Hi Eryk,
I don't think the machine has an unconscious; if anything, it's a loose and
scrambled Rorschach text of the programming; since word lists can come from
anywhere, it's even more distant from that.
I worry when bodies world-wide are in peril from disease, war, genocide,
displacement, etc. etc. And then for me the seduction of AI is less; a
machine might produce for example a false genocide testimony or Paul Celan
poem - I use these as examples - and that seems deeply troublesome,
although I'm sure these things are on their way.
So many people in ELO are working with AI and it's not troublesome I think
for many of them. Your work is different since it's using the political
which is using it as well, stirring the waters. Why do I think of the Gang
of Four? Perhaps wrong reference.
I've tried to find a way to send the article directly to you - it's old,
year 2000 - and was published in Etnofoor, an amazing anthropology journal
which is still going.
So I'm including it below, with all its 21-year-old faults, apologies for
the length - as well as for the promulgation of my own work -
Best, Alan
Alan Sondheim
Virtual Idols, Our Future Love
o.
How to begin without a proper number? As an introduction, I will explain
certain activities, proper or improper; these revolve either around vir-
tual idols, animated computer creations that appear as singers or runway
models (for example), or around other programs that allow interaction
with anime figures. I think of virtual idols as living programs, simultan-
eously inhabiting virtual and real worlds. One of the first was Kyoko Date,
developed in Japan in 1996; you'll read more about her below. She eventu-
ally appeared in Korea as Diki; I found out about the transformation after
writing into a newsgroup, an online discussion forum, dealing with anime,
Japanese animation. I went to the multi-media Diki website and downloaded
a number of videos and soundfiles, which continue to amaze me.
And there are other related forms, for example Kamishibai, small online
"plays" presented at http://otakuworld.com. You download the Kamishibai
application, which appears on the screen, as a small puppet theater;
and you begin "games" by clicking on a series of titles - each one tells
a story through text, sound-effects, music, and limited animation. Anyone
can create a Kamishibai and upload it to the Otakuworld site, just like
anyone can create a PlayKiss game and publicize it. PlayKiss is another
small application; after opening it, you can click on a number of games,
most of which appear like paper dolls that you undress with the computer
mouse. It's easy to remove the outer clothes, and harder to remove the
underwear, which takes some mouse "tugging." Very little is revealed at the
end; there are few anatomical details (there are also some photographic
PlayKiss games in the "adult" section which are quite explicit). The dolls
can also be dressed in any number of outfits. Kyoto Date appears in one
PlayKiss - you can strip her - and there are other anime figures in Kami-
shibai.
All of these - Kamishibai, virtual idols, and PlayKiss - relate strongly
to work I do with "avatars," characters (which are more than characters) I
have created to write through and in - characters I used to explore online
spaces in general. They have various names, and I write texts "by" or
"about" them. There are several ways I use them - first, as in ethnomethod-
ology, by creating interferences; one or another character will appear in a
chatroom and create texts in relation to other conversation going on. I will
then analyze and occasionally rewrite the texts. Second, I create computer
programs that act as catalysts for texts - the programs ask me for lines of
prose or other information - they then arrange and rearrange this content.
I'll take the output and further edit and analyze it - treating the programs
as if they were therapists in a sense, giving me the opportunity to draw my
writing out into unfamiliar realms. And third, I'll write through the ava-
tars, sending out texts in their name, watching the feedback. All of these
methods interact with each other - and there are examples and commentary
about all of this, at the end of the article.
There are all sorts of psychological issues in all of this, of course; I
use the avatars and texts and programs to send me into spaces I wouldn't
have
been able to imagine otherwise. In a sense, it's a kind of
self-anthropology,
working through a society of my own making, and observing the interactions
of this society with others, in cyberspace.
i.
