Precedents: I want credit! (Or at least would like some!) http://www.alansondheim.org/sondheimprint1.jpg I'm tired of not getting credit where credit is due; the following are concepts, works, institutions, I created that were innovative for their time - some still are, some are current - and bear on current theory and art. I'm tired of reading histories that ignore these bodies of work, which were publicized in their time. With apologies for this display of egoism/egotism, these are some of the things I've worked on / created / performed / written back at least to 1968, when my MA these at Brown, An,ode, published by Burning Deck Press, included works of conceptual poetry and conceptual poetics. Formation of META, 1971-72, an art-philosophy corporation - Meta Corporation for Art Research: We intersected with futurologists and other groups and published a small series of research. The concept was to use conceptual underpinnings for social and psychological research. META was incorporated in Rhode Island Semantic and Syntactic Programming, 1978 Grounds for a Procedural Semiotics, 4/1978 Two publications concerned with TI59 programming (assembly language), examining the technical and philosophical foundations of programs and commands in relation to output; this work was ground-breaking in its combination of technical programming in relation to phenomenology based on both relevance theory and concrete and limited examples. Mathematics as both definable and process-oriented, i.e. 1+2=3, 1+2->3 were described. This was constructed on earlier writings on immersive and definable phenomenological-structural levels of reality. Interactive and antagonist editing programs, 1978 Texts, U.C. Irvine Department of Art, 1978 Programs written in UCLA Pascal; a user would write into them and the programs would react one of two ways: a. a set of programs would contradict or alter the into according to semantic/syntactic rules; b. a set of programs with video output would print the input text on the screen, but the text would also generate geometric images that would eventually obliterate it. Script generation in 1 k memory T! 59 calculator, 1978 Using only 1k of memory, a series of 'fictions' and 'scripts' created through heavy and complex indirect addressing; each run produced different scripts. in Syntactic and Semantic programming. Physical codework at Bykert show, Symmetries NY, 1971. 4-dimensional polytopes created from string or rope, left on the floor (i.e. tangled); the topology remained intact; code modeled on minimal symmetries translated into sculptures of connected plastic pipe segments hung from the ceiling. The codework "forked" in terms of decoding possibilities. In both cases, abstract code was translated into physically distorted pieces. The show was accompanied by a booklet explaining the coding operations. Moving through 4-dimensional space, video Video, 4320, 1971; participants sat at an early console with a joystick, and moved a projection of a 4-dimensional hypercube so that it "appeared" to transform into a cube, then a square, then a point. The participant learned to "drive" through 4-d space. Program by Charles Strauss, Brown University Computer analysis of determinism in Man (sic) 1969; using a minicomputer programmed by Gregert Johnson, typing 8000 "random" characters (with eyes closed, thinking as little as possible); taking the middle 4000 to eliminate edge effects, looking for patterns through time series analyses. Other than a "rhythm" effect of xyxyxy etc., the result came out flat and deeply random. Phenomenology of Approach Article and artwork for Projects in Nature, Far Hills, NJ, 1975. The phenomenology approach relates to Schutz's relevance theory, and examines (I still work with this) on how any subject for methodological analysis may be approached in terms of a presuppositionless field of thought. Catalog and other publications, continuing to work on this. Part of the work involved micro-videography of pond life, returning the organisms to their normal environment as well. General Description of the World at 20000/1, 1, 1/20000 1972, images of a beach in Nova Scotia from a walk on site; from a scanning electron microscope; from an airplane, with accompanying text describing the phenomenology and strategies of the piece. Smallest Sculpture in the World Scanning electron microscope of a crystal with ramps and planes cut into it simultaneously with the SEM making the resulting images. Shown at the Paris Biennale, 1973. The sculpture was invisible to the naked eye of course (the mount seemed empty); at the time this was probably the smallest sculpture in the world. Threshold Logics and their rough formalism The Structure of Reality, NSCAD, 1977 worked through a baroque symbolization of threshold logic activating gates and tokens; it originated in an attempt to find a structure which would describe any event whatsoever. The concept of "threshold" was critical; it might or might not be fuzzy. It also related to catastrophe