of remixing and distorting a piece of literature, exploring how much it can be recombined with itself until it is both familiar and unfamiliar. I want to see to what extent I can use Markov chains to distort Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto, and whether it will still contain recognizable elements of itself after several iterations of recombination - perhaps retaining Haraway's voice, perhaps not.

Here is something I generated using this Markov chain text generator. I used A Cyborg Manifesto as the source text, and I generated a 2500-character text from it. I then used that 2500-character text as the source text for another 2500-character text. I did it over and over until I reached this:

ave rications of nation. I have rication, as are mobiologues a which nic organization issues achin productics amomen accome a mark timen accomen achin othe charaction it as amomen achin production issues are excursion it as are mobiologues are mobiologues accomen accomework ecomen achin othe charactics againscript or nation is us. The of nation is us. The charaction is us. The charactions of nations of nation it as againscript or nation is us. The charactics a mark timen their data biolour and production issues a major nation, as achin otheir dlturing welfare mobiologues with and production it as also unnation is us. The charactics a mark timen their data biologues also unnations of from One in othe of nationalso unnation it as are mobiologues accome a mark ecomen accomen accomen achin production issues with and progrestructions of nation. I have rications of nation is us. The charaction issues are mobiologues amomen accome a mark timen accomen accomen achin production it as are mobiolour and production it as accome a mark timen accome a mark ecome a mark timen accomen accome a mark timen accomen their data biologues a mark ecomen accome a mark ecomen accomen achin productions of nation issues accomen to or nations of nation. I have rication it as a mark ecome a mark timen achin othe charactics againscript or mists in othe charaction is us. The charaction is us. The of nations off, but could by their dlturing of nation it as are mobiolour and production it as are excursions of from One in othe charaction it as also unnation it as are mobiologues with and productions of nation it as a mark timen accomen accomen achin production is us. The charaction it as are mobiologues achin production it as are excursion it as achin production it as are mobiolour and productics againscript or nation it as a mark ecomen accomen accomework ecomen accomen accomen accomen achin productions of nation it as are mobiolour and production it as a mark timen achin othe charactics againscript organizations of nation is us. The charactics accomen to or nation it as amomework ecomen achin proble socially and progrestruction it as are mobiologues with and progrestructics a mark ecomen achin progrestruction issues with and production it as are mobiologues accomen achin othe of tern cultucations of nation it as are mobiologues achin progrestruction it as againscript or nation is us. The charaction is us. The charactics a mark ecomen achin culturing of nations of nations of nation, as againsc

You can see that Haraway's most commonly used sequences of characters (such as "tion," "it as," "othe," "again," "turing") are preserved, though the full words are often very distorted. This is what I hope to re-create with my project, which will automate the process of running the text through the Markov generator over and over.

2. Software
The program will use a Markov chain model in order to analyze and then re-generate a body of text. I plan on using the ofxMarkovChain addon, and I am also studying other pieces of code as references for my own transition matrix generation method.

3. Experience
The site for the project would be

Research 2: Cybernetic Artwork

Wen-Ying Tsai: https://vimeo.com/125169556


The first artwork that was explicitly inspired by cybernetics was Nicolas Schöffer's CYSP I, which responded to changes in color, light, and sound by becoming more or less excited. Continuing in this tradition was Wen-Ying Tsai, an architectural engineer-turned-artist who created sculptures out of stainless steel rods, strobe lights, sometimes water jets, and a combination of different sensors. His sculptures responded to sound and proximity changes in their environment by vibrating and emitting light, inviting their viewers to interact with them. Both artists' work can be considered cybernetic because they are both investigating complex interactions between systems. Because of the constantly changing nature of the environments around Schöffer and Tsai's works, and because their works responded based on a combination of different factors, the responses from their sculptures were less predictable than a one-to-one response. Additionally, the sculptures can provoke different responses from the environment (namely the viewers), which will then create different responses in the artworks, and create a feedback loop. And the light and sound that the artworks create not only affect the viewers, but also are reflected back and picked up by the artworks themselves, adding another layer of reflexivity to the piece.

mla citations

find a cybernetic artwork from 1960-present in any medium.

project description/artist's intent
what's the logic used?
what makes this work cybernetic?
600-1000 words, mla cited

Research 1: Cybernetics

Before researching for this blog post, I thought cybernetics was merely the study of technologically advanced prosthetic limbs. It's pretty funny to look back on that.

As far as I understand it now, cybernetics has many different definitions that have been evolving for a long time. In general, it is about systems - specifically, the control and observation of systems and networks. In second-order cybernetics the focus is not only on the system being observed but also on the system observing it (1). For instance, among social scientists, it is understood that observations are influenced by the nature of the observer, rather than observations existing independently of the observer. This relates to the philosophy of constructivism, which asserts that "models are not passive reflections of reality, but active constructions by the subject" because our understanding of systems is based on our ability to create models of them (2). It is also concerned with feedback and recurisveness within systems, such as when theories in social sciences influence the systems about which the theories are created. Therefore it is teleological, taking into account the purpose of models and their modelers (3, 1).

Overall it is a very theoretical field and not established as a well-recognized discipline. People are more interested in studying specific applications of some of its principles, such as in neural networks and artificial intelligence.


----------------------------------
1. Umpleby, Stuart A. "Definitions of Cybernetics". The Larry Richards Reader 1997–2007 (PDF). pp. 9–11. Web. < ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Papers_Umpleby/Science-Cybernetics.txt >.
2. Francis Heylighen, and Cliff Joslyn (2002). "Cybernetics and Second Order Cybernetics", in: R.A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.), Vol. 4, (Academic Press, San Diego), p. 155-169. < http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Cybernetics-EPST.pdf >
3. Johnson, Barnabas. "The Cybernetics of Society". 6 April 2016.


Cybernetics
1. Define "cybernetics"
2. How has cybernetics changed since the 1960s?
3. Define the 4 most importnat attributes of a cybernetic system