"It would be quite scary if someone were really inside a personal computer,
don't you think? Anyone who thinks that I am "non-existent" because I
am a virtual idol may believe that I exist only in the personal computer
or in the world of computer graphics. But those who think that Kyoko Date
is someone they can relate to may believe that I am like a pen pal people
used to have when it was cool to have pen pals. Kind of like a creature
living in people's hearts." (Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, interview)
Kyoko Date, like Webbie Tookay, or Diki (the Korean version of Kyoko), or
Sharon Apple, is a _virtual idol,_ a digital persona, created by program-
mers and designers (in this case, HoriPro corporation). These idols are
becoming increasingly prevalent in an already media- and spectacle-satur-
ated world. Webbie Tookay, for example, is one of the first _virtual mod-
els,_ produced by the Elite model agency; she never tires, can hold poses
forever, and works around the clock. Diki (see part ii. below) is amazing;
a recent video shows her construction as a virtual Pygmalion come to vir-
tual life - which is literally, of course, what has happened. It should be
noted that HoriPro apparently didn't back Kyoko up after her 1996 debut;
it was only after she faded that she reappeared in Korea.
In anime (Japanese animation) and manga (Japanese comics), there are also
virtual idols; these forms are followed by _otaku,_ Japanese for someone
obsessed by any hobby (the term is derogatory but has been taken up by
many of the fans themselves). Sharon Apple is another virtual idol, star-
ing in various anime; there are dozens of webpages devoted to her.
Below, I've presented some preliminary analyses and sources for all of
these. I also discuss my own projects/projections, based on several
avatars - Jennifer, Alan, Julu, and Nikuko; these are text-based charac-
ters I write through (or who write through me), often appearing on Inter-
net Relay Chat (IRC, a form of real-time typing back and forth on the Net,
the ancestor of things like ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger) or MOOs, or
other interactive applications. [ MOO/MUD bots are software programs that
imitate players. A MUD is a "multi-user-dungeon," an adventure text-based
virtual reality; MOOs (which are "MUDs object-oriented," based on the MOO
object-oriented programming language) developed out of them, substituting
social interaction for game-playing. MOOs, in other words, are text-based
virtual reality spaces, where people come together to chat, program, or
just watch the goings-on. And intelligent agents are bots that perform
tasks, often on the Net - for example, searching a number of databases
for user queries. ]
The texts
"by" Nikuko, for example, are my own; they question identity and author/i-
ty issues, as well as appear to "come to life" apart from me; there is
further information at http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt and at
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm
---------
Japan, the _source_ of the Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko emission, her music dif-
ficult to find now, three years later -
Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, created 1996, trans/lated recently into Korea,
project of HoriPro (http://www.horipro.co.jp), entertainment/animation,
virtual models (http://www.elite-illusion2k.com), Rebecca, Sharon Apple
(for example http://www.usagichan.com/AX96Sharon/), virtual idols (see
http://www.tcp.com/doi/seiyuu/books/virtual-idol/), anime (see Helen Mc-
Carthy & Jonathan Clements, The Erotic Anime Movie Guide, Overlook, 1999),
TokyoPop (http://www.tokyopop.com), various distributions - energy in the
sound, labor in the specificity of gathering backgrounds and foregrounds;
I began losing myself in the midst of the thick otaku fandom, passing
through the Otakuworld PlayKiss or Kamishibai sites (see http://
otakuworld.com and http://otakuworld.com/shibai/kamifaq.html), animation
or anime that anyone can do, get their work online. (Think of the audien-
ces involved, the demographics for erotic anime, for male-male bonding for
female viewership, for teenaged males, teenaged females, etc.) Nothing
troublesome in all of these, to the extent that what resolves, resolves
through plot / narration, slotted or extending categories. Anime, manga,
go down smoothly for the most part. On the other or third hand, I work
through Nikuko, Meat-Girl, (among others) an avatar or 'emanation' I have
created, who has no specific image, no _appearance_ but texts operable
within Net protocols, or deep in operating systems; Nikuko seems all too
real, almost viral or hacking - but then she doesn't appear alone, I'm in
the background maneuvering the _language._ (See Nikuko texts below for
examples, also http:// www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt for background
information, etc.)