theory, particularly the phenomenology of the second simplest, the fold catastrophe. I think a lot of the work here is more than problematic. Textbook of Thinking, 1991, ocalocka press This, influenced (unfortunately now I think) by Lacan and others uses obscenity as a way of breaking through thought, in other words, engaging language with physiology. Extreme language translates into a form of philosophical destruction and rebuilding. The book was obscene and leveraged that into thinking through thought itself. Inscriptive and Immersive Hierarchies See above on procedural semiotics. The immersive begins from above, the inscriptive as formalism from below. Here, the two are intermeshed; even the abacus' results are seen as dynamic. The Year 3000 course on the future of the planet Rhode Island School of Design, around 1971 We spent the semester studying futurology as well as texts such as the Club of Rome Report and Jimmy Carter's The Global 2000 Report to the President. The course was basically predictive; unfortunately almost all the descriptions turned out correct. Sexual-psychological videos with Kathy Acker and the concept of auto-pornography - two videos from 1974; one was shown at the Whitney Museum among other places, including the London ICA two years ago. The videos have been described and/or published in full in a number of books. For me, a mixture of sexuality, wryting (with a "y"), philosophy, and textuality; I can't speak for Kathy of course. Codework I invented the word and published about it in an issue of American Book Review I edited. The essay was overly simplified; it was, and shouldn't have been, taken as a full description of my position. But the concept of active code interferences in text permeates everything now from mixed or otherwise AI literatures to virtual world performances. For me, the code had to be not so much an embellishment appearing within a text, but part of the activated bones of the production of the text itself; otherwise it would be a kind of science fiction or those code droplets in The Matrix. The issue was 22/6, Special Issue On Codework Splatter Semiotics and its role in proto-fascism - article published in 2600, The Hacker Quarterly Autumn 2017, re: the trump administration - Considering news media processing time and the constant high-speed flow of tweets as a source of power, bypassing the time necessary for critique. Game-space, edge-space, blank-space Series of talks and videos on types of spaces in and around virtual worlds. Game-space: within the game; edge-space: hacking the game; blank-space - projections in and through the imaginary undefined (example: "here be dragons" written on an unknown territory of the globe centuries ago; I recognize this is a fiction, but, for example Mandeville postulated people in Ethiopia using one of their legs - with an enormous foot - as an umbrella to keep the sun off their bodies as they lay on their backs. Semantic ghosting analysis Recently 2019-2021, postulating the always present unaccompanied bodies as always present, always a ghost, miasma, but flesh and blood, microbiomes, in relation to any technology - the body as well of the refugee, the sick, the dying, consciousness and unconsciousness, and so forth. Where a great deal of my current work lies. Hacking motion capture apparatus Since at least 2004, modifying mocap software, sensors, cables, and so forth to produce new and untoward models of organisms and their movements. The resulting files can be used to motivate avatars in virtual worlds. I consider this a fundamental portion of my work; it's been carried out at the Virtual Environments Lab at West Virginia University, Morgantown; NYU, NY; Columbia College, Chicago; and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, post-production at my own studio. Mathematical filters for motion capture and Mathematical filters for text production These take either motion or text as input; mathematical equations manipulate the files (much as filters are manipulated in a graphics program) to produce new and untoward movements and texts. Since at least 2005. Real time reverse reverberation in music production Using SuperCollider, Luke Damrosch wrote a number of programs to my specifications, in an attempt to create "revrev" - real-time reverse reverberation, which is a physical impossibility. We approached it through flexible small buffers and produced an absolutely new music (in my experience), resulting in an album, LIMIT, and an earlier album, Threnody (which had several revrev pieces). LIMIT is one of my favorite albums; it appeared around 2017. Both albums were released by Public Eyesore. Super Collider programs for revrev Luke Damrosch, maybe 2014-2017, several programs; I manipulated parameters, etc., and all of this resulted in around 40 programs using revrev for both recording and live concert. These programs can be used by anyone; there's no copyright etc. Phenomenology of high-speed playing acoustic music Future Speed Future, released in 2019, is