Introspection
Martin Schneider
BIT.CRAFT
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An aniconic manner of unfolding emphasizes enfoldment. Most Islamic art is aniconic, that is, it avoids figurative images. Restrained, mysterious, and mystical, aniconism privileges the infinite (in Islamic art, God) by impeding access to it through the image. The image is suppressed; information indicates the infinite just modestly; the infinite, remaining relatively enfolded, retains its power.
The idea behind the 'introspection' sketch was to transcend the artificial separation between data and instruction. Generative design often starts from a seed image or initialization state (encoded by data), that serves as the basis for transformation (encoded by instructions). In natural systems however, this separation is fluid -- in DNA the data is inside the instructions: nucleotide sequences constitute codons (which code for specific data) but they also determine the folding structure of the DNA, thus providing the flow control for gene expression. The link between instructions and data is provided by enzymes called "transcription factors." The folding structure of those enzymes determines where they attach to the DNA, and which genes will be expressed next. It is impossible to understand the genetic code without understanding the folding characteristics of those enzymes. Hence it would be misleading to think of gene expression as the projection of a homunculus hidden inside the DNA to the macroscopic level. Gene expression amounts to the complex unfolding of a code that operates on itself in tight coupling with a specific environment.
The specific environment of the very simple 'introspection' program consists of a number of files created when exporting a Processing sketch for the web. The code can only operate on itself if accessible at the relative location "../c.pde". If the program is viewed on a website, this location resolves to an online URL, and the execution of the program depends critically on the availability of an internet connection for downloading its own source code. Whenever the code is expressed in a different environment (such as a local Processing install) it will fail with a NullPointer exception -- the equivalent of cell death in the Processing environment.
A program that quietly expresses solely the conditions and circumstances of its operation, letting the infinite space rest in favor of a simple display of information as it runs in the world.
“Digital technology has become so ubiquitous and easy to use that it is well-nigh impossible to lift away the interface. Nevertheless, recent computer-based art occasionally manifests a desire to strip away all interfaces in order to confront the user with the infinite — not the divine infinite, but the infinitely extensive plane of digital memory. Absolute aniconism here is the refusal to unfold code.” (p. 206)
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