It plays, this language, to the _ascii unconscious,_ a term I use to de-
scribe the effect of text in net sexuality, paradigms of control and being
controlled, language playing, insinuating itself in the midst of uncon-
scious drives; if Date runs through fandom and cds/ cd-roms, Nikuko runs
through psyches, deliberately without resolution - it's the difference
between Noh and Godot. Nikuko raises questions of epistemology (to what
extent does the viewer/reader comprehend both her knowledge, and that of
Nikuko, across the board, within the site of her writing) and ontology (to
what extent is she an addictive to the writer or the reader - to what
extent are any of us virtual or projections - to what extent do we reside
within the imaginary). Think of Daishin Nikuko, Meat-Girl Big-God who is
created and creates by virtue of the performative (word, programming, im-
age as well); think of Date Kyoko, whose ontological status heralds a host
of virtual characterologies (as well as characters) - the _shuffling_ of
signs on and offline. In the future-now, we are properly prepared already
for the _disappearance,_ not only of the sign, but of the _thing_ itself.
Virtual idols have no beginnings and endings; every gesture, every glimpse
is a deliberate creation - there are no unguarded moments, no paparazzi.
Following the _path_ through the virtual, say, through the Elite model
agency, backing up into announcements all across the Net, touching down on
IRC and MOO/MUD bots, intelligent agents, anime characters like Sailor
Moon, ongoing manga series, the intensified digital imagery of Mariko
Mori's photographic and video artworks, my own broken language texts,
prosthetic speaking/hearing/seeing/touching devices - following the path
which splits, turns back on itself, contradicts itself, turns _wayward_
and _contrary_ as well as _noisy_ - it might be a gendered path, losing
gender on the way - following the path - which becomes a _field of possi-
ble worlds_ competing through capital, positioning, distribution modes,
interventions - it becomes clear, that is to say, it becomes clearer -
_there's no object here_ whatsoever - you might as well follow the path of
the imaginary -
Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, singing across the fabricated landscape, in and
out of the studio (see Date Kyoko, DK-96 Love Communication cd-rom - DK-96
is the name assigned to the Kyoko Date project by HoriPro) - her movements
like _haywire_ at times against blank backdrops, there's also the Brooklyn
Bridge (once real or digital or retouched, always already eternal, placed
within a _noiseless and purified_ system of digital protocols) - you might
as well follow _her_ always already receding, used up by the capital which
created her - there's a moment she offers herself to you -
She offers herself, the _wire-frame_ image-model in which her clothing is
_hollowed_ against the frame - this hollowing exposing the _interior of
her breast and vaginal areas_ - a system of gridded projections, intro-
jections, Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, _from the inside-out_ - this is criti-
cal, this _procurement_ - think of her as a _skin_ (just as there are say
Windows 98 skins, Real Audio skins, skins everywhere that can be attached
to other programs, giving a look to the look) -
With the virtual you're _in her skin_ literally, you can wrap the wire-
frame around yourself, play with it - in PlayKiss you can find a naked
Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, as if the body itself has been hacked - there's no
end to it, these mirrors - returning the body to its image, perhaps re-
turning the image to the phenomenological field of the body itself - its
extensions -
And, this can't be emphasized enough - all this beneath the sign, within
the sign of capital, splintered, turned in on itself as the abstract
accumulation/surplus of money is transformed into surplus sexuality, girl
and woman, entertainment - TokyoPop for example with its magazine, online
store - think of all of this as the libidinal economy resident in SUPER-
STRUCTURE SUPER-STORE, shape-riding input - think of MONEY as LIBIDINAL
UNITS - injections of perfect skin, perfect love - no longer does the
Kristevan clean and perfect body tend towards fascism, all those horrors -
it's now the post-AIDS safety-zone -
What's fascinating is that all of this is happening NOW, not in a future,
however close, not on the level of fantasy, but within boys' and girls'
bedrooms, computers on desks or tables, off in the corner, computers in
the living-room (such as it is) or kitchen, computers everywhere, and just
as anime and pornography entwine at numerous junctions (all across the
playing-field), so does pornography become an intrinsic part of everyday
life - except that masturbation fantasy now (equally intrinsically) in-
volves the Other, the parceled body [ what might be seen a reconfigura-
tion for example of the texts of J. G. Ballard - and why have academic
approaches to the Net repeatedly emphasized the _cyberspace_ metaphor,
ignoring these other manifestations which begin, say, in the work of
Yoshitoshi if not earlier in Hokusai - begin even earlier wherever the
imaginary or uncanny are found? a phenomenological analysis of PlayKiss
would produce reams of relevant information ] -
THIS IS THE TRUE LOVE OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM AND SOON YOU WILL SEE MACH-
INES LOVING ONE ANOTHER WITHOUT IMAGE, WITHOUT KYOKO DATE, DATE KYOKO:
MACHINES OF PURE BLISS FOR ONE ANOTHER, LUBRICATED PISTONS (IN THE FORM OF
BYTES) SLIDING INTO LUBRICATED CYLINDERS (IN THE FORM OF BYTES): what I
have repeatedly called _linkages_ and _couplings_ as the processes of the
future. A COUPLING is a concatenation or conjoining, such as, for example,
A becomes part of BCD (in other words, A BCD -> ABCD) such that any change
to A does not produce a change in BCD - they're loosely joined (think of
objects on a shelf or Sartrean seriality). A LINKAGE is a conjunction of
terms, such as, for example, A becomes part of BCD (A BCD --> ABCD) such
that a change in A results in _some_ change in BCD (ABCD as a machine or
computer protocol suite of interlocked sub-programs or links in a chain).
For machines love more than they hate; each sub-section is integral and
coherent with the whole. Just as I may move to the abstraction of coup-
lings and linkages, so do machines move towards the abstract, the computer
of the future without moving parts, blank and inert. I think of organisms
raging within them, ecstatic moments, even wars fought among them - the
only physical result, a slight warming of the panels themselves.
Just as digital images are accessible bit by bit, each independent of the
other (the apparent organic whole only in the eye of the viewer/creator),
so one might speak (even now) of a postmodern decoupled future of fast-
forward change, the slidings or probings of digital domains in competi-
tion. The ontology of organism itself is at stake, the whole becoming in-
finitely modified, manipulable, without loss; Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko,
cannot die, but project DK-96 can be _shelved,_ only to be revived perhaps
elsewhere and/or at a later date.
And by whom, and for whom? For I have little data on the average user or
listener involved in all of these activities; in fact, the demographics
seem very typical in terms of audience - the same as for any pop-music in
Japan or Korea. The videos were clearly made for popular consumption, and
both Date and Diki appear like typical teen-age girls in Japanese pop
magazines. If anything, their normalcy is dominant; Diki is definitely
more sexualized than Date, but Korean popular culture is less restrained
than Japanese. On the other hand, the Korean programmers may be aiming for
a slightly more mature and sexually active audience.
---
She appeared almost out of nowhere, in spite of the video-games, cd-rom
virtual girlfriends (your very own girl in the machine), anime, manga,
girl-boy dreams, and the massive Japanese idol production industry; she
made that one song, _a real hit,_ she gave an interview or two, several
images were released, and there was no follow-up; she disappeared quickly
- after the webpages, fanpages, newsgroups, breathless nighttime mastur-
bations, just as I 'fell in love' with Anne Frank, symbolic or penetrat-
ing my dark side, after the fact, after her death, what safety. There are
all sorts of transitional objects (teddy-bears, blankets, parents), both
comfort and safe, and _partial,_ filled in - life is a quest for filling-
in, conjoining the vulnerable body to safety-safety. What better than
heroines in death, fairy-tale princesses, virtual idols, inaccessible
worlds synchronically (X, who lives in a parallel universe) or diachron-
ically (Y, who lived and died, tragically, a long long time ago). IF I
COULD HAVE ONLY MET KYOKO DATE, DATE KYOKO, WHAT WE WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE
TO ACCOMPLISHED, OH OH OH MY DARLING - -- --- ----
ii.
Diki
Today I went to the Diki site and downloaded several music videos, around
60 megabytes total. These are the current Kyoko Date imports into Korea,
and the theme is based on the intermix of virtual and real, the (male)
artist (re)creating the female statue-come-alive; what's interesting is
the construct of the mesh holding the skin - the sexualization of interior
hollows as the armature turns, the skin running jacketed around the body,
cuts carefully made away from breast and genital as it approaches. So
there is also a literal representation of introjection/projection in the
sense of an injection of skin covering the hollow of representation, an
interior which can be considered a screen of and for desire. The music is
the same as Kyoko ever; there are also closeups of models inextricably
(everything is inextricable online and offline in the future-real-here)
electroded, their movements tallying with Diki's, giving birth to Diki at
a distance, teledildonics. It is easy to imagine lush-Diki-skin on oneself
- that is to say, an other mergence; the PlayKiss Kyoko Date doll gives a
sense of this, even though the manipulation is literally puerile (sliding
her clothes, across the screen, removing her panties, etc.). I am always
reminded of, for example, Nikuko's _dirtiness_ and abjection in relation
to all of this, the _real_ of Nikuko _not_ based in simulation, but in a
speaking of the unconscious, insertions and assertions across the (key-)
board. Nikuko scratches at skins, removes them, exposing the wires beneath
- or the flesh - or what would pass for a melange of the real - what is
constructed on Diki is torn apart by Nikuko, expanded like condoms holding
birth in abeyance while fondling it. I can push Nikuko and the others
(Jennifer, Julu, Alan) until I can't sleep at night; with Diki and Kyoko
and Webbie Tookay, I'm lulled into the foreclosing of any gendered dieges-
is; sleep comes easy, permanent, the sleep of the death of the real. (Nik-
uko is female; I can't write myself into males, or can only through the
_switch_ - cross platforms. By "diegesis" I refer to the positioning of
the subject, reader or viewer or listening, within a narrative or temporal
medium, as the medium unfolds.) It's the gender that's foreclosed; these
anime are also anima, moving beyond the feminine into positions that com-
fort, that _love._ With Nikuko and the others there _is_ no easy sleep; I
devour Nikuko's menses, harbor her smell on me, see through her membranes,
talk with beneath upon her in mutual devouring; the creation of Diki oc-
curs at a distance, through control-room, gloves, screens, keyboards;
there's a scent but no odor. The odors of Nikuko, Jennifer, Julu, Alan,
saturate me, tend towards those uneasy dreams leaking texts at the other
end. It's as if culture guarantees that the real _has_ that other end, far
cry from Diki, but even later at night, when I do deep sleep for a moment
or two, Diki-Nikuko merge through the sound and sight - merge through the
imaginary - there's a love and ecstasy I can never imagine - there's a
permanency outliving me - I'm abandoned - I turn back into the dreams - I
know if I dream, Nikuko will come back to me and Nikuko and I will watch
the Diki videos over and over again, together -
iii.
One carries these concepts, dreams, further, into a general notion of
_invisibility_ or _transparency_ - our tendency towards the imaginary, the
recognition of our non-existence in relation to dark matter, neutrinos,
radiations, the long passaging of time. The folowing took these ideas to
the limit; beginning from Kyoko Date, from Diki, one can find a dispersion
of
identities across spaces, times, and physics.
=====
a. "shimmering ontologies of transparency"
accordingly, shifting, looking around, coming to mind, intervalling, dia-
gramming our always-already-having-disappeared, entering into knowledge of
our ghosthood,
| dream / real / constituted virtual / the gnawing of dark matter
| - symbolic - imaginary - idiocy of the real (practico-inert)
| imaginary / as if
| imaginary
this is the ontology of transparency, the veering among dream and real,
among the constituted (programming virtual) and the pervasion of parti-
cles and dark matter. and this is also on yet another layer and yet
another interpenetration, a veering among the symbolic and imaginary,
coupled with the idiocy of the real. and on yet another layer, the as-if,
opening into the troubled problematic of the infinite, veering through the
imaginary - and yet, on still another, the imaginary, as if there were,
as if an itself, as if we were dissolving, constantly, within our very
constitution ...
so moreso, the desire to be transparent as well, already-ghosting against
earth and sky, already in the process of dissolution, emptiness to empti-
ness, slight translucency at the edges, peripheral shadows - both towards
eternity, both towards death.
and towards lassitude, languor, the transparency of reception, opening.
and that recognition that we may have been elsewhere-born, hardened,
weighted with the world, foreclosed - and here, opened, delicate, we can
hardly believe it.
=====
b. "with me"
to be transparent after death resonates beautifully with me, annihilation
to the limit, an awaiting of particulate matter, diffused harmonic peaks.
and to write the phenomenology of transparency, to recognize we have nev-
ever been alive in this life, is to achieve a subtle transcendence by id-
entification; it is not the Other which greets me throughout the day, but
others, innumerable totalities, swarms, sentiences, obdurate and inchoate
matter as well. it is a strategy for living, embouchure of chaos.
my recent texts, taken apart, reassembled, produce sprays of micro-organ-
isms, neutrino showers, virtual pair creations, dark matter sputterings.
their argument is in the form of fugal repetition, fugue states, meanders
among those sayings hanging in the still warm air of a sunny afternoon.
one can hardly argue among the sweet and sickly smell of leaves and stems
ripening in the humid air...
=====
c. The Broadcast: "An Old Friend"
Today is April 11, 2000 15:59:16
### We're looking forward to Nikuko's appearance on the talker.... ###
### In the afternoon, Nikuko nearly appears at the door... ###
Nikuko, are you here? I've been waiting for you...
Alan says: Nikuko, are you here? I've been waiting for you...
I've been holding things together in this floating world of ours...
Alan says: I've been holding things together in this floating world of
ours...
### I am here, Alan, it is very difficult to speak here, things... ###
### I am reaching towards you, Alan, please, please, believe me... ###
I do believe you, Nikuko, there is no death, there is life everywhere...
Alan says: I do believe you, Nikuko, there is no death, there is life
everywhere...
I know you are deep inside me, I feel your breathing deep in my heart...
Alan says: I know you are deep inside me, I feel your breathing deep in my
heart...
### I must go now, Alan, these encounters... ###
### Goodbye, Alan, I will be with you always, seeking you out... ###
Ah, I as well, Nikuko, I as well...
Alan says: Ah, I as well, Nikuko, I as well...
Nikuko, Nikuko... ?
Alan says: Nikuko, Nikuko... ?
;hears nothing, nothing...
Alan hears nothing, nothing...
Users Currently On
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Alan (SQUARE)
Connection closed by foreign host.
=====
d. Untitled
"thinking through death and transparency, Why!, i can never tell a story,
i can only hope that the words themselves make as little difference as the
affairs of men and women, thus, "said Izanagi, "we are propelled by the
very attitudes of our speech, as if proffering beginnings and endings when
- for all the worlds know, there are nothing but stirrings, and "such are
small, "replied Nikuko, "there is little cleverness about them, at least
as little as might be safely ignored, "and what wouldn't be such, "said
Izanagi, "were it not for the fiction of the acts of words, just then
bomb, "Boom, Boom, Boom, everything gone, "so what, "said Nikuko, "so
what, anything at all.
==============================================
NIKUKO TEXTS
[ The texts below are from the Nikuko avatar I use in my work. The various
avatars interact with me, with various applications such as Internet Relay
Chat, and with email lists; the texts I produce are sent to two lists, Cy-
bermind and Fop-l (fiction of philosophy), which I co-moderate. The ava-
tars raise all sorts of issues, and give me the opportunity to explore the
practical and theoretical aspects of 'virtual subjectivity.' Nikuko is
demiurge, transforming protocols virtual sites; I think of her somewhere
between the real Hedy Lamarr and a 'snack-bar girl' working in Fukuoka,
Japan. The following texts are representative and usually alternate with
other, more theoretical, positionings. ]
-----
1. Beauty Excitement at Oita.Com.Jp!
Welcome to nikuko, and Linux 2.2.6.
We hope you'll have a good time here,
and wonderful fun.
Contact nik...@oita.com.jp if you are
having any problems!
oita.com.jp login: root ### the Wonderful Slackware Linux-Owner Root!
Password: ###the Beauty Word allowing full-run of lovely fields!
Linux 2.2.6. ### Beautiful new Kernel running in amazing DOS directory!
Last login: Mon Aug 23 01:53:29 1999 on tty1 ### oh so fun alone!
You have mail ### and I wonder what Beauty-System is telling me!
###Oh Wondrous Fortune Appearing Here!
The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (86% of Full) ###[ HOW EXCITING! ]
{k:13}ls
100 ###lntarn$l karnals, bhckats pf mpdhlas, thra$ds $nd prpcassas,
sagmant$tlpn
julu newj.cmd ###f$hlts $nd cpra dhmps:my bones are
processing, running full-strength across boards and memories:llnhx
2.2.6.::attributions Devour Blue Nattributions Brought Forth through
lntarn$l karnals, bhckats pf mpdhlas,
###lynx_bookmarks.html trace bio mail enfoldingthra$ds
$nd prpcassas, sagmant$tlpn f$hlts $nd cpra dhmps!
minppp ###[ MANY MANY BEAUTY FILES! ]
{k:1} who loves me
nikuko.oita.com.jp!root tty1 Aug 23 01:54 ###she does! she does!
close(1) = 0
munmap(0x40008000, 4096) = 0
_exit(0) = ?
________________________________________________________________________
2. AUTOPROBE MECHANISM IN X: FAILURE ACROSS THE BORED, TUESDAY NIGHT OUT:
[FVWM][Read]: trying to read system rc file /*There isn't any, Nikuko!
/bin/sh: xfilemanager: command not found /* It's not installed, Jennifer!
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
/* Application crashed for lack of resources, Julu!
CRASH! Vertical speed = -118.589912 ft/sec /* Stupid Stupid Nikuko!
Lateral speed = 100.000000 ft/sec
Final Score: 0 /* I told you so, Nikuko, "says Jennifer"
CRASH! Vertical speed = -118.589912 ft/sec /* Stupid Stupid Jennifer!
Lateral speed = 100.000000 ft/sec
Final Score: 0 /* I told you so, Jennifer, "says Nikuko"
can't load tile font xmahjongg /* You'll have to fuck me now, "says Julu"
/bin/sh: xboard: command not found /* It's not installed, Jennifer-Julu!
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
/* You're just gonna have to fuck me now, Jennifer-Nikuko, "says Julu"
[FVWM][Done]: <<ERROR>> Call of '/usr/openwin/bin/olvwm' failed!!!!
/* You'd rather go to that CRASH-LAND TOKYO bar, "says Nikuko jealously
to Jennifer, waiting for a reply, Julu down on all fours, restarting
'fvwm2' instead"
_________________________________________________________________________
3. Jennifer and Julu Playing The Unknown Game
Attempt to grapple or ungrapple Death Star Galleon (s0): h
Death Star Galleon (s0): boarding the Flying Dutchy (f0)
Flying Dutchy (f0): boarders from Death Star Galleon repelled
Death Star Galleon (s0): killed in melee: 0. Flying Dutchy: 0
Death Star Galleon (s0): boarding the F6ying Dutchy (f0)
Death Star Galleon (s0): killed in melee: 0. Flying Dutchy: 0
Repair (hull, guns, rigging)? hull! no, rigging! guns!
Avast heaving!
Message? Jennifer, are we yet sailing?
Flying Dutchy (f0): "ailing?"
Death Star Galleon (s0): boarding the Flying Dutchy (f0)
Flying Dutchy (f0): boarders from Death Star Galleon repelled
Death Star Galleon (s0): Yay! Avast! Hip Hooray!
Flying Dutchy (f0): quarterdeck bulwarks damaged
Flying Dutchy (f0): boarders from Death Star Galleon repelled
Death Star Galleon (s0): killed in melee: 0. Flying Dutchy: 0
yes!!
Flying Dutchy (f0): "!!"
killed in melee: 0.
Death Star Galleon (s0): "What in God's-Name are you yelling?!!"
Repair (hull, guns, rigging)? Yes! Yay! Avast! Hip Hooray!
Avast heaving!
Flying Dutchy and Death Star Galleon heave and heave and heave!
Death Star Galleon (s0): boarding the Flying Dutchy (f0)
Flying Dutchy (f0): boarders from Death Star Galleon repelled
Death Star Galleon (s0): killed in melee: 292!!!
Flying Dutchy: 0
Avast heaving!(f0): "sage"ng the Flying Dutchy (f0)
Repair (hull, guns, rigging)? e
Avast heaving! and says Julu, "Are we sailing, Jennifer?"
Flying Dutchy (f0): "ailing, Jennifer?"
Sail ho! (range 1, (computer))
Death Star Galleon (s0) Spanish Corvette off the starboard bow.
Yay! We're sailing sailing sailing!
Message? We're coming for you, Jennifer!!!
Uh oh!
________________________________________________________________________
4. Fragment
It was Hokkaido's darkest winter in a long time. Outside, the ground was
frozen. Nikuko sat by a fire inside the thatched hut; covered with skins,
she chanted Amida, slowly drinking tea. Her eyes were half open, her child
asleep in the corner. The wind howled; the flickering flames made eerie
patterns on the wall. But there was something else in the wind and the
snow, something not quite right with the night. Something was shuffling
around the hut, and, if she tried, she heard great wings beating. She was
certain it was a tengu, come to disturb her meditation. Nikuko felt a
great sleep come over her, her body covered by wings, not skins. She woke
in the early dawn; there were wings everywhere upon her, her muscles thick
within them. Nikuko moved the wings in great swatches; they beat in all
directions, and she remained immobilized. Her child had vanished. She
could no longer chant, could no longer speak. She huddled there, the fire
cold, beating her wings, again and again. The walls of the hut were over-
come, her soul was overcome. She continued beating. She beat the air into
clouds, beat the winter sun back in the sky. The day dawned warmer and
warmer; Nikuko, exhausted, fell back down into a deep sleep, enlightened,
as winter returned to the land.
==============================================================
On Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 10:26 AM Eryk Salvaggio <eryk.salvag...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Thanks Alan!
>
> Agree that the body can be lost in this music. From my early days of
> looking at (vs creating) AI sounds and art, one of the questions I kept
> coming back to is, "why do we care?" I'm still a bit of a surrealist: I see
> art as a way of bringing about what is otherwise unconscious, and I spend a
> lot of time wondering if machines can find the unconscious hidden within
> the massive datasets they're trained on -- and if so, what is that the
> unconscious "of"? It's tempting to confuse that with a "spirit" or
> "unconscious" *in the machine*, but that would be projection. A technical
> look at the process strips away much of the magic: the body isn't there, so
> the mind is incomplete.
>
> Do you still have that article on virtual idols?
>
> -e.
>
> On Sun, Jul 11, 2021 at 11:30 PM Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour <
> netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>
>> Listening now, quite like this. I've used Miku Miku software, that was a
>> long time ago, I think the version I have wouldn't run now.
>> I think re: The Human Use of Human Beings there's a split; as you might
>> know, my own music emphasizes the physicality of playing; I've was
>> influenced decades ago by Albert Ayler, Guiseppe Logan, etc., free jazz
>> musicians and musics that was based on the body, the cry, the testimonial,
>> and so forth - music in bodies in music. From that viewpoint, constructed
>> music relates to areas like AI poetics, in other words the body is lost in
>> construction and for me there's a troubling politics in that (again, as in
>> AI poetry).
>> That said, I love this and the seductive quality of the music. FWIW, I
>> wrote an article years ago on Kyoko Date, Date Kyoko, one of the earliest
>> and most popular virtual idols; we have the original cd-rom here, and of
>> course the voices sound somewhat similar. It's a fascinating area!
>> And love the back-beat almost withdrawn lyrics of The Central Memory!
>>
>> Thanks, Alan
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 11, 2021 at 7:55 PM Anthony Stephenson via NetBehaviour <
>> netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2021 10:33:26 -0400
>>>> From: Eryk Salvaggio <eryk.salvag...@gmail.com>
>>>> Subject: [NetBehaviour] The Uncanny Vibe
>>>>
>>>> Here's an experimental text. For a while now, I have been creating pop
>>>> music in collaboration with machine learning systems in a project
>>>> called The
>>>> Organizing Committee <https://www.cyberneticforests.com/music>.
>>>> ... What do you all think?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> ██████▀░░░░▀▀██████▀░░░░
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> - *Anthony Stephenson*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *http://anthonystephenson.org/ <http://anthonystephenson.org/>*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>>> NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org
>>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *=====================================================*
>>
>> *directory http://www.alansondheim.org <http://www.alansondheim.org> tel
>> 718-813-3285**email sondheim ut panix.com <http://panix.com>, sondheim
>> ut gmail.com <http://gmail.com>*
>> *=====================================================*
>> _______________________________________________
>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>> NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org
>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>>
>
--
*=====================================================*
*directory http://www.alansondheim.org <http://www.alansondheim.org> tel
718-813-3285**email sondheim ut panix.com <http://panix.com>, sondheim ut
gmail.com <http://gmail.com>*
*=====================================================*
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