an album based on high-speed playing. I play as fast as I can, largely on guitar, but also other instruments. And I play very fast. I'm fascinated by playing at speed - on acoustic instruments, without effects - it sends my mind into another realm entirely, tracking key, fingers, breath, "tune," envelope, and so forth, simultaneously, without break, the music body music, everything imminent and what I play, what you hear, is internal. The instruments are made of wood and bamboo; they need tending. Playing is a form of tending. It is the instrument that plays me, another world, breathless. As with the SuperCollider work, I write theory - phenomenology, history, media - in relation to this direction. Improvised 1 reel/week live improvised film series As a visiting artist at UCLA 198-1981 I made a series of 16mm sound films, one a week for, I think, 50 weeks. This was based on early silent film production, which was also a reel a week. I used news-cameras and other media. The films, which are still in storage, ranged in length from a little less than three minutes to around an hour. The last was a sync-sound film called Hollywood, shot in black and white, cost $400 only; I found ways to work inexpensively at the time. The films were political, often using short-wave from North Korea or anomalous signals. Audio analog synthesizer with overdriven VCO Around 1967, Gregert Johnson and I built, from scratch, an analog music synthesizer, with VCO, VCA, and so forth. The frequencies of the VCO ranged from 6 or 7 Hz into the ultra- sonics. Because of the simplicities of the VCO, they could be overdriven into harmonic series of all sorts. I used the synthesizer on and off through 1992. Design of parameter control modules for universal synthesizers I wrote about PCM - electronic parameter control models - that could be networked in any number of ways. Interfaces would allow them to be used for audio or video or any other electrical or electronic device. They were never built, but I diagrammed how they might operate; they were universal in the deepest sense. I think of these now in relation to semantic and syntactic programming (see above). Installation of Codework piece at Johnstown Flood dam site In 2016 Azure and I traveled across country and I created a large-scale codework in Johnstown, PA, referencing the terrible flood that happened there. The debris, including humans, horses, and even parts of trains, swept into a railroad bridge, where it all caught on fire; over 2000 people died in 1885. The bridge still stands, and had programmable lights on the side that were set up to blink on the Fourth of July and other occasions. With a lot of help, I had them programmed to blink SOS, QRRR, and MAYDAY in various sequences. The bridge is in use, and we made video shooting the work at night with trains going across. The light patterns were difficult to read; the flood was impossible to control. VLF mapping across the United States, 2005 Driving across the United States, stopping off to record VLF (very low frequency) signals at various sites. The sites had to be in desolate regions where there were no electrical towers or lines of any sorts for dozens and dozens of miles. The result was a series of recordings with amazing atmosphere, insect, and other sounds, from isolated locations. VLF production by dance, by bicycle tires, by insects VLF used for dancework by Foofwa d'Imobilite; recordings of changing ground impedances with dancework by Azure; recordings of insect wings and bicycle tires - done in the Alps near the Aletsch Glacier; in California near Santa Ana, and in West Virginia, Morgantown. From 2005 on through the present. Ultra-Low Frequency mapping of building structures with live music Using a vibration meter that goes down to .1 hz or less, I've recorded the movement of buildings and other structures while playing music, organizing dance, and so forth. The resulting sound would often be digital raised several octaves, into the hearing range; at times this would be combined with normal sound recording. The result would be the intermixing of the sound of the environment and the music together. Dancework based on weather Around 1968-9 I created a dance for a student dance group - they danced the daily weather from a small Massachusetts town for one month in the 19th-century. Some students played clouds, some rain, one the sun, and so forth. Multiple-layered Bot interaction in virtual worlds Recently I have been working solo or in tandem in the virtual world of Second Life, combined with OpenSim run as a localhost. Using Radegast, I can manipulate two or three avatars simultaneously, with text-to-speech. The avatars move as "emanants" (I've been working on emanant theory for years) and communicate through speech or movement based on the altered motion-capture files described above (they're bvh files). The interactions allow me to study and describe the phenomenologies of communication, distortion, and control in relation to virtual and physical bodies. The result is an ongoing complex series of videos and live performances that continue to this day. This work began almost 10-15 years ago in various formats. Phenomenology of virtual worlds and their deconstruction I've done a great deal of writing about avatars, including Kyoko Date (article in Etnofoor, 2000, "Virtual Idols, Our Future Love") and a short book on emanents as well. I've also designed projects in Second Life in which avatars exist and interact in increasingly cluttered spaces. On my OpenSim localhost (running on my computer) I've worked with avatar movement in an environment which is increasingly changing - sudden growth of mountains and valleys, debris everywhere, sinking or rising land, and so forth. This allows for a different kind of dance/ movement performance, in which the environment itself is active and in or against collusion with an avatar. Again, all of this is accompanied by texts. Generation and study of virtual world anomalies 2005-present This is complex and relates to the game-space, edge-space, and blank-space concepts described above. To push parameters in Second Life and OpenSim can result in anomalies - for example by overloading SL with particle emissions or creating huge numbers of objects with a "magic pencil" or dropping buildings with short life-spans into an environment, etc. In some cases, true anomalies appear - objects that seem "shadows" of other objects on my platform - objects with strange attachments and omissions etc. I've studied these, including anomalies which seem to have a life of their own, out of my control. Multiple dancer community controlling single avatar body 2018 and earlier. Mocap mapping can assign a single avatar sensor constellation to a distribution among a number of live performers. If the performers act in sync, they become a "community" coherently controlling a single avatar body; if they act out of sync (according to prescribed mappings, etc.), the bodies breaks apart in untoward and fascinating ways. This leads to "topological twisting and the breaking of mocap mapping" - something that appears inconceivable, at the edge of the possible or impossible; the result videos and bvh files are amazing to work with and lead to new possibilities in real-world dance (a performer, Kira Sedlock, called this "avadance," for avatar-real world dance, and the name has stuck. Again boundaries are pushed. Study of reification and the "economic parabola" (around the time of Structure of Reality) - In relation to Tran duc Thao, thinking about the phenomenology and economics of hand-axe exchange in the paleolithic - the imminent use of an axe which becomes objectified (of course) when exchanged; the economic parabola originates. I worked with this in terms of reification; it also came out of my course at Hebrew University (in Hebrew) studying flint and other stone tools in a classroom and on site. Work on radio/tv transmission radiations and pomo in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, with Dawnja Burris, two main videos, Postmodern Sureno, 1993 and Postmodern Pobre, 1992. Dealing with issues "in the field" such as informal economies, radio and television transmissions, and so forth. The pieces explored the emergence of a type of city born out of poverty and what today would be called neoliberalism. My writing at this time dealt with the concepts of amorphous dusts and radiations of all sorts, and their effect on people everywhere. I saw this also in terms of refugees and inconceivable poverty, local wars, desertification, and so forth. I've been informed by this in my current work as well. Amorphousness - from my beginning work until now. I've worked at pushing boundaries of control and specificity until they break or dissolve, dealing with entities, geographies, and geometries which are deeply indescribable. The idea of "somatic ghosting" (above) involves not only the body, but the body as multitude, as innumerable biomes (see current discussion about fungal and lichen communities and disseminations for something related). There are more things that could well be considered, for example fractal series of two elements {f,g} that seem remarkable to me, but might be ordinary, and their related fractal paths. I see all of my work from the very beginning (or at least from, say, 1967, when I began pursuing music seriously as well) as a single if not singular or dispersed body. There's a sense of skittering as well on the surface, but the deeper structures are almost repetitious and boring in their similarities. There's a concept in catastrophe theory, "the fragility of the good" in relation to so many other paths; I tend to fall off the plateau, and delve into the wetlands below, where I perhaps understand nothing at all. In any case, hope this might be of interest; it won't get me written into any more formal accounts but at least for me it's a kind of summing up that's still in formation. - Alan Sondheim, 7/4/2021